A Comparison of Phonology-Orthography Consistency and L1-Absent Phonemes in Junior High School English Language Textbooks in Japan and South Korea

Abstract

This study undertakes a comparative analysis of the consistency between phonology and orthography as well as the absence of vowel phonemes in the first language in English language textbooks used by third-year junior high school students in Japan and South Korea. The analysis was conducted using six textbooks: three of the most widely adopted English language textbooks in Japan and South Korea. The results revealed that the English language textbooks in South Korea contained a significantly higher number of words and sentences. Contrary to the initial hypothesis, no substantial differences were observed in the lexical difficulty or frequency of the 44 English phonemes. Furthermore, the English language textbooks in Japan were found to contain a significantly greater proportion of phonemes absent from the first language, as well as a higher incidence of irregular phoneme-grapheme correspondences. These findings indicate that Japanese junior high school students are exposed to English language textbooks with a considerably higher level of phonemic and graphemic complexity compared to South Korean junior high school students. These insights are valuable for English language learners, educators, policymakers, and textbook developers, particularly in contexts where the first language has a limited phonemic inventory or regular phoneme-grapheme correspondences.