It is unlikely that your Japanese language skills will improve remarkably with Kumon Japanese alone. This is because it takes time to acquire Japanese language skills and Kumon alone is not enough to ensure that you read enough.
However, Kumon Japanese provides the vocabulary, reading speed, and interest in books necessary to increase reading volume. By creating opportunities for children to come into contact with books based on these abilities, Kumon Japanese can be very effective.
Reading becomes closer to speed reading than close reading.
First of all, as an effect of Kumon as a whole, speed grows before accuracy.
In Kumon, you will just have to do a lot of work. In club activities and at work, there is a concept that "practice is better than learning," and I am sure that you have experienced some kind of practice such as 100 knocks or study camps when you were a student, and in work, it is especially true for those who teach that you can learn more by actually being in the field than by explaining things with your mouth. It is a fact that many things are better understood by actually being in the field, rather than by explaining them orally, especially from the standpoint of teaching.
No one wants to learn something new and learn it well, so they don't want to learn it all at the same time. In study camps, it is often difficult to concentrate, and there is no way you can do the job without making any mistakes if you don't know what you are doing. By just doing it, you can experience a variety of information that you cannot understand just by explaining it with your mouth. A person who has just learned bookkeeping cannot be an immediate asset in the field of accounting, but once you have closed a financial statement, you will be able to handle a considerable amount of work.
This tendency is also strong in Kumon, and when learning a new field, the only thing that is shown is examples. Quality does not immediately follow, as the emphasis is on trying out both the problems and the amount of homework. This tendency is also strong in Japanese, which is more like speed reading than close reading of texts.
Careless mistakes increase in the process of growth.
What happens then? In the process of progressing through Kumon, careless mistakes will increase.
What happens when you are practicing something like 100 knocks or 100 smashes and you make a single mistake? You do not reflect on it, analyze the cause of the mistake, and take measures to avoid making the mistake next time. Before you can even think about it, the next one comes along. Then, as you repeat the mistake over and over again, you will get a sense of how to avoid making mistakes.
In the practice of "get used to it rather than learn it," repeating mistakes over and over again is a way to improve.
As a result, Kumon increases the number of careless mistakes. This is especially worrisome from a parent's point of view on school tests. If a child does not feel that the school test is the real test to focus on, he or she will not pay as much attention to mistakes in the same way as with Kumon.
If they look at the questions first, they may not read the text properly.
Also, children may not read the text properly until around the "F" material. This is because the question format is similar to fill-in-the-blanks, and many questions can be answered without reading the whole text.
In Kumon, the final part of the test is a summary of the whole text, and from around the G level (equivalent to the first year of junior high school), it will become more difficult to answer questions without reading the whole text. It is understandable that at the elementary school level, it is difficult to summarize an entire sentence, and it is understandable to progress step by step from the point of being able to accurately understand a part of a sentence.
However, if you do not understand that this is a teaching material that ultimately aims at understanding whole sentences, you may misunderstand that your child is reading incorrectly. If you make a mistake, you may be worried about whether they will be able to learn reading comprehension as they are.
Kanji is not enough for exams, but it does help with reading comprehension
Regarding Kumon's kanji, there exist both opinions that it is good to learn and that it is not enough at all. I think the true meaning of this lies in the fact that "you can know the minimum number of kanji required for reading comprehension.
Kumon emphasizes reading comprehension. The more difficult the text becomes, the more difficult it becomes to understand what is written without a certain amount of vocabulary. In Kumon, students can learn the minimum number of kanji required for reading comprehension. In the sense that you will be able to read difficult texts, Kumon Japanese Kanji is highly valued.
On the other hand, when it comes to whether or not you can get a perfect score on a Kanji question in an entrance examination, the Kanji you learn in Kumon are insufficient. In examinations, kanji problems are basic problems that must not be overlooked. To reach that level, Kumon Japanese alone is not enough, and additional study is required at the time of the examination.
Speed-reading ability is not reading comprehension itself.
The skills acquired through the F materials are not necessarily reading comprehension itself. The texts are only the subject matter, and the main purpose is to understand a part of a text properly, not the whole text. The ability to properly interpret a part of a sentence will eventually lead to an understanding of the main idea.
Therefore, the process of studying Kumon may improve reading speed, but it does not fully improve reading comprehension or thinking ability. It is not as easy to read texts properly in Kumon Japanese F materials or at the elementary school level as parents might expect.
Kumon Japanese becomes more effective the further you advance.
As the Kumon materials advance to the junior high school and high school levels, students are required to understand the main meaning of the sentences. As you progress from simply being able to correctly understand the meaning of a part of a sentence, you will acquire the ability to understand the whole sentence more broadly and deeply.
That is not all. The texts selected for Kumon's teaching materials are all masterpieces that are called classics. Being exposed to some of the best works of literature is simply a positive educational experience for children. Moreover, a masterpiece has something that is good enough to be passed down through the ages. It is one of the great merits of Kumon that children can experience the fun of books.
In the end, reading is the only way to improve your Japanese language ability.
It cannot be said that Kumon's printouts alone are sufficient to ensure a sufficient amount of reading. The printouts are only excerpts of masterpieces. Compared to those who read dozens of ordinary books a year, the difference in the amount of reading will be 10 or 20 times greater. And the only way to improve your Japanese language skills is to read many books after all.
So what is the point of doing Kumon Japanese in such a situation? It is to be able to read many books with the power acquired through Kumon.
Kumon enables you to read texts faster. The amount of reading is a prerequisite for encountering good books. Kumon not only gives them a minimum vocabulary for reading, but also gives them an interest in reading by exposing them to masterpieces. For parents who are not familiar with books, we have even prepared a list of recommended books.
The benefits of reading a lot of books are mentioned in many places, but there are many barriers to getting into the habit of reading. Kumon removes these barriers. This is the biggest advantage of continuing Kumon Japanese.