2020 Volume 29 Issue 1 Pages 33-44
The influences of literacy level at age five in predicting the acquisition of hiragana writing in the first grade was investigated in Japanese children (N = 331). The results of a teacher’s checklist filled in the last year of preschool and a hiragana dictation task conducted in the first year of primary school were compared. The results indicated significant relationships between “shiritori” skills in the checklist and phonological errors in the dictation tasks. Moreover, a significant relationship was observed between the ability to copy a triangle in the checklist, with the ability to write the name in hiragana and letter form errors in the dictation task. These findings suggest that “shiritori” abilities and writing the name in hiragana at age five influenced the number and characteristics of hiragana writing errors in the first grade. Further research is required to examine how these two factors affect learning to write.
