Article Title：Processing orthography and phonology in semantic decision tasks: Processing of Japanese kanji words by learners of Japanese as a second language
Abstract：
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of orthography and phonology in the comprehension of Japanese kanji words, by examining the interference of homophony and orthographic similarity. A semantic-decision task was performed by 12 native speakers of Japanese (average age 20.5 years), and by learners of Japanese who had either alpabetic (N=12, average age 26.8 years) or nonalphabetic (Korean, N=12, average age 26.4 years) orthography in their first language. The native speakers showed interference from homophones only when the targets were orthographically similar to the corresponding correct exemplars, indicating that both phonology and orthography contributed to their accessing kanji words. For the Korean learners of Japanese, however, the only interference found was from orthographic similarity, indicating that they relied on orthographic information more than phonological information in the recognition of kanji words. Moreover, for the learners of Japanese whose first language was alphabetic, interference was shown for both homophonic and orthographic similarity, indicating that they accessed meaning by mediating the phonology of the kanji words. These results suggest that the processing route of kanji words varies, depending on the language background of the reader.
Keywords: Japanese kanji words; semantic decision task; orthographic processing; phonological processing; learners of Japanese as a second language
DOI: 10.5926/jjep1953.50.4_412
Source：JAPANESE JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
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