Learning to read in Japan

Mason, Jana M.; Anderson, Richard C.; Omura, Akimichi; Uchida, Nobuko; Imai, Mutsumi

doi:10.1080/0022027890210501

Cited by 22 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 10 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Methods by which the characters are taught include writing in the air, color charts showing radicals (the common elements under which characters are grouped), rote practice on squared sheets of paper, build-up methods and a range of other techniques (Bourke, 1996: 167-174). the whole-class method observed by Mason et al (1989) remains normal practice, with an emphasis on both oral and silent reading and on teacher-centred practices. Much as children whose first language is english achieve variable results in spelling, the ideal of perfect retention of characters and their readings may not always be reached: a 1988 survey report on children in three of Japan's 47 prefectures, for example, showed that at both elementary and high school levels students were better able to recognize than to reproduce kanji by hand, and that knowledge of on and kun readings fluctuated (Kokuritsu Kokugo Kenkyūjo, 1988: 389-391).…”

Section: Japanesementioning

confidence: 98%

Japan: Language Policy and Planning in Transition

Gottlieb

2008

Current Issues in Language Planning

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This monograph discusses the language situation in Japan, with an emphasis on language planning and policy. Japan has long considered itself to be a monoethnic and therefore monolingual society, despite the existence of substantial old-comer ethnic minorities, and this -with the instrumental exception of English -has been reflected in its language planning and policy until quite recently. Increasing immigration (and hence emergent new-comer multilingualism), technological advances affecting the way people write and a perceived need to improve the teaching of English, however, mean that policies have begun to undergo a rethink. This monograph is divided into three main sections. Under the language profile of Japan I discuss in detail the national language and minority languages; the next section discusses language spread and maintenance through the education system and other means; and I conclude with some thoughts on how language planning and policy might develop in the future. My aim is to give readers a sense of how major language issues in Japan are evolving in such a manner that many of the policies developed during the 20th century may no longer be totally relevant.

show abstract

Section: Japanesementioning

confidence: 98%

Japan: Language Policy and Planning in Transition

Gottlieb

2008

Current Issues in Language Planning

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…(Historically, conscious efforts were often made by spelling reformers to avoid homophones becoming homographs and thereby remove possible ambiguity (Carney, 1994, chapter 7;Scragg, 1974, chapter 4). 6 Purely phonemic scripts (such as pinyin and Zhu-Yin-Fu-Hao) as well as syllabic/moraic scripts (such as Japanese kana) appear to be remarkably easy to learn to decode (e.g., Mason, Anderson, Omura, Uchida, & Imai, 1989;McCarthy, 1995;Taylor & Taylor, 1995), but if extensive homophony exists in the spoken language, such scripts will violate the morphemic distinctiveness principle and prove impracticable without supplementary morpheme-based characters (as in the case of Japanese Kanji and Korean Hancha) that provide more direct links to morpheme identity. By the same token, i.t.a.…”

Section: Where Are the Jabberwockies?mentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Anglocentricities of current reading research and practice: The perils of overreliance on an "outlier" orthography.

Share¹

2008

Psychological Bulletin

835

572

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this critique of current reading research and practice, the author contends that the extreme ambiguity of English spelling-sound correspondence has confined reading science to an insular, Anglocentric research agenda addressing theoretical and applied issues with limited relevance for a universal science of reading. The unique problems posed by this "outlier" orthography, the author argues, have focused disproportionate attention on oral reading accuracy at the expense of silent reading, meaning access, and fluency, and have significantly distorted theorizing with regard to many issues-including phonological awareness, early reading instruction, the architecture of stage models of reading development, the definition and remediation of reading disability, and the role of lexical-semantic and supralexical information in word recognition. The dominant theoretical paradigm in contemporary (word) reading research--the Coltheart/Baron dual-route model (see, e.g., J. Baron, 1977; M. Coltheart, 1978) and, in large measure, its connectionist rivals--arose largely in response to English spelling-sound obtuseness. The model accounts for a range of English-language findings, but it is ill-equipped to serve the interests of a universal science of reading chiefly because it overlooks a fundamental unfamiliar-to-familiar/novice-to-expert dualism applicable to all words and readers in all orthographies.

show abstract

“…It is reasonable to suppose that in the United States, given the nature of the English language and our letter-and word-focused beginning reading instruction (Mason, Anderson, Omura, Uchida, & Imai, 1990), reading to children might be a way to introduce literacy (Anderson, Hiebert, Scott, & Wilkinson, 1985). Hearing and discussing texts with literate persons could help young children establish connections between oral language and written text structures and maintain a sense of text meaningfulness (Holdaway, 1979(Holdaway, , 1986Sulzby, 1986aSulzby, , 1986b.…”

Section: Reading Stories To Preliterate Children: a Proposed Connectimentioning

confidence: 99%

Reading Stories to Preliterate Children: A Proposed Connection to Reading

Mason¹

2017

Reading Acquisition

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Parents and teachers of young children are encouraged to read books to children because story book reading is assumed to help in the acquisition of literacy. But because story book reading usually takes place within a host of other valuable literacy activities, there is no unambiguous evidence to support this assumption. The purpose of this report is to explain why story book reading is likely to be important and to review the evidence about the role it might play in literacy development. The first section describes why literacy will be more difficult for children to acquire if they have had few opportunities to hear and discuss stories. The second section explains how story book reading could aid literacy acquisition. The third section explains how story book reading to children is related to later reading achievement, and the fourth section offers evidence for causal links between story book reading to children and later reading success.

show abstract

Learning to read in Japan

Cited by 22 publications

References 10 publications

Japan: Language Policy and Planning in Transition

Japan: Language Policy and Planning in Transition

On the Anglocentricities of current reading research and practice: The perils of overreliance on an "outlier" orthography.

Reading Stories to Preliterate Children: A Proposed Connection to Reading

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About