[No. 63] Middle School Entrance Exams × Do You Need to Read to Improve in Japanese?

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　Effective does not necessarily mean
　the optimal solution.

　And the optimal solution is...
　often not found.

　Japanese language.

　What kind of feelings do you have about it?

　
　I was able to get along with it relatively well.
　 (Because everything else was catastrophic.)

　
　However, my son Tabu (5th grade) seems to
　not get along with it at all.

　This time, it's about "Japanese" and "reading."
　

　In the social sphere, I saw an exchange of opinions
　regarding Japanese, so
　this time too, I intend to wave my personal views around grandly
　and get scolded for it.

　I have touched on Japanese before in a serious tone
(commercial over).

#1 Japanese language consultation. Usually it's "reading"

 
　"My Japanese grades aren't going up"
　"What should I do to improve my Japanese?"

　
　I often see
　such painful pleas.

　The most common answer to this question is


　"You should read books"
　

　is what it is.

　I understand what you want to say.

　
　However, whether the person asking
　is really looking for that answer...


　If we argue about whether to read or not,
　I think many people understand that
　"it's better to do it."


　If I were asked
　"Is it better to read?"
　I would also answer

　"Yes, it is better."
　However,


　those who are worried about their Japanese grades

　are feeling things like how to handle the difficulty of approaching learning,　or the difficulty of feeling the results of growth...
　that is how they feel.

　
　With reading, it is difficult to show quantitatively
　"what" and "how much" you should read
　to improve your grades by how much.

　And,
　my impression is that there are not many people
　who answer by digging this deep.

　
　At least I can't do it.
　Just read some mystery novels for now.

#2 The Reasons Why Reading Is Recommended

Reading is good for you. (Huh?


And I think the reasons why reading is said to be good
are logical.

This is not a complete reversal of my previous stance
by any means.

"Isn't that different from
what you said earlier?"
(I think so too.)

The reasons why I say it is "good"
are mainly the following points.

・Getting used to printed text
・Getting used to sentence structure
・Increasing the number of known words and expressions

You might think,
"Is that all?" but

It's similar to the feeling that
a child who likes flowers and insects
is strong in science,
or a child who likes puzzles and blocks
is good at math problems. It's close to that kind of sense.

Returning to the main topic (get on with it already),
to the question
"I want to get better at math,"
the answer "Please do puzzles"
cannot be called sufficient.

I think the same applies to Japanese.

#3 The Reality of Reading and the Hurdles

Now, let's assume you have actually
decided to "try having them read."

What should you have them read?
How much time can you spend?
Are they even fond of reading in the first place?

If it's a book in a field they like,
they might start reading it.

However, you cannot choose
the reading comprehension passages
for them as you like.

I can imagine that making a child
who is not used to reading
read pure literature intently is not realistic.

If I made Tab-san (a 5th-grade boy)
do something like that,
I'm sure I would hear the command "Sleep mode activated!"
within seconds.

…Though I wouldn't actually let him sleep.

In the end, what I want to say is
that there is no need to force
them to read.

You're still being roundabout, aren't you?

#4 Everyone Has Their Own Specialty Weapon

So, what should you do?


The way to approach "improving Japanese scores"
differs from child to child.

For example,
if they "can't finish the test in time",

・Are they getting stuck on the reading part?
・Are they getting stuck on the questions?

That alone changes the approach.

If it's the former,
focus on the foundations of "reading ability":
speed, concentration, and understanding structure.

If it's the latter,
first eliminate any discrepancies in
"how to read the questions" or "how to find the evidence."

In short, the improvements needed
vary depending on the child.

What is effective is not necessarily
the optimal solution.

Reading is one weapon.
It's good to have, but
you can fight without it.

That is the premise we operate on in our home.
Specific strategies (on implementation) will be in the next post.

That's all from the front lines.

[Introduction of teaching materials (just an advertisement)]
As I introduced before,
these are commercially available materials for Japanese reading comprehension.

We also used these
before joining the cram school.

As commercial textbooks go,
the difficulty level is a bit high,
so I think it would be good to
start by checking the content
for their current grade level.

For 3rd grade elementary school👇️👇️

For 4th grade elementary school👇️👇️

For 5th grade elementary school👇️👇️