Using Mnemonics to Facilitate Learning of Japanese Script Characters

Page No.: 
55
Writer(s): 
Emmanuel Manalo, Julie Trafford, The Student Learning Centre, The University of Auckland; Satomi Mizutani; Department of Applied Language Studies and Linguistics, The University of Auckland

Extra tutorial sessions on the use of pictorial mnemonics to facilitate memorization of Japanese hiragana and katakana script characters, as well as vocabulary words and kanji characters, were offered to university first year undergraduate students taking a beginners’ Japanese language course. 27 students, most of whom were experiencing some difficulties with the course, volunteered to attend. Although the improvement in actual marks that the students evidenced subsequent to attending the sessions did not prove to be statistically significant, a significant improvement in pass rate was found. Furthermore, the students rated the sessions highly in terms of their helpfulness, and the majority indicated that they believed the sessions helped their performance in the course assessments. It is concluded that mnemonic strategies can effectively be employed in facilitating retention of the script of a foreign, non-alphabetic language within a real educational setting.

初心者対象の日本語コースを取っている大学1年生に、日本語のひらがなとカタカナ、及び語彙と漢字の記憶を促進するため、絵を用いた連想法を使った追加授業が提出された。27名(そのうちのほとんどは、コースにおいて何らかの困難に直面している)が自主的に追加授業に出席した。追加授業出席後、学生の実際の小テストの点の向上には有意差は認められなかったものの、合格率の向上においては有意差は確認された。さらに、追加授業に出席した学生は授業が役立ったと高く評価し、大多数が追加授業がコースの成績の成果に貢献したと思うと述べた。本論は、実際の教育現場で英語のアルファベットを用いない外国語の文字を教える際、連想法を効果的に使用することができると結論づけた。

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