The Language Teacher
04 - 2002

A Feasibility Study for the Application of Phonics Teaching in Junior High School English Classes in Japan

Takeda Chiyoki

Ehime University


One of the main reasons why many Japanese students lose interest in studying English from the introductory stage is that they simply cannot read; i.e., they cannot connect the letters of the alphabet with their sounds. This is the first important hurdle to be overcome, and it is actually the source of most of the failure which students experience during their first three years of English learning (Inagaki, 1988, pp. 18-19; Nakajima, 1995, p. 69; Teshima, 1995, pp. 12-13). Phonics can be effective in solving this problem because it clarifies letter-sound relationships, as it is a teaching method for reading based upon the correspondences between spellings and sounds. Significant benefits can be obtained from the proper introduction of phonics instruction into English classes in junior high schools in Japan.

However, in order to verify the benefits of teaching phonics, it is first necessary to analyze the vocabulary found in textbooks and determine how many words can be read completely with phonics rules. This is particularly important because irregularly spelled items are among everyday words or the most frequently used vocabulary in English (Crystal, 1990, p. 69), and Japanese junior high school students are thus required to learn them. In 1988, Monbusho, the Ministry of Education (now known as Monbukagakusho), stipulated 507 minimum essential words needed for basic conversation as "compulsory" words for Japanese students (Monbusho, 1988, pp. 116-122). The more regularly words are spelled, the more significant phonics teaching becomes. It is also important to determine which phonics rules are applied most frequently in textbooks in order to assess which rules should be taught in class.

Two extensive vocabulary analyses support the importance of phonics instruction in Japan in this regard. The first, by Nazumi Kimiko in 1995, is a study of all words (about 1000 in total) that junior high school students learn in New Horizon English Course 1-3 (Asano, 1992), a commonly used English textbook in Japan. She analyzed vocabulary items in terms of three separate sets of phonics rules devised by Morinaga (1983), Magono (1983), and Takebayashi (1988). Nazumi concluded that adopting a phonics method was justified because the percentage of letter-sound regularity of single consonants and vowels was more than 90%.

The second study, by Nago Tomoko in 1998, analyzed vowel usage in the 540 words that 1st year students in junior high learn in New Crown English 1 (Morizumi, 1997), another major textbook used in Japan. She evaluated vocabulary items in terms of combined sets of phonics rules devised by Matsuka (1981) and Heilman (1998). The frequencies with which each rule was applied correctly were totaled, and the percentage of the regularity of all the rules was then calculated. Her results concluded that the percentage of spelling-sound regularity was 82.5%. She estimated that the percentage would be more than 90% if the frequencies of consonants were added to this total and concluded that the belief that there are many cases in which phonics rules do not apply is unfounded.

However, neither researcher attempted to determine how many words could be read completely with phonics rules -- they simply tried to determine how regularly each rule was used. In other words, for each separate phonics rule, they examined the number of times the rule was used regularly, compared with the number of times it was used irregularly. For example, with the rule that ch has the sound used in the word church, the alternative sound of ch used in the word school is the exception to the rule. According to Nazumi's analysis of the use of ch, its ratio was 34 to 3; therefore, the percentage of spelling-sound consistency was 91.9%. Both researchers theorized that the more regularly rules are applied, and the fewer the exceptions, the more valid and effective the phonics instruction will be.

The studies by Nazumi and Nago are rules-oriented and focus on individual letter-sound relationships. Although their data help justify the teaching of phonics, it is more important to emphasize the whole word and consider how often a word in its entirety can be read with phonics rules. This is because even if only one part of a word cannot be read with a rule, the word cannot be read as a whole. Thus, it is necessary to know how many words can be read completely with the help of phonics rules. In addition, it is important to note that although the results of these two analyses serve as a valuable source of reference, they are not directly applicable to this investigation because the textbooks used were different; therefore, the percentage of spelling-sound regularity and the frequency of phonics rules applicability will differ. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the validity of phonics instruction for Japanese EFL students and establish which rules should be taught by analyzing the vocabulary in specified textbooks used in Japan in accordance with the following main goals: (1) to determine the percentage of words which can be read completely by phonics rules, (2) to calculate the percentage of spelling-sound regularity in a similar manner to Nazumi's and Nago's studies, and (3) to determine which rules are applied most consistently.

