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