Effects of a timed dictation activity in the introductory course in Japanese focusing on the accuracy

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4-2016
Effects of a timed dictation activity in the
introductory course in Japanese focusing on the
accuracy and fluency of writing Katakana
Aya Okada
Purdue University
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PURDUE UNIVERSITY
GRADUATE SCHOOL
Thesis/Dissertation Acceptance
This is to certify that the thesis/dissertation prepared
By AyaOkada
Entitled
EFFECTSOFATIMEDDICTATIONACTIVITYINTHEINTRODUCTORYCOURSEINJAPANESEFOCUSINGON
THEACCURACYANDFLUENCYONWRITINGKATAKANA
MasterofArts
For the degree of
Is approved by the final examining committee:
AtsushiFukada
Chair
ColleenNeary-Sundquist
AprilGinther
To the best of my knowledge and as understood by the student in the Thesis/Dissertation
Agreement, Publication Delay, and Certification Disclaimer (Graduate School Form 32),
this thesis/dissertation adheres to the provisions of Purdue University’s“Policy of
Integrity in Research” and the use of copyright material.
AtsushiFukada
Approved by Major Professor(s):
AtsushiFukada 4/18/2016
Approved by:
Head of the Departmental Graduate Program Date

EFFECTS OF A TIMED DICTATION ACTIVITY IN THE INTRODUCTORY COURSE IN
JAPANESE FOCUSING ON THE ACCURACY AND FLUENCY OF WRITING KATAKANA

A Thesis
Submitted to the Faculty
of
Purdue University
by
Aya Okada

In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the degree
of
Master of Arts

May 2016
Purdue University
West Lafayette, Indiana
ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my major advisor and
committee chair, Dr. Atsushi Fukada for his continuous help throughout the entire
process of my thesis. It would not have been possible to write this thesis without his
excellent guidance. I also would like to thank Dr. April Ginther and Dr. Colleen
Neary-Sundquist for being my committee members and providing valuable
comments and suggestions.
I express a deep sense of gratitude to several people. Ms. Akiko Ohashi and
Ms. Marina Ishii, coordinators for introductory Japanese classes, gave me
opportunities to collect data from their classes. Also, my fellow teaching assistants,
especially Saori Masumoto, helped my research and motivated me in my work.
I also owe a debt to Ms. Joyce L. Detzner, thesis format advisor, for prompt
and accurate formatting advice, and further thanks to Travis Mahnke, Lauren B.
Mallett and Ashlee J. Messersmith. Thank you for always being there when I needed
advice.
Last but not least, I would like to thank my family for giving tremendous
support and encouragement and being there whenever I needed help throughout
the completion of my M.A. program at Purdue University.
iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................................................................... vi
LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................................ viii
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................ ix
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 1
Motivation for the Study ................................................................................................................. 1
Research Question ............................................................................................................................. 5
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................ 7
Overview ............................................................................................................................................... 7
Japanese Language Scripts ............................................................................................................. 7
The Importance of Katakana ...................................................................................................... 10
The Current Trend in Katakana Teaching ............................................................................. 13
Katakana in the textbooks. ..................................................................................................... 13
Teachers’ Attitudes Towards Katakana. ............................................................................ 15
Dictation Activities ......................................................................................................................... 16
Definition of Dictation. ............................................................................................................. 16
Dictation as a Testing Tool. .................................................................................................... 17
Dictation as a learning tool. .................................................................................................... 18
Dictation Types ................................................................................................................................ 19
Graduated dictation. .................................................................................................................. 19
Peer dictation. .............................................................................................................................. 21
Timed dictation. .......................................................................................................................... 22
The Use of Dictation in Japanese Language Settings ......................................................... 23
iv

Page
The Incorporation of Technology ............................................................................................. 25
Related CALL Materials ................................................................................................................ 25
Timed Dictation Player .................................................................................................................. 28
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ......................................................................................................... 29
Overview ............................................................................................................................................ 29
Participants ....................................................................................................................................... 30
Demographics. ............................................................................................................................. 30
Curricular differences between the TD and WT groups. ............................................ 31
Treatments ........................................................................................................................................ 32
Materials ............................................................................................................................................. 34
Practice dictation activity. ...................................................................................................... 34
Dictation test. ............................................................................................................................... 35
Sentence creation. ...................................................................................................................... 35
Timed-dictation audio files. ................................................................................................... 36
Timed-Katakana Test for Measuring Accuracy and Fluency.......................................... 38
Procedures ......................................................................................................................................... 39
Student access to the timed-dictation files. ..................................................................... 39
Timed-dictation activity in class. ......................................................................................... 40
Timed-Katakana test. ................................................................................................................ 40
Grading procedure. .................................................................................................................... 40
Measurement .................................................................................................................................... 41
Questionnaire ................................................................................................................................... 41
Data Analysis .................................................................................................................................... 42
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ................................................................................... 43
Overview ............................................................................................................................................ 43
Results ................................................................................................................................................. 43
Katakana Test. ............................................................................................................................. 43
The Frequency of Katakana in dictation and its impact on test result. ................. 45
v

Page
Discussion and Further Analyses .............................................................................................. 46
Analysis based on learners’ first language. ...................................................................... 46
The appropriateness of the dictation sentences. ........................................................... 48
Questionnaire Analysis ................................................................................................................. 50
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................... 60
Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 60
The Research Findings .................................................................................................................. 60
Pedagogical Implications ............................................................................................................. 63
Limitations of the Study and Directions for Future Research ....................................... 64
REFERENCES ......................................................................................................................................... 66
APPENDICES .......................................................................................................................................... 70
vi

LIST OF TABLES
Table ..................................................................................................................................................... Page
Table 1: The Japanese Syllabary (Hiragana / Katakana) ......................................................... 8
Table 2: The Japanese syllabary (Voiced consonants) ............................................................. 9
Table 3: The Japanese Palatalized Series of Syllables ............................................................... 9
Table 4: "When you teach Katakana symbols in your institution, what kind of goal do
you lay out?" (Nakayama et al., 2008) ......................................................................................... 15
Table 5: Descriptive Statistics of the study in Cziko (1981) ............................................... 20
Table 6 : The reason why students thought dictation was useful. (Nakagome et al.,
1995) ...................................................................................................................................... 24
Table 7: Demographics of Experiment Group 1 (TD) ............................................................ 31
Table 8: Demographics of Experiment Group 2 (WT) ........................................................... 31
Table 9: Descriptive statistics of the Katakana test ................................................................ 43
Table 10: t-Test Results for the Katakana scores .................................................................... 44
Table 11 : Mean of correct answers on Katakana test ........................................................... 45
Table 12: Descriptive Statistics of Subjects' First Language ............................................... 46
Table 13 : T-test results on WT and TD groups for native English speakers ............... 47
Table 14: Descriptive statistics on the timed-dictation tests ............................................. 48
Table 15 : Learners' responses to Question 1............................................................................ 50
Table 16 : Students' Katakana test score based on stated preferences .......................... 51
Table 17 : Descriptive Statistics on the Katakana tests based on stated preference 2
............................................................................................................................................... 51
Table 18 : Katakana test score means based on the frequency of student practice .. 54
Table 19: ANOVA Results for Three Question 3 Answer Types ........................................ 54
Table 20 : Reasons students chose C or D for Question 3 .................................................... 54
vii

Table Page
Table 21 : Comments on the dictation activities, categorized by opinion ..................... 56
Table 22 : Detailed responses and numbers from native Chinese speakers ................ 58