Of late, young JFL (Japanese as a Foreign Language) learners who study Japanese across the world have augmented. Practitioners often point out the difficulty of facilitating literacy training, because a number of JFL learners find learning Kanji, the logographic system, one of the largest obstacles. Today, research into Kanji processing among JFL learners has expanded. Yet, studies on young JFL learners remain extremely limited. Recent literature has shown the essential role of phonological processing in word recognition not only in phonographic scripts but also in logographic scripts. The nature of phonological representation in L2 (second language) reading, however, might not be identical to that in L1 (first language) reading, which has not yet been clarified. This study, motivated by such pedagogical and theoretical concerns, shed light on the role of L2 phonological information (how to pronounce Kanji) in developing Kanji knowledge among young JFL learners.
To investigate (1) whether JFL learners' accuracy levels in meaning and sound judgment performance are different, and (2) whether phonological information facilitates JFL learners' Kanji recognition skills, Kanji-Meaning and Kanji-Sound matching tests were adopted to measure accuracy and reaction times. The participants were 18 sixth grade students studying Japanese. During instruction, they were taught 17 Kanji characters with their meanings and sounds (how to pronounce them) whereas the other 17 with only their meanings but not sounds. The students were tested at two different times, immediately after the instruction and five weeks after. The results of the three-way ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) conducted with Treatment (whether phonological information of Kanji was given during the instruction), Tasks (meaning or sound matching), and Time (times 1 and 2) as Independent Variables, and Accuracy and Reaction Times as Dependent Variable will be discussed.