This book has offered a research-led examination of learners' challenges when acquiring the Japanese written language in second and foreign language learning contexts. In this examination, the book has drawn on key research in the field of applied linguistics and incorporated data from three original studies. These studies have focused on kanji learning strategies in particular, due to the special challenges the script poses for second language learners; however, there is scope for a much wider range of research projects drawing on theory in the fields of applied linguistics and learner psychology. This chapter aims to make recommendations for further research into the Japanese writing system so readers involved in research in the field can make informed decisions about the type of research that would be most valuable in the development of the field's understanding of how Japanese is better taught and learned.

Recommendations for Further Japanese SLA Research

(1) Kanji type and strategy use

A great deal of research into kanji learning (including those cited in this book) have paid very little attention to kanji type and the cognitive processes involved when memorizing different types of kanji. As we saw in Chapter 2, kanji can be classified into six categories according to how they represent language: shokeimoji (pictographs); shijimoji (logograms); kaiimoji (ideographs); keiseimoji (semasio-phonetic ideographs); tenchuumoji (derivative characters); and kashamoji (phonetic loan characters). An acknowledgement of kanji types challenges the basis of much research into Japanese SLA that depicts the writing system as a purely morphographic script based on morphemes and ignores the phonological aspects of many kanji that fall into the categories of kashamoji (phonetic loan characters) and keiseimoji (semasio-phonetic ideographs). As a result, current research in the area has not fully explored the different cognitive processes that come into play when learners encounter different kanji types. A study that examines the effectiveness of memory processes according to kanji type would shed light on how learners use both phonological and semantic processes when dealing with kanji. Some studies were done in the 1990s (e.g. Yamada, 1998; Sayeg, 1996), but there is scope to explore this issue in greater depth.