Abstract
Knowledge of Romaji (roman letters) has a strong correlation with the ability to read and write English words in general. However, their detailed relationship has not yet been discussed. The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between Japanese students' Romaji ability (consisting of knowledge of Romaji and ability in Romaji processing) and their English achievement at an initial learning stage. The following research questions were focused on: How strongly does Romaji ability affect English achievement?; How does the rate of the effect change with the passing of time?; Does the transition differ according to the teaching methodology? Two sets of studies were conducted for half-a-year to verify the above questions. The aim of study one was to find out the subjects' Romaji ability, and that of study two was to discuss the research questions. The subjects were 80 junior high school students belonging to two classes. The students in one class were taught in a normal way, and in the other class the focus was put on listening and speaking, especially in the first semester. Through the two studies it was found that Romaji ability strongly affects English achievement for the initial three months after learning English authography. Its effect gradually reduces after that and remains stable with a correlation of about 0.3.
