ローマ字指導と小学校英語活動における有機的な連携

type:Article

小学4年生になると児童はローマ字を習う。そして,彼らの多くが英語活動を通し英語の文字に触れる。ローマ字は,日本語の音韻に関する知識を児童に学ばせるために音韻構造をアルファベットで表記したものである。ローマ字指導を導入した後,英単語に触れる活動を安易に導入すると,「ローマ字読み」を引き起こす原因となりうる。一方で,ローマ字は英語を読む際に一助となっていることは推測できる。本稿は,5年生に対し行った調査から,ローマ字学習が与える英語読みへの影響を検証・議論,国語教育の一環として行われるローマ字指導と小学校英語活動における「文字に触れる活動」の有機的な連携の模索およびその重要性について指摘する。

After the Period of Integrated Study was introduced into the Japanese national curriculum in 2002, almost all elementary schools began to adopt“English Activities"as part of their classes in the field of international understanding. Among other related issues, this article focuses on the present state of English Activities in elementary schools, with particular reference to the instruction of reading and writing English letters. From the results of the questionnaire conducted in this article, we can assume that students became interested in English and eager to read it as a result of learning the Roman alphabet through Japanese language education classes (i.e., Kokugo Kyoiku), regardless of whether or not they had had English classes at their elementary schools. Another finding was that knowledge of the Roman alphabet helped students when they read and pronounced English words, which they seemed to appreciate themselves : a positive attitude towards learning English that elementary school teachers should try to encourage in their students. The results of the test papers also showed the beneficial effects of teaching the Roman alphabet in English Activities classes. The students could pronounce phonetic symbols that they have not learned in Japanese education, such as the symbol [k]. They could make the connections between sounds and letters in English and pronounce them correctly on their own. We can therefore assume that elementary school students already have an untaught ability to relate the English sounds to their appropriate English letters. In this study, the subjects were drawn from only two elementary schools. One of these schools has English classes regularly, though the teachers don't teach English reading and writing, while the other school has no English classes at all. At some progressive elementary schools, however, the teachers have introduced English reading and writing into their English Activities classes. At these schools, teachers have also started to help their students read English words by using phonics to teach the relationship between sounds and written letters. If students from these progressive schools had been the subjects of this study, perhaps even more distinct effects of the teaching of Roman letters in English Activities would have been detected. In the field of elementary school English education, good cooperation and effective interaction between teachers responsible for English Activities and those who teach the Roman alphabet in Japanese language classes is absolutely essential