Kanji Drill Teaching Methods in Elementary School: Practice of Individual Free Progress

Abstract

Kanji drills are widely used in elementary school education. However, almost no previous research on kanji drill instruction exists. One of the problems with teaching kanji drills is that the teacher sets the pace of learning each day, and the learner’s “need for autonomy” is not satisfied. This study seeks to address this problem. Therefore, we devised “the practice of Individual Free Progress,” which incorporates the idea of self-regulated learning into kanji drill instruction and leaves the pace of learning to the learner and conducted a practical examination of this practice.

Quantitative analysis revealed that learners’ reading and writing of kanji characters have become more established and motivated. In addition, investigation of the factors contributing to learners’ change using M-GTA revealed that a cycle of self-regulated learning triggered by increased motivation was established, and it was inferred that this led to learners’ improvement in reading and writing kanji.