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A STUDY of L2 KANJI LEARNING PROCESS Analysis of Reading and Writing Errors of Swedish Learners in Comparison with Level-Matched Japanese Schoolchildren

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A STUDY of L2 KANJI LEARNING PROCESS Analysis of Reading and Writing Errors of Swedish Learners in Comparison with Level-Matched Japanese Schoolchildren A STUDY OF L2 KANJI LEARNING PROCESS Analysis of Reading and Writing Errors of Swedish Learners in Comparison with Level-matched Japanese Schoolchildren Fusae Ivarsson Department of Languages and Literatures Doctoral dissertation in Japanese, University of Gothenburg, 18 March, 2016 Fusae Ivarsson, 2016 Cover: Fusae Ivarsson, Thomas Ekholm Print: Reprocentralen, Campusservice Lorensberg, Göteborgs universitet, 2016 Distribution: Institutionen för språk och litteraturer, Göteborgs universitet, Box 200, SE-405 30 Göteborg ISBN: 978-91-979921-7-6 http://hdl.handle.net/2077/41585 ABSTRACT Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, 18 March, 2016 Title: A Study of L2 Kanji Learning Process: Analysis of reading and writing errors of Swedish learners in comparison with level-matched Japanese schoolchildren. Author: Fusae Ivarsson Language: English, with a summary in Swedish Department: Department of Languages and Literatures, University of Gothenburg, Box 200, SE-405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden ISBN: 978-91-979921-7-6 http://hdl.handle.net/2077/41585 The present study investigated the characteristics of the kanji learning process of second language (L2) learners of Japanese with an alphabetic background in comparison with level-matched first language (L1) learners. Unprecedentedly rigorous large-scale experiments were conducted under strictly controlled conditions with a substantial number of participants. Comparisons were made between novice and advanced levels of Swedish learners and the respective level-matched L1 learners (Japanese second and fifth graders). The experiments consisted of kanji reading and writing tests with parallel tasks in a practical setting, and identical sets of target characters for the level-matched groups. Error classification was based on the cognitive aspects of kanji. Reading errors were classified into phonological, circumstantial, orthographic and semantic types, and writing errors into the same four types and an additional pseudokanji type. The error type occurrence patterns were analysed according to skill (reading/writing), level (novice/advanced) and the learner groups’ L1 (Swedish/Japanese), with a focus on the kanji processing unit, preferred methods of character/pronunciation retrieval from the mental kanji lexicon and reading and writing difficulties. This study made a number of new findings and verified various observations made in previous studies. Some of the findings that are unique to this study are: (i) L1 phonological transfer for Swedish novice learners and its decrease at the advanced level; (ii) L2 learners’ less developed configurational awareness and lesser degree of inter-level development than L1 learners; and (iii) a shift in inter-level characteristics for L2 learners, while these remained consistent for L1 learners. The hypotheses confirmed include the following characteristics of L1 alphabetic learners: phonological approaches to retrieval, component- based units of processing, predominance of pseudokanji type writing errors, and greater inter-writing system differences in reading but greater inter-level differences in writing. This study demonstrated that the challenges experienced by L1 alphabetic learners stem from the shift from phoneme-based to component-based processing of graphemes, taking the less familiar lexical route in the decoding and encoding of grapheme-sound correspondences, and the use of less efficient strategies in reading and writing. Keywords: Kanji, L2, L1 transfer, alphabetic writing system, error analysis, Swedish, reading and writing, cognitive aspects, level matching, schoolchildren. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During my years of teaching Japanese at the University of Gothenburg, I came across various types of recurring errors in kanji reading and writing made by my students. Some types were familiar to me as a native user of kanji, and others seemed peculiar to L2 learners of kanji, or even unique to Swedish students. There were level-specific errors, and certain learner groups always made the same types of errors. After a while, I started detecting correlations between these error types and different cognitive aspects of kanji. This experience interested me in comparing level-matched L1 and L2 learners and analysing their kanji errors from a cognitive point of view in order to investigate the Swedish learners’ error occurrence tendencies and to explore the implications for L2 kanji teaching. It has taken a long time to complete this dissertation, partly because of the amount of the data collected in this study, and partly due to health