An Introduction to The National Language Research Institute: A Sketch of its Achievements
Third Edition(1988)/ HTML Version(1997)

[contens]| [previous]| [next]

II.4.12 Reading and Writing Ability in Pre-School Children

(Report 45, 1972. 527 pages)
We predicted that acceleration in the development of the linguistic ability of pre-school children would occur with the spread of television, picture books, etc. This is a report on a survey conducted on the linguistic ability, in particular the reading and writing ability, of pre-school children. We surveyed a total of 2,217 four- and five-year olds selected by a random sampling of kindergartens in the Tokyo, To~hoku and Kinki regions for their ability to read and write HIRAGANA. All surveys were conducted in the form of oral interview tests. Through this survey we were able to determine the extent to which pre-school children read and write HIRAGANA before entering school. Based on a comparison of the results of this survey with those of a similar survey of children just entering elementary school conducted 14 years ago (Report 7, The Language Ability of Children in the Pre-Reading Period), we found that the development of reading skills had accelerated by one and a half years and writing skills by approximately a half a year. In addition, we surveyed 72 other pre-school children to determine the extent to which they were able to read and write HIRAGANA, KATAKANA, Chinese characters, and the Roman alphabet and Arabic numerals. We also distributed written questionnaires on the relation between the acquisition of HIRAGANA and the activities and home environments of pre-school children, and on the treatment of writing in kindergarten. MURAISI Syo~zo~ and AMANO Kiyosi directed this research and wrote the report. The following related research reports have been written. MURAISI Syo~zo~, and AMANO Kiyosi, References on Language Development- Overview and List, 1967.

[contens]| [previous]| [next]