A TWO-YEAR LONGITUDINAL EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON ACQUISITION OF READING IN JAPANESE SYLLABIC LETTERS BY THREE-TO-FOUR YEAR OLD KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN.

研究结果如下：1)三至四岁儿童阅读习得的纵向研究。(1)儿童在第四个月的下半月开始阅读平假名，大多数是在出生后五岁开始阅读，其中74%的儿童在1993年3月之前已经学会了几乎所有的基本日语音节字母。(2)音节分析的发展是儿童习得平假名阅读的必要条件。(3)儿童词汇是决定儿童平假名阅读习得和发展的最重要因素。2)儿童词句阅读发展的实验分析。(1)儿童已学会按照要阅读的平假名的数量阅读和理解单词和句子，其中一些儿童的阅读水平已达到相当于一年级学生的水平，直到1993年3月。(2)从逐字阅读到整字阅读的发展速度很慢。(3)阅读和理解单词的分析有四种：(一)逐字阅读，(二)耳语，(三)下唇微动，(四)默读。对单词的阅读和理解是在上述分析之一的基础上进行的，逐个字母的阅读或整个单词的阅读是一个综合的过程。(4)这一发现提出了一个假设，即儿童的阅读首先是逐个字母的分析性阅读，其次是逐个字母的综合阅读和辅助性分析，然后是口语、辅助性或无声分析的全词综合阅读。

As the results, the following findings were gained.1) A Longitudinal Study on Acquisition of Reading by Three-to-four Year Old Children. (1) The children began to read Hiragana in the most early cases during the second half of the fourth, and mostly at the fifth year from birth and 74 percent of them have learned to read almost all of fundamental Japanese syllabic letters until March 1993. (2) Development of syllabic analysis serves as the necessary condition for acquisition of reading in Hiragana by children. (3) Vocabulary of children serves as the most important factor which determines acquisition and development of reading in Hiragana in children.2) An Experimental Analysis of the Development of Reading of Words and Sentences in Children. (1) The children have learned to read and understand words and sentences in proportion to the amount of Hiragana to be read and some of them have reached to the level of reading corresponding to that of the first graders until March 1993. (2) The speed of development from letter-by-letter reading to whole-word reading is very slow. (3) There are four kinds of analysis in reading and understanding of words: Analysis (i)by oral letter-by-letter reading, (ii)by a whisper, (iii)accompanying a slight movement of lower lip, (iv)by silent reading. Reading and understanding of words proceeds in the connection of one of the above-mentioned analysis with either letter-by-letter reading or whole-word reading as a synthetic process. (4) This finding brings us a hypothesis that children's reading is formed firstly as analytic letter-by-letter reading, secondly it moves to synthetic letter-by-letter reading with subvocal analysis and then changes into synthetic whole-word reading with oral, or subvocal, or silent analysis.