Abstract
The present report analyzes Japanese high school students' fundamental language skills of their mother tongue over the span of a decade. Of special emphasis, are the changes incurred in such trends amongst these students. The Broad-Range Japanese Fundamental Language Skills Test (BRJFLST) was used for the assessment. It consists of a vocabulary comprehension and a Chinese character pronunciation subscale, calibrated with 2PLM based on IRT. Performances of Year 2003 participants were compared with those of 1991-1992 participants. Among the results, a considerable decline was found in the vocabulary level of students in top schools. Accordingly, the necessity for introducing well-organized, long-term investigations based on measurement theories in Japanese school education was discussed.