issues. During these years I have received cooperation, support and encouragement from countless people, to all of whom I am deeply grateful. First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor Yasuko Nagano- Madsen, who provided me with academic guidance and moral support. Her advice, encouragement and quick replies even outside of normal working hours have been greatly appreciated. I also owe sincere thanks to those who were involved in the experiments: Hisashi Fusegi, who brought me in contact and helped me make arrangements with the Japanese primary schools; the pupils at these schools and at my alma mater, who spared me a few precious class hours for taking the tests, as well as their teachers, who allowed me to give the tests in their classes and gave me kind assistance; Sawako Murao and Yukiko Shimizu, who assisted me greatly in carrying out the tests at the respective Swedish universities; and of course, all the students who took the tests there; and the Japanese children who lived in Gothenburg at the time and participated in the pilot test. Without the support of all of you, the experiments could not have been conducted. I owe very much and am deeply grateful to Shinichiro Ishihara, who acted as the opponent at my final seminar and thereafter as the assistant supervisor. Without his overall advice and instructions on statistical processing, I would not have been able to finalise this work to a satisfactory level. I am also very thankful to Laura Downing for reading my draft and giving valuable advice at the final seminar. I thank all the personnel at the Department of Languages and Literatures, as well as at my previous Department of African and Oriental Languages, and more particularly my present and former colleagues in the Japanese section of the Department: Noriko Thunman, Kazuyo Lundström, Satoko Berger, Martin Nordeborg, Pia Moberg, Yuka Okamoto-Gustafsson, Thomas Ekholm, Yoko Takau-Drobin, Yoko Kumagai, Sachiyo Larsson, Naoya Irikura, Lisa Pääjärvi and Máté Sall Vesselényi, for all their reading and discussions with me, as well as their comments, advice, help, support and encouragement. Many international colleagues have commented on parts of my work and given feedback at conferences and by e-mail. I thank them all, and most particularly Toshiko Ishida, Yoko Matsumoto-Sturt and David Hebert for their input and advice. For contributing to the funding of field trips and other expenses I gratefully acknowledge Kungliga och Hvitfeldtska stiftelsen, Adlerbertska Stipendiestiftelsen, Stiftelsen Paul och Marie Berghaus donationsfond and Stiftelsen Stipendiefonden Viktor Rydbergs minne. Finally, I express my sincere gratitude to my friends and family for all the support, help and encouragement. Special thanks to Halbe for the initial set up of the database, to Wolmet for helping me with the statistical processing, and to Adrian for reading and correcting my earliest draft. Last but certainly not least, I am deeply grateful to my family in Japan and Sweden: my parents Yoshihisa and Kimiyo, my brothers Harutomo and Tetsuji, my parents- and sister-in-law Lisbeth, Jan and Petra, and my husband Patrik and daughter Erika. Thank you all for everything! Gothenburg, February 2016 Fusae Ivarsson TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLES ........................................................................................................... 10 FIGURES ......................................................................................................... 13 ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS ................................................................. 15 GLOSSARY OF JAPANESE WRITING SYSTEM AND PHONOTACTICS ............................................................................................. 17 1. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 19 1.1. The Present Study ....................................................................................... 19 1.2. Background ................................................................................................. 19 1.2.1. Learning of L2 writing system ................................................................. 19 1.2.2. Research on second language writing system ........................................ 20 1.2.3. The problem ........................................................................................... 22 1.3. Aim ............................................................................................................... 24 1.4. Research questions .................................................................................... 24 1.5. Outline .......................................................................................................... 25 2. FACTS AND CONCEPTS RELATED TO KANJI ERROR CLASSIFICATION ........................................................ 28 2.1. The Japanese writing system ..................................................................... 28 2.2. Overview
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