Korean Kindergartners Research Articles

Relations of copying skills to Korean word reading and spelling among Korean kindergartners

BackgroundRecent research suggests that diverse types of copying, including pure copying, copying fluency and delayed copying, contributed to children's spelling of Chinese characters and English words but not to word recognition. This study examined the relations of pure copying, copying fluency and delayed copying to beginning word reading and spelling in Korean Hangul.MethodsOne hundred and five Korean kindergarten children aged 5 and 6 years were tested on pure copying of unfamiliar print of Vietnamese, copying fluency and delayed copying of Korean Gulja (written syllable) and cognitive skills including nonverbal reasoning, syllable and phoneme awareness and orthographic awareness.ResultsHierarchical regression analyses showed that copying fluency and delayed copying of Korean Gulja uniquely explained Korean word reading and spelling after controlling for age, cognitive skills and Vietnamese copying. In addition, squared semi‐partial correlations revealed that orthographic and phonological awareness significantly and uniquely contributed to Korean word reading and spelling.ConclusionThe findings highlight that copying fluency and delayed copying of Hangul Gulja are the most important factors in early Korean word recognition and spelling. Similar cognitive correlates such as syllable and orthographic awareness and orthographic working memory contributed to the initial reading and spelling of Korean words.

Effective teaching instructions for Hangul learning among Korean kindergartners

This study assessed the effects of four types of teaching instruction for Hangul learning in Korean kindergartners. Forty-five four-year-old children participated in a Hangul learning experiment where they were taught 6 new Korean Guljas (Korean written syllable) in each of four conditions–whole Gulja, alphabet letter, CV (consonant + vowel) body and coda subsyllabic units, and copying. Participants were separated across three reading levels, namely, emergent readers, novice readers who could read regular Hangul words, and good readers who could read regular and irregular words. Effective training methods were different depending on children’s reading level. Holistic whole Gulja instructions were effective for Hangul Gulja learning in emergent readers, whereas copying and analytic CV-coda instructions facilitated Hangul learning in novices. However, there were no differences among the four types of instructions among good readers. Copying apparently facilitates learning to read Hangul, but the effect of letter instruction is limited to the beginning level of Hangul learning. These results highlight the effectiveness of teaching instructions depending on children’s reading level and the characteristics of Hangul.

Connecting Plans to Action: The Effects of a Card-Coded Robotics Curriculum and Activities on Korean Kindergartners

This study examined the effects of a card-coded robotics curriculum and associated activities on kindergarteners’ sequencing and problem-solving skills, which are forms of computational thinking. Kindergarteners participated in card-coded programming using a robot called TurtleBot. A card-coded robot curricular intervention was also designed to enhance their planning behaviors using complementary tools. This study examined an 8-week robotic curricular intervention through assessment of 53 participants ranging in age from 5 to 6, while also evaluating sequencing and mathematical problem-solving in both the treatment and comparison groups. It was found that children in the treatment group who engaged in the card-coded robotic curricular intervention performed better on sequencing and problem-solving tests. This finding indicates that an enhanced planning experience using card-coded robots was beneficial for improving young children’s thinking skills. The implications for designing appropriate curricula using robots for kindergarteners are addressed.

Japanese and Korean Kindergartners’ Perspectives of Play Using Photos

The purpose of the study was to examine Japanese and Korean kindergarteners' perspectives by asking them to photograph play and explain why their photos represent play (photo elicitation interviews). The participants consisted of 50 kindergarteners on Japan’s main island and 50 kindergarteners in South Korea. Japanese and Korean kindergartners were provided with digital cameras and were asked to photograph their views of play without adult accompaniment. Afterwards, the children were asked to describe why their photos represented play. “Can you tell me why this means play to you?” The data were analyzed using content and thematic analyses and the photos were reviewed along with children’s responses. The thematic analysis of results revealed that Japanese and Korean kindergartners’ perceptions were related to interactions with other children, pretend play, schoolyards, and toys or props. The findings of this study indicated the ways in which Japanese and Korean children’s play perceptions were related to cultural and social contexts. Implications for early childhood education were also discussed.

Teaching Kindergartners Racial Diversity Through Multicultural Literature: A Case Study in a Kindergarten Classroom in Korea

Research Findings: This qualitative case study examines Korean kindergartners’ literary discussions about racial/cultural diversity during a whole-group read-aloud. Using multiple sources of data, including observations, open-ended interviews, and written materials and children’s artifacts, this study found that (a) the children exhibited a biased attitude toward African characters, and their stereotypical views reflected their allegiance to their social/cultural contexts; (b) literary discussions about race provided the children with valuable opportunities to explore racial diversity, equality, injustice, and freedom; and (c) reading multicultural literature helped the children develop and practice their racial language and literacy skills. Practice or Policy: The findings of the study add several important contributions related to teaching young children multicultural literature. Reading literature should be used to provide a chance to explore real-life problems and critically analyze all of the differences children encounter on a daily basis. Teachers should encourage young children to freely share their views about diverse social issues by creating a space where children feel secure in exchanging different views. In order to create a more supportive literacy surrounding, teachers should understand how profoundly children’s social and cultural environments affect their reading practices.

