Basic study of kanji recognition patterns in non-kanji-background Japanese learners based on eye-movement analysis

Abstract

Learning kanji is one of the greatest challenges that non-kanji-background Japanese learners face. Kanji have a complicated structure and are fundamentally different from the characters of the Latin alphabet. Recognising them can thus be difficult for learners from places whose writing systems do not include kanji. Studies on the fixation and eye movements observed in kanji recognition by such learners are therefore important to clarify the kanji-recognition and -learning process. The present study attempts to shed light on this subject by using an eye-tracker to study such eye movements.
 The analysis of the data obtained from the fixation and eye-movement experiments shows that students exhibit different kanji recognition patterns depending on how long they have been studying kanji: while students who have been studying kanji for a short time tend to look repeatedly at different parts of the kanji to grasp its shape and structure, those with more experience exhibit a pattern more similar to that of native Japanese speakers.