2017 Volume 5 Issue 2 Pages 35-47
The present study aimed to investigate the specific differentiating factors between difficulties with English spelling and Kanji writing as well as the common factors relating to both difficulties by examining results of tests on 1,326 Japanese junior high school students. It was demonstrated that the relation between English spelling and Kanji writing weakened as the grade advances. Students were classified into four groups based on the occurrence pattern of difficulties with English spelling and Kanji writing. The students with specific difficulty in English spelling demonstrated improvement in romaji skill and Kanji reading as the grade advanced, but the visual processing of English words and knowledge of opaque orthography remained as specific factors. Weakness in Kanji reading and visual processing of English words were observed as the factors for students with specific Kanji writing difficulty. Students with dual difficulty of English spelling and Kanji writing showed enduring low performance of romaji skill in addition to the coexistence of the differentiating factors of both specific difficulty of English and Kanji. From these results, the necessity to design educational support for students with literacy problems according to the types of difficulty was indicated.
