Development of Basic Japanese Kanji Multimedia-based Learning System

Abstract

Kanji is one of three Japanese writing characters, the others are katakana and hiragana. Most of students have difficulties in learning kanji because of the complexity rule and variety of remembering a large amount of characters . This is one of the main obstacles in learning Japanese language for nonnative speaker which is commonly caused losing in their motivation for learning. As a consequence, they preferred learning katakana and hiragana which is easier. There are no other methods besides remembering each character in learning kanji. Therefore, it is needed to find a solution or a method for at least easing the difficulties in learning and increasing their motivation in study. One of the solutions is by developing learning software for basic kanji in multimedia-based environment. The standard materials of basic kanji are based on Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) level 4 developed by The Japan Foundation Association of International Education – Japan. By using Computer Aided Instruction (CAI), student can learn anytime and anywhere using their PC or notebook. In developing this method through multimedia learning, we have to develop an instruction model. This model will teach students basic Japanese kanji by using picture, sounds, and animation through exercises. This model using drills process with one cycle each drills, and it will be grouped by three difficulty levels. Through this multimedia interactive software testing over one month, the result by six sample users (students) of UPBI gained total average 84.7 points with average increases knowledge of remembering characters up to 358% (approximately 52-53 characters), which is in other words 3.5 times improvement and reached up to 17.96% recognition knowledge of kanji after using this multimedia learning system. Based on the research result, this system has the ability to increase student recognition knowledge of basic kanji level 4.