Do Children Use Textual Information for English Listening Comprehension?

-Exploring from Self-Determination Behavior of Picture Book Forms to be Referenced-

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate (1) How do children feel burdened by English letters and learning with English letters?, and (2) Do children use English letters for listening comprehension in situations where they listen to picture book stories and understand the content? Fifty-four fourth-graders and 49 fifth-graders were asked to complete a questionnaire survey on their sense of burden and an experiment in which they self-selected a picture book to refer to in the process of listening to a picture book.

As a result, there was no difference in the perceived burden of English letters between the middle and upper grades. There was also no significant difference in the sense of burden between before and after English became a subject in elementary school. The children tried to use English letters to help them in listening comprehension of picture books. Even if they did not have detailed knowledge of the English letters, they tried to connect the sounds they heard with their knowledge of the letters by using the knowledge they had acquired in their Romaji studies and their incidental and accidental knowledge of the letters.