Relation of Reading Skills and Smart Device Experience at Home among Korean Kindergartners: the Mediation Effect of Vocabulary

Relation of Reading Skills and Smart Device Experience at Home among Korean Kindergartners: the Mediation Effect of Vocabulary

Visual spatial skill: A consequence of learning to read?

Does learning to read influence one’s visual skill? In Study 1, kindergartners from Hong Kong, Korea, Israel, and Spain were tested on word reading and a task of visual spatial skill. Chinese and Korean kindergartners significantly outperformed Israeli and Spanish readers on the visual task. Moreover, in all cultures except Korea, good readers scored significantly higher on the visual task than did less good readers. In Study 2, we followed 215 Hong Kong Chinese kindergartners across 1 year, with word reading and visual skills tested twice. In this study, word reading at Time 1 by itself predicted 13% of unique variance in visual skill at Time 2. Together, these results underscore the potential importance of the process of learning to read for shaping one’s visual spatial skill development.

Syllable and letter knowledge in early Korean Hangul reading.

This study examined the development of Korean consonant-vowel (CV) syllable identification, consonant and vowel letter knowledge, and their relationships to phonological awareness and the reading of regular Hangul words among Korean kindergartners as a 6-month longitudinal study, Results showed that Korean children identified CV syllables better than consonant and vowel letters, In regression analyses, CV syllable identification at Time I strongly contributed to Hangul word recognition concurrently over and above letter knowledge, as well as longitudinally after controlling for letter knowledge and reading at Time 1. However, letter knowledge did not predict Hangul reading once CV syllable identification was controlled, In addition, CV syllable knowledge facilitated subsequent letter knowledge and phoneme onset and coda awareness, The results, in general, shed light on the salient roles of syllables in the early literacy development of Korean. Supplemental materials: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0016212.supp

Phonological awareness and morphological awareness: differential associations to regular and irregular word recognition in early Korean Hangul readers

A large battery of reading related skills were orally administered to 111 4-year old and 118 5-year old Korean kindergartners, who were also tested on reading of regular and irregular Korean Hangul words. In regression equations, speeded naming was uniquely associated with reading of both regular and irregular words. In contrast, only the three measures of phonological awareness at the levels of phoneme onset, coda, and syllable uniquely explained Hangul regular word recognition, whereas only morphological awareness consistently explained irregular word recognition. Results suggest somewhat different cognitive demands for reading of regular and irregular words, based on the dual-route model, in Korean Hangul.

Correlates of Korean Hangul Acquisition Among Kindergartners and Second Graders

In two separate studies, 100 South Korean kindergartners and 100 second graders were administered tests of speed of processing and phonological-processing skills as well as a Korean Hangul reading test. Speed of processing tasks were significantly correlated with most of the reading-related tasks but not with Hangul reading itself. Across studies, only tests of syllable and phoneme awareness (either onset or both onset and coda), as well as naming speed, were significantly associated with Korean word-reading. In both studies, in regression equations including all measured skills and age, only syllable and phoneme awareness uniquely predicted Hangul word recognition. Results underscore the uniqueness of the Korean Hangul orthography, which requires children to be sensitive to both syllable- and phoneme-level linguistic and orthographic units.

An Ethnographic Study of Korean Kindergartners' Reasoning during Group Moral Discussions.

This study, conducted in Korean classrooms, investigated kindergarten children's reasoning during group moral discussions of problematic situations. The children were presented with pictures depicting problem situations distributed by the Korean Ministry of Education and were invited to: (a) reason about others' perspectives, (b) grasp the causes of the problems, and (c) seek ways to solve the problems. The study's findings suggest that young children be provided with more opportunities to engage in discussions of problem situations. Additionally, the researcher recommends further study of moral reasoning processes in preschoolers.

Effects of Language Characteristics on Children's Cognitive Representation of Number: Cross-National Comparisons

MIURA, IRENE T.; KIM, CHUNCsOON, C.; CHANG, CHIH-MEI; and OKAMOTO, YUKARI. Effects of Language Characteristics on Children's Cognitive Representation of Number: Cross-National Comparisons. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1988, 59, 1445-1450. We compared the cognitive representation of number of American, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean first graders, and Korean kindergartners, to determine if there might be variations in those representations resulting from numerical language characteristics that differentiate Asian and non-Asian language groups. Children were asked to construct various numbers using base 10 blocks. Chinese, Japanese, and Korean children preferred to use a construction of tens and ones to show numbers; place value appeared to be an integral component of their representations. In contrast, English-speaking children preferred to use a collection of units, suggesting that they represent number as a grouping of counted objects. More Asian children than American children were able to construct each number in 2 ways, which suggests greater flexibility of mental number manipulation.