Japanese English Script

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1. Statement of the Research Problem
Many hours are spent teaching and studying the skill of writing and even more, correcting and assessing spelling (Kepner, 1991). Writing is arguably the most difficult of the four macoskills and is influenced by age, native language (L1) ability (Sheen, 2007), and the difference in scripts (Elliott, 2012). This research seeks to identify the benefits, if any, in providing prescriptive, five-minute writing exercises, at the start of second language (L2) lessons, not only improves writing fluency, but also aids in spelling accuracy and improvements in the other macroskills. The research is specifically aimed at beginner-level students, aged twelve and thirteen years old, who are commencing studies of English as a foreign language (EFL) in municipal high schools in Japan, and who have little outside influence or experience with English language and the script in which it is written.
2. Background and Context to the Research Problem
Japan has seen the gradual adoption of some contemporary approaches to teaching and learning …show more content…

Japanese and English scripts are very different the cause of mistakes are twofold. First, Japanese start practicing writing their native scripts from an early age, through both reading and writing. They continue to practice and learn the more complex Kanji characters beyond tertiary education. The English writing script (Romaji) is introduced at about the age of ten in elementary school, but not strictly practiced until entering high school at twelve years old. This causes language culture connection (LCC) problems in the socioaffective domain and introduces Native Language Effect in the linguistic domain (Brown, 2007). LCC is evident in writing dyslexia, where ‘ride’ is written as ‘ribe’, (Figure-1), and writing sensitivity, ‘v’ as ‘r’ or ‘n’ for example ‘never’ becomes ‘veren’ (not shown

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