2020 Volume 61 Issue 3 Pages 211-222
The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of Hiragana reading training on accuracy and fluency in 126 kindergarten children who had not learned Hiragana reading/writing in the classroom. The children were divided into two matched groups: training and control. Furthermore, each group was subdivided into three levels of attainment: good, moderate and severe; or five levels of attainment: good, moderate, severe-high, severe-middle and severe-low. Reading training of 71 Hiragana characters was carried out from October during 8 weeks (total 60-80 min.) only for the training group children. The results for reading accuracy showed that all children in the training group improved significantly in character reading between before and after the training period; however, all children in the control group also improved significantly within the same period. Among the attainment subgroups, moderate and severe training subgroups improved significantly in character reading, but the moderate and severe control subgroups also improved significantly. The severe-high and severe-low training subgroups improved significantly in character reading, but there were no significant differences within the severe-high and severe-low control subgroups. The results for reading fluency showed that whereas the training good subgroup improved significantly, no significant difference occurred within the control good subgroup. The results of this study suggest that the effect of reading training in kindergarten children is limited.
