Preliminary report on theKanjiandKatakana(K2) gym: out-of-class character/vocabulary learning activities for Japanese language learners

Abstract

This paper reports on the informal, out-of-class activities of the K2 (Kanji and Katakana) gym that was conducted twice (once each in 2009 and 2010) over a fiveweek period in the Department of International Studies, Macquarie University. The primary objectives of this project were (1) to provide Japanese language learners at different levels of proficiency with opportunities to practise character and vocabulary learning skills and (2) to explore the efficiency of informal study on the learning of Kanji/Katakana and vocabulary in Japanese. A total of 17 and 9 students participated in the K2 gym in 2009 and 2010, respectively. In the gym, the participants practised Kanji/Katakana using worksheets, repetition sheets and sample sentence/translation sheets under the supervision of native Japanesespeaking postgraduate students. At the end of the fifth week, both participants and postgraduate student assistants provided feedback on the K2 gym activities. The feedback was predominantly positive. The project was significant not only for the Japanese language students who received individual feedback from native speakers in a non-threatening learning environment but also for the postgraduate assistants who gained experience supervising the gym in their interaction with the participants and made some very practical suggestions. Possibilities for future activities are provided.

The trends and developments of L2 Japanese research in the 2010s

“…In addition, L2 word recognition and processing operate a qualitatively different mechanism from that of L1 word identification, requiring increased cognitive resources for orthographic, semantic, and phonological retrieval (e.g., Fukuta, 2013; Koyama, Stein, Stoodley, & Hansen, 2013; Nakayama, Ida, & Lupker, 2016). Consequently, post-2010 studies continued to investigate a range of issues in learning kanji from various perspectives including crosslinguistic influence (Matsumoto, 2013; Hagiwara, 2016), the role of L2 proficiency (Toyoda & McNamara, 2011; Matsumoto, 2013), linguistic factors affecting L2 kanji recognition and production (Fei & Matsumi, 2013; Toyoda, Firdaus, & Kano, 2013; Taniguchi, 2017), learning strategies and attitudes (Soemer & Schwan, 2012; Rose, 2013; Thomas, 2013, 2014, 2015; Tsukada, 2012; Kubota, 2017), and instructional interventions (Ulambayar, 2013).…”

“…Coping with visual complexity is another area of interest as it is a major inhibitory factor for character reproduction, particularly for non-kanji background learners (e.g., Taniguchi, 2017). Strategies under investigation include mnemonics (i.e., memory-enhancing strategies) (Toyoda & McNamara, 2011; Soemer & Schwan, 2012; Rose, 2013) and rote learning such as repeated writing (Tsukada, 2012) and air writing (i.e., spontaneous production of highly articulated movements of the fingertips or hands while tracing out abstract representations of kanji, or character components) (Thomas, 2013, 2014, 2015). Studies on mnemonics through the use of personal encoding techniques, or mental images of the items to be learned, for instance, have not reached researchers’ consensus on their effectiveness.…”

“…Repeated writing, which is commonly used to learn to write characters, was found to be an effective strategy for L2 learners when being used in meaningful contexts (Tsukada, 2012). Air writing is also often used by adult learners of Japanese residing in Japan, just as native readers do, but its effect was unclear.…”