A Critique of Web-Based Kanji Learning Programs for Autonomous Learners: Suggestions for Improvement of WWKanji

Abstract

Learning kanji characters for Japanese second language learners is a major component in their development of reading pro®ciency. The focus of this study is to evaluate ®ve web-based kanji programs to determine what features may promote learning for autonomous learners. Discovering the features of an Internet program that will promote vocabulary learning will provide programmers with a basis for creating and improving existing programs. In order to discover what is necessary for Japanese second language kanji learning, we ®rst examined the existing literature on autonomous kanji learning and the evaluation of the effectiveness of CALL for kanji learning. From this theoretical foundation, we created our criteria to evaluate existing Internet programs. The main objective is to provide suggestions for improving WWKanji, a web-based program. The results of our evaluation indicate that for future versions of WWKanji, features such as grouping by radicals, mnemonics and ideographs, drills and quizzes, additional compounds, and ®nally kanji learning in context should be added in order to provide the autonomous learner with more resources for learning. Furthermore, each feature that will be added must be rigorously tested to determine its effectiveness for autonomous learning of kanji characters.

Chatbot-Based Application Development and Implementation as an Autonomous Language Learning Medium

“…One of them is in Japanese learning. Komori and Zimmerman, (2001) studied the effectiveness of the Kanji (Japanese Character) learning application for self-study with results showing that the application helped improve their learning outcomes, although there were still students who found it difficult to use the application.…”

The Impact of Flipped Online Kanji Instruction on Written Vocabulary Learning for Introductory and Intermediate Japanese Language Students

“…Studies have already investigated a range of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) programs that are designed to facilitate vocabulary development, including flash cards (Nakata, 2011), mnemonic learning (Lu, Webb, Krus, & Fox, 1999), digital games (Hitosugi, Schmidt, & Hayashi, 2014), and kanji learning packages (Ikeshita-Yamazoe & Masutomo, 2016;Komori & Zimmerman, 2001;Nesbitt, 2013). However, while earlier CALL programs tended to focus on word learning alone, recent multimedia packages view vocabulary learning as a subcomponent of contextually situated activities rather than in isolation (Ma & Kelly, 2006).…”

Story-based CALL for Japanese kanji characters: A study on student learning motivation

“…Existing kanji CALL systems are typically PC-based or web-based (e.g. Li, 1996;Komori & Zimmerman, 2001;Houser, Yokoi, & Yasusa, 2002;Hsu & Gao, 2002). Recently, however, increasing mobile computing power and better mobile user interfaces have made it feasible to implement personal CALL systems on mobile devices.…”

“…Earlier research (Van Aacken, 1999;Komori & Zimmerman, 2001) investigated possible benefits of CALL for kanji learning. In particular, CALL has potential benefits for student motivation (Van Aacken, 1999).…”