Phonological Awareness of Japanese is More Than a Precondition of Reading Hiragana

Abstract

Phonological awareness is a premise of reading, and weakness in phonological awareness leads to its failure. Thus, the appropriate assessment of phonological awareness is essential for the extension of appropriate support for reading acquisition by children. This study aimed to develop a Japanese phonological awareness test based on the item response theory (IRT) (Study 1). Two parameters, difficulty and discrimination, were calculated for each item on the basis of results obtained from a total of 875 children aged 3–6 years. Next, the relationships among phonological awareness, hiragana reading, vocabulary, and grammatical skills were analyzed in Study 2, a cross-sectional examination of 163 four- to six-year-olds, and in Study 3, a longitudinal assessment of 25 children. Similar to previous investigations, it was confirmed that phonological awareness is a factor that informs the reading of hiragana. The study demonstrates that phonological awareness is related to other language skills such as vocabulary and grammar. The results of the longitudinal study suggest that phonological awareness promotes the later development of vocabulary and grammar.