Learning vocabulary in the authentic written form for novice English-speaking learners of Japanese with limited orthographic knowledge

Abstract

It is conventionally assumed that complicated Japanese orthography is too difficult to learn for learners from non-logographic language backgrounds at the early stages of learning. However, this sort of assumption may have negatively affected how both teachers and learners of Japanese approach the learning of vocabulary in Japanese. Learners of Japanese, particularly those from non-logographic language backgrounds, are often exposed to words written in inauthentic Japanese at the early stages of learning.