Method

Materials

The following investigation examines all of the vocabulary items contained in One World English Course 1-3 (Sasaki, 1993), one of five major English textbooks in Japan. All 1007 words that 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year students study -- except for proper nouns and abbreviations -- are analyzed in terms of 78 phonics rules under seven headings. Matsuka's phonics rules (1981, 1993) are applied to this vocabulary analysis because she is the leading expert on phonics research and its practice in Japan.

Procedures

Firstly, each vocabulary item in student textbooks was examined in terms of the above phonics rules in order to determine if they are applied regularly, and if they are applied to the whole word. After all the items had been analyzed, the percentage of words which can be read completely with phonics rules was calculated. In the next stage, the number of cases in which the rule is applied regularly, compared with those in which it is applied irregularly, was determined. Then the percentage of the regularity of all the rules was calculated. Lastly, based on the frequency of each rule's application, the key rules for phonics teaching were arrived at.

Analyses

Each word was analyzed according to the answers obtained from the following four questions:

  • Does it belong to the list of compulsory words or not?
  • Which phonics rules are applied regularly?
  • Which phonics rules are applied irregularly?
  • Can the word be read entirely with phonics rules?
  • Tables 1 and 2 show how the word analysis was conducted in this study. Table 1 is a sample of the 1007-word list. Each word was looked at in relation to phonics rules, which are displayed in Table 2. For example, the word about in Table 1 belongs to Monbusho's list of compulsory words, so it is marked with a O in the "compulsory words" column. Next, about is broken down in terms of each of the phonics rules applied regularly. In the third column, "rules applied regularly," we find that about receives a "[1]," following the rule "phonics alphabet" (about: b =/b/, t = /t/); a "[7] - 4" (the [7] indicates the "other rules" section and the4 indicates the initial schwa sound -- about: a = ); and a "[5] - 3," indicating the "vowel digraphs" section (about). Because about follows all of the phonics rule requirements, it receives a O under the "read entirely with rules" column of the table.

    Table 1

    Alternately, the word ahead is not one of Monbusho's compulsory words, so it does not receive a O. Again, since the rules "[1]" and "[7] - 4" are applied regularly in this case, it is labeled as such in the "rules applied regularly" section. Since the rule "[3] - 4" (ea = eat) is applied irregularly in this case, it is recorded in the "rules applied irregularly" section. Consequently, because ahead cannot be read entirely with phonics rules, it does not receive a O in the "read entirely with rules" column.

    Each of the 1007 words used in this analysis was graphed in this manner, to determine the percentages discussed in the results section below. For the complete analysis of all 1007 words, please contact the author at <chiyoki@3ai.ne.jp>.

    Results

    The results of the analysis have been calculated from the data obtained from the previously discussed word list:

    1) In terms of the percentage of words which can be read completely by phonics rules:
    75.0% of the total number of vocabulary items used in the One World English Course 1-3 were found to fall into this category. This percentage was calculated by calculating the number of words indicated by a O under the "read entirely with rules" column (755 out of 1007). It was also found that 71.8% of Monbusho's compulsory words in these same textbooks (364 out of 507 words) can be read completely with phonics rules.

    2) In terms of the percentage of spelling-sound regularity:
    Based upon the columns "rules applied regularly" and "rules applied irregularly," the frequency chart in Table 3 was tabulated. For example, this chart indicates that under the rule "a-e: make" in the "Magic E" section, there were 46 cases that followed the necessary criteria, while there was 1 irregularity found. All cases that fall within these phonics rules were then calculated, and out of 763 cases in which the phonics rules were applied, 671 applications were found to be regular, or 87.9 % of the total.1

    Table 2

    3) In terms of the rules which should be taught in class:
    Based upon the data in Table 3, the minimum essential phonics rules that should be taught were determined according to the criteria; i.e., a rule is considered necessary if it is applied regularly to vocabulary items at least five times, as long as the applications outnumber the exceptions. For example, if we look at the rule "ear = near" in the "Vowels with 'R'" section of Table 3, there are nine exceptions to six regular applications. For this reason, the letter combination "ear" is not included in the rules list below. The following rules were selected as the most important:

