The purpose of this study was to investigate the level of three-year-old and four-year-old children's development in the area of perceiving phonological structures and of reading, as well as the relationship between perception of phonological structur...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the level of three-year-old and four-year-old children's development in the area of perceiving phonological structures and of reading, as well as the relationship between perception of phonological structures and reading ability.
For these purposes to be realized, the following questions were put together:
1. Is there any difference in young children's perception of phonological structures according to the age?
2. Is there any difference in young children's reading ability according to the age?
3. Is there any relationship between perception of phonological structures and reading ability of young children?
Twenty of three-year-old children and 20 of four-year-old children were selected from B Kindergarten located in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul for the study. The investigator personally interviewed each one of them and collected data. The examination tool comprised of various items that were put together in consultation of related literature by the investigator. Later it received verification of appropriateness from one expert on preschool education and four kindergarten teachers. And the results were as follows:
First, the three- and four-year-old children turned out to have more significant differences in distinction task rather than in omission task among the tasks of perception of phonological structures.
Second, they showed more significant differences in the level of phonemes than in that of syllables in terms of the level of tasks of perception of phonological structures.
Third, each total points of examinations concerning the tasks and the level of tasks of perception of phonological structures delivered a very significant difference in both three- and four-year-old children.
Fourth, the three- and four-year-old children all had a significant difference in word reading, meaningless spelling reading, and sentence comprehending according to the analysis of the differences of reading ability based on age.
Finally, the analysis of the interrelationship between perception of phonological structures and reading ability proved that they were highly related.