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Category: Project

Description: The unique orthographic complexities of Japanese, which utilizes multiple scripts for the same spoken language, places unique demands on early learners. Much research has centered on the average ability of Japanese learners, but given the varying challenges of these scripts, attention may need to be oriented towards the outer bounds of student ability, specifically those who both deeply struggle and excel at learning. We briefly review the current literature on cross-cultural literacy and how early Japanese literacy acquisition fits into the wider context of literacy research. Thereafter we demonstrate with quantile generalized additive models (QGAMs) how the conventional wisdom on average effects linear models may at times be uninformative for Japanese kanji and hiragana. The utility of our review and analysis should be self-evident. Individual differences are especially important in Japanese literacy and the adoption of nonlinear as well as quantile-based approaches may help illuminate these issues.