A role for “air writing” in second-language learners’ acquisition of Japanese in the age of the word processor

Abstract

Abstract This article addresses the pedagogical implications of kūsho ( ; literally “air writing”), that is, the spontaneous manual tracing of Sino-Japanese characters (kanji) in the air with a bare fingertip, by learners of Japanese. I describe the phenomenon of kūsho, then review research indicating that it is common (if under-recognized) during kanji learning and recall and, moreover, is associated with a small but statistically significant advantage over conventional paper-andpencil copying as a technique for memorizing the shapes of kanji. I propose that teachers of Japanese explicitly sanction kūsho and encourage students to selfconsciously incorporate it into their repertoire of techniques for memorizing or recalling kanji. The issue is particularly salient in the context of the ongoing cultural shift away from writing by hand to computerized word processing, which in this generation is reshaping the psycholinguistics of literacy in Japanese. Practice of kūsho may secure a kinesthetic basis for facility with kanji among learners for whom keyboard-based typing is rapidly displacing manual writing.