Can Japanese Learners Pass the JLPT N3 by Reading A3! Visual Novel?

Amalia Putri,Dewi Kusrini,Nurul Zia Aida,Renindra Atsilah Putri,Tazkia Syifa Arrahmah

doi:10.15294/chie.v9i2.48534

Abstract

A visual novel is a reading media in the form of conversations between characters shown in a static anime style that attracts readers to continue reading it. Equipped with audio in Japanese and translation in English, it is estimated that visual novels can be used as an exciting learning media for students. This study aims to determine the possibility of visual novels, which are usually used as a game for entertainment purposes, as a medium for learning Japanese to pass the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test). The method used in this stusdy is a quantitative method to find the matching vocabularies, with a listening and note-taking method for data collection. The data analyzed here is a conversation transcript of some chapters of A3! visual novel and JLPT 2018 questions ranging from N5 to N3 level. The A3! visual novel data are grouped according to the JLPT's four linguistic aspects: Moji goi, bunpou, dokkai, and choukai, at each level (N5 to N3). The analysis results show that the visual novel A3! can be used as a strengthening medium for students to pass the JLPT from N5 to N3.

Highlights

Japanese is one of the most challenging languages to learn
Quantitative studies have been done to answer whether Japanese Learners may pass the JapaneseLanguage Proficiency Test (JLPT) N3 by reading A3! Visual Novel and the results reveal that the proportion of matching vocabulary is all under 50%
It can be concluded that the visual novel A3! cannot be strongly recommended as a learning medium to pass JLPT N4 and N3

Summary

Introduction

Japanese is one of the most challenging languages to learn. Japanese has three writing systems: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. Boredom has the highest score among those demotivation factors due to the Japanese language learning process that takes a long time (Yamashita, 2020) In this era of digital technology, there are many ways and methods to learn Japanese and a variety of material from which students can choose. The player might have the option to choose additional dialogue options, input text, or progress the story by clicking a prompt rather than the traditional " frame" control key This type does resemble a novel with visual aspects rather than a video game. The second category is the typical visual novel with a branching narrative in which the player is offered options that lead to one of the numerous endings These various branches are commonly referred to as "routes" or "storylines," terminology commonly used in roleplaying games. The appeal of these games lies in the replay value, as depending on the game, a different route can take the player on a path with slight or significant differences from the previous one

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