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The topic, “Hiragana Learning”, explored in this study is not very popular in learning Japanese. However, enjoyable and effective learning becomes more important as more children start to learn Japanese in Taiwan. Therefore, right teaching method, which could teach Hiragana efficiently within a short period, is necessary. Besides, it can benefit the learners for future advanced Japanese study. Children are different from adult in learning. They always have to make more efforts in learning no matter which learning method, teaching method, or materials is. In Taiwan, only five elementary Japanese learning textbooks for children can be found in the market today, yet neither of them teaches Hiragana. The related studies in teaching method of Hiragana are only found in the papers of Ouackenbush, Nagajyou, Nagatomo, Tawada(1989), Hwang (1996),and Matsunaga(2003). However, the target groups in these studies are not the children learners in “Chinese character” countries. Therefore, the author is convinced that the children learners in “Chinese character” countries shall benefit by an appropriate Hiragana teaching method.
This study has four chapters. Chapter one consists of background, motive and purpose of this study, literature study, target group, method, and experiment period. Chapter two comprises comprehensive information of Keyword mnemonics, Origin and Stroke mnemonics, teaching plan, and test scheme. Chapter three includes analyses and summary. Chapter four regards future possible studies direction.
In this study, ninety-three local students without prior Japanese learning experiences from primary two were divided into A, B, and C group randomly and learnt Hiragana through Keyword mnemonics, Origin, and Stroke mnemonics accordingly. From November, 2004 to mid-April, 2005, nine tutorial sessions of total one hundred and eighty-five minutes, which comprised twenty minutes of the first to eighth sessions and twenty-five minutes of the ninth session, were conducted. Each session was followed by a test, whose grade was listed as short-term result. A recall test done four days later was considered as long-term result.
All the short-term and long-term result is analyzed in order to discover which Hiragana teaching method is suitable for children. The result revealed that “Keyword Mnemonics” had better learning result than “Origin Mnemonics “, in addition, “Keyword” method has shown better result on long-term effect than short-term effect after cross checking with “Origin Mnemonics ” and “Stroke Mnemonics ”.
Based on the result-“Keyword had better long-term learning result”, found in this study, a thorough future study regarding the relationship among vocabulary learning, learner’s learning motive, and teaching scheme was suggested.
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