Table of Contents

Acknowledgement ............................................................................................. v
Table of Contents ........................................................................................... vii
List of Tables................................................................................................. xiii
List of Figures ................................................................................................ xiv
List of Appendices ......................................................................................... xiv
Abbreviations .................................................................................................. xv

Chapter 1 Introduction ................................................................................. 1
1.1. English education in Japanese elementary schools — A historicalsummary2
1.1.1. Beginning of English education in elementary schools2
1.1.2. ‘English Conversation Activities’ preceding the introduction ofFLA
3
1.1.3. Introduction of FLA into the elementary school curriculum
4
1.2. Aims and objectives
5
1.3. Rationale and research questions
6
1.3.1. The signicance of teaching early English reading at theelementary school level6
1.3.2. Research questions
91.4. Overview of the book
14vii

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Introducing Phonological Awareness and Early Literacy Instruction

Chapter 2

Phonological Awareness and its Importance for JapaneseChildren Learning English ...................................................... 15
2.1. Introduction
152.2. Phonological awareness and its development
16
2.2.1. Denition
162.2.2. The levels of phonological awareness172.2.2.1. Rhyme awareness182.2.2.2. Syllable awareness192.2.2.3. Onset-rime awareness as intrasyllabic awareness192.2.2.4. Phonemic awareness202.2.3. The development of phonological awareness21
2.3. Phonological awareness and early reading development in L1232.3.1. The inuence of phonological awareness on learning to read 23
2.3.1.1. The large-unit hypothesis
23
2.3.1.2. The small-unit hypothesis
24
2.3.1.3. Toward a compromise of different conceptualisations— Phonological awareness as a unitary construct25
2.3.2. The inuence of reading development on the sophistication ofphonological awareness28
2.3.2.1. Knowledge of the alphabet
28
2.3.2.2. Reading experience in an alphabetic script30
2.3.3. Discussion
31
2.4. Japanese children’s phonological awareness and speechsegmentation in L1
32
2.4.1. Japanese phonological units and the writing system
32
2.4.2. Japanese children’s phonological awareness342.4.2.1. Strategies used in counting and deleting syllables andphonemes
35
2.4.2.2. Causes in the development of phonological awareness atthe phoneme level38
2.4.3. The speech segmentation procedure of Japanese children
39
2.4.3.1. Speech segmentation and learning to read in an alphabetic
language39
2.4.3.2. The effect of language rhythm on speech segmentation 40
2.4.3.3. Characteristics of Japanese speakers’ speech segmentation
41
2.4.4. Summary
44
2.5. Phonological awareness necessary for Japanese children inlearning to read in English
45

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2.5.1. The effect of orthographic and phonological differences onlearning to read45
2.5.2. The differences in phonological awareness necessary for earlyreading across languages
46
2.5.3. The importance of multi-level phonological awareness in early
English reading48
2.5.4. Summary50
2.6. The necessity of phonological awareness instruction for Japanesechildren learning English
51
2.6.1. Cross-linguistic transfer of phonological awareness51
2.6.1.1. Evidence of the transfer of phonological awareness51
2.6.1.2. The factors affecting the transfer of phonologicalawareness52
2.6.1.3. The effect of L1 phonological awareness on L2 wordreading54
2.6.1.4. Three questions that need to be answered55
2.6.2. The development of phonological awareness of Japanesechildren learning English
55
2.6.2.1. The effect of the Roma-ji instruction
56
2.6.2.2. The developmental progression of phonological awarenessof Japanese children learning English — A hypothesis
58
2.6.3. The importance of teaching phonological awareness toJapanese elementary school children
61
2.7. The instruction of phonological awareness64
2.7.1. Features of the effective phonological awareness instruction 65
2.7.2. The implications for the phonological awareness instruction
for Japanese children
67
2.8. The factors affecting the item difculty in the phonologicalawareness assessment
70
2.8.1. The target levels of phonological awareness70
2.8.2. Task differences
71
2.8.3. The linguistic complexity of target phonological units72
2.8.3.1. The number of phonemes in the target stimuli
72
2.8.3.2. The position of target phonemes
73
2.8.3.3. The types of target phonemes
74
2.8.4. Summary
75
2.9. Chapter summary76

xIntroducing Phonological Awareness and Early Literacy Instruction

Chapter 3 Methodology .............................................................................. 77
3.1. Research Design77
3.2. The intervention
78
3.2.1. The context
78
3.2.2. Methods of data collection and the role of the researcher
79
3.2.3. The content and methods for the instruction
80
3.2.3.1. Target skills for phonological awareness, sound categories,and spelling rules
80
3.2.3.2. Session plans
83
3.2.4. The assessment and questionnaires before and after theintervention
85
3.2.4.1. Tests for the initial and nal assessment of phonologicalawareness87
3.2.4.2. Mini assessment
92
3.2.4.3. The letter combination in non-word targets
93
3.2.5. Ethical issues related to the intervention
94
3.2.6. Data analysis procedures
95
3.3. Chapter summary
95

Chapter 4 The Results ................................................................................ 97
4.1. Actual sessions
97
4.2. Lower-case letter-name knowledge
101
4.3. Phonological awareness skills
103
4.3.1. Segmenting and phoneme identication
103
4.3.1.1. Qualitative observational data
103
4.3.1.2. Quantitative assessment data
106
4.3.2. Blending
115
4.3.3. Deleting118
4.3.3.1. Qualitative observational data
118
4.3.3.2. Quantitative assessment data
121
4.3.4. Substitution
123
4.3.4.1. Qualitative observational data
123
4.3.4.2. Quantitative assessment data
126
4.4. Letter sounds — Short vowels and basic consonants
130
4.4.1. Qualitative observational data
130
4.4.2. Quantitative assessment data
134
4.5. Skills and knowledge for early word reading135

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4.5.1. Word reading
4.5.1.1. Qualitative observational data
4.5.1.2. Quantitative assessment data
4.5.2. Split-grapheme rule4.5.2.1. Qualitative observational data
4.5.2.2. Quantitative assessment data
4.5.3. Digraphs — ch, ck, sh, th, and wh4.5.3.1. Qualitative observational data
4.5.3.2. Quantitative assessment data
4.5.4. Double vowel-letters — ee and oo
4.5.4.1. Qualitative observational data
4.5.4.2. Quantitative assessment data
4.5.5. Consonant doubling
4.5.6. Consonant clusters
4.6. The results of children’s questionnaires before and after theintervention
4.7. Children’s reactions to the reection sheets
4.8. Summaryxi135135137
142
142
145
146
146
149
149
149
150
151
152
153
160
162

Chapter 5 Discussion ................................................................................. 163
5.1. The effectiveness of the phonological awareness instruction in‘Foreign Language Activities’
163
5.1.1. The outcomes of the instruction and the characteristics of thechildren’s phonological awareness and early English reading— RQ-A
164
5.1.2. The difculties in phonological awareness tasks in English forJapanese children — RQ-B
168
5.1.3. The reaction of children and elementary school teachers to theinstruction — RQ-C
170
5.1.4. Problems related to the instruction — RQ-D
174
5.1.5. The learnability and teachability of phonological awareness 178
5.2. Summary
179

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Introducing Phonological Awareness and Early Literacy Instruction

Chapter 6 Conclusion ................................................................................ 181
6.1. Main ndings of this study
181
6.2. Theoretical implications
182
6.3. Practical implications
183
6.4. Limitations and future directions
186
6.5. Concluding statement
187

References ...................................................................................................... 189

Appendices ..................................................................................................... 217

Index ............................................................................................................... 245