    Conclusion

    In English L2 education in Japan, instruction on proper pronunciation and the direct reading of English words and passages has long been neglected. As a result, students are forced to memorize large vocabulary lists by rote which discourages them from learning English, and they have to rely on katakana pronunciation which creates counter-productive speaking habits which are extremely difficult to break. Phonics instruction is effective in solving these problems because through this kind of teaching, students develop the ability to read and pronounce English properly by connecting the letters of the alphabet with their sounds. Phonics instruction should be applied as soon as possible to English classes in Japan in order to stop the mass production of so-called "dropout" students of English, as those who receive phonics instruction will develop a strong foundation to build on as they face the many challenges of their ongoing English studies. This analysis shows that 75.0% of the complete textbook vocabulary items and 71.8% of Monbusho's compulsory words can be read entirely by applying phonics rules. In addition, the percentage of spelling-sound regularity is 87.9%. Based upon the results of this word analysis, it is obvious that phonics instruction is justified and valuable at the junior high school level in Japan. It is hoped that this feasibility study will have made a significant contribution to the realization of this goal.

    Table 3

    Note

    1. The phonics alphabet and other rules are not involved in this percentage. The number of applications of the phonics alphabet are too numerous to count. Of all the textbook words, only 35 can be read without applying any of the phonics alphabet rules (3.5%). In addition, there are 137 words which can be read entirely by applying only phonics alphabet rules (13.6%). As for "other rules," they are applied 485 times in total, with no exceptions (100%). Therefore, it is obvious that the precise percentage of spelling-sound regularity is more than 90%.

    References

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    Heilman, A. (1998). Phonics in proper perspective (8th ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

    Inagaki, A. (1988). Fonikkusu wo ikasu [Making the best use of phonics]. Gendai Eigo Kyouiku [Modern English Education], 24(10), 18-19.

    Magono, Y. (1983). Gendai eigo ni okeru moji-hyouka to onka (I) [Letter values and phonetic values of modern English (I)]. Niigata Daigaku Kyouiku-gakubu Kiyou [Journal of the Niigata University Education Department], 24(2), 395-401.

    Matsuka, Y. (1981). Eigo, sukidesuka [Do you like English?]. Tokyo: Yomiuri Shimbunsha.

    Matsuka, Y. (1993). Kodomo ni eigo wo shaberasetai [I want to have children speak English]. Tokyo: KK Best Sellers.
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    Morinaga, M. (1983). Fonikkusu riyou no jissenrei to sankoushiryou [Practice examples and reference materials for phonics instruction]. In K. Shimizu (Ed.), Paamaa shou jushoukou no jissenkiroku [Practice records at schools awarded the PalmerPrize] (pp. 99-153). Tokyo: Taishukan.

    Morizumi, M. (1997). New crown English 1. Tokyo: Sanseido.

    Nago, T. (1998, August). Nyuumonki eigokyouiku ni okeru oto to moji wo musubitsuketa yomikaki shidou (Reading and writing instruction associating sounds with letters in the introductory period of English education). Paper presented at the 29th Annual Meeting of the English Education Society in the Chugoku Region, Tottori, Japan.

    Nakajima, Y. (1995). Riidingu to raitingu no nansho to kouryakuhou [The difficult points of reading and writing, and how to overcome them]. Tanoshii Eigo-Jugyou [Enjoyable English Classes], 4, 69-72.

    Nazumi, K. (1995). A feasibility study of the use of phonics to teach vocabulary at the junior high school level. Naruto University of Teachers' Education. Unpublished Master's thesis.

    Sasaki, T. (1993). One world English course 1-3. Tokyo: Kyoiku Shuppan.

    Takebayashi, S. (1988). Eigo no fonikkusu [Phonics for Japanese students] (Revised ed.). Tokyo: Japan Times.

    Teshima, M. (1995). Ondoku wo joutatsu-saseru shidou [Instruction for the improvement of students' skill in sounding out English words]. Tanoshii Eigo-Jugyou [Enjoyable English Classes], 3, 12-13.



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