Factors that Make the Reproduction of Kanji Difficult for Learners of Japanese Language with Non-kanji Background

Abstract

The present study focuses on the relationship between the shapes of kanji and the difficulty of reproduction for Japanese learners of non-kanji background before they have started kanji learning. In order to examine the influence of various factors of kanji shapes, a kanji shape reproduction task with 30 different kanji was administered among 108 Malay learners of Japanese who had never studied kanji. Next, Decision-tree analysis was employed to clarify the degree of influence of various factors which make the reproduction of kanji difficult. In this analysis, three factors: 1) visual complexity, 2) rectilinearity, and 3) symmetricality are set to predict the completeness of the reproduced kanji shapes.

Results of the analysis reveal the following: 1) the visual complexity of the kanji has the strongest influence on making the reproduction of kanji difficult; 2) non-rectilinear kanji are difficult to reproduce even with low visual complexity; and 3) in kanji with high visual complexity, symmetricality strongly influences the completeness of the reproduced kanji shapes, and asymmetric kanji are difficult to reproduce.