Reciprocal Teaching Intervention in Classroom of Japanese

: Promoting children’s empathic concern for classmate with learning needs

Abstract

  This study examined the effectiveness of “Reciprocal Teaching in Classroom（RTC）” in Japanese language group learning, focusing on the children who experience difficulty with the interactive aspects of group learning. A total of thirty fifth grade children participated in this study. In addition to the core elements of RTC instruction, including "role assignment" and "guidance with discussion procedure", empathic consideration between classmates was promoted through making eye contact, listening with a smile, demonstrating agreeable responses amongst other indicators. As a result of quantitative data analysis, a significant improvement was seen in poetry reading performance across the whole class. Furthermore, discourse analysis revealed that the child who often felt tense and had difficulty communicating with others become more able to participate in group learning actively, and he/she could read with greater depth in understanding. Both quantitative and qualitative results showed that RTC in Japanese language group learning was important for improving the reading performance of elementary children, especially those experiencing difficulty in communicating others in a group learning context. Implications and limitations of this study for future research were discussed.