Development of song-based instructional program for reading special notations of Japanese kana syllabary.

本研究的目的是探索日语假名音节特殊符号的学习机制，并发展其教学方法。研究一调查了幼儿如何学习阅读达库-on符号，该符号表示将清音改为浊音。达库字母的出现频率与幼儿阅读正确率的相关不显著(r=.255，N=20，p=.278)，提示幼儿是通过规则策略而不是死记硬背来学习阅读达库字母的。研究二旨在开发混合两个假名字母发音的悠音记法。37名4-5岁儿童(实验组20名，对照组17名)参加了以歌曲为基础的声音融合练习的干预方案。然而，三个月后，我们发现实验组和控制组的育音符号的阅读准确率没有显著差异。

The aims of the study were to explore the mechanism of learning to read special notations of Japanese kana syllabary, and to develop the instructional method of them. Study 1 investigated how young children learn to read daku-on notation which denote to change unvoiced sound to voiced one. The correlation between frequency of daku-on letters and young children's reading accuracy of them was not significant(r=.255, N=20, p.=.278), which suggested that children learn to read the daku-on letters through rule-based strategy rather than by rote. Study 2 was administrated to develop instructional method for yo-on notation, in which two kana letter sounds are blended. Thirty-seven 4-5 year old children (20 for experimental group, 17 for control group) participated in the intervention program which focused on a song-based sound blending exercise. However, after three months, we found no significant difference for reading accuracy of yo-on notation between experimental group and control group.