Japanese Language Educators' Strategies for and Attitudes toward Teaching Kanji

Author(s): Hideko Shimizu and Kathy E. Green

Source: The Modern Language Journal , Summer, 2002, Vol. 86, No. 2 (Summer, 2002),
pp. 227-241
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the National Federation of Modern Language Teachers
Associations

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1192923

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 Japanese Language Educators'
Strategies for and Attitudes toward
Teaching Kanji
HIDEKO SHIMIZU KATHY E. GREEN
University of Colorado at Boulder University of Denver
East Asian Languages and Civilizations College of Education
Boulder, CO 80309-0279 Denver CO 80208-0001

Email: Shimizu@colorado.edu Email. Kgreen@du

The attitudes of 251 second language teachers toward kanji and th

strategies for teaching kanji were explored in this study. Principal
in the identification of 6 statistically reliable domains representing
teaching kanji (cultural tradition, difficulty of kanji, affective orien
of kanji, and expectation for the future of kanji) and 3 instruc
memory, and rote learning). Descriptive statistics revealed that th
toward the "usefulness of kanji" and that the most common inst
learning." Canonical correlation revealed a statistically significant
tude variables-affective orientation, usefulness of kanji, and cultu
tional strategies-memory and context strategies. The results show
attitudes toward teaching kanji and teaching strategies were mu
and (b) teachers who appreciated the cultural tradition in kanji an
to have a more positive affect and were more likely to utilize mem
for teaching kanji, although rote learning strategies were the mo
ers.

RECENT YEARS HAVE SEEN AN INCREASED that these beliefs about language learning have
interest in learners' beliefs about the nature of the potential either to facilitate or to hinder lan-
language learning. This interest stems fromguage
a learning.
need to understand individual differences among
Teacher attitudes toward teaching and learn-
language learners (Banya & Cheng, 1997; Hor-ing are critical in determining what types of
witz, 1985, 1987, 1988; Kern, 1995). Horwitz
strategies are used for teaching foreign and sec-
(1988) studied university students learning Ger-
ond languages (FL, L2). Banya and Cheng
man, French, and Spanish and developed the
(1997) compared Chinese and American teach-
Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory
ers' beliefs about FL learning using the BALLI,
(BALLI) in order to assess their beliefs about and Kern (1995) conducted a study of student
language learning and teaching. Researchers and teacher beliefs about language learning. The
have also investigated learners' beliefs about findings of both studies suggested that teacher
learning kanji (e.g., Okita, 1997) and the rela- attitudes toward teaching a target language may
tionship between their beliefs about language be critical in determining what types of teaching
learning and the process of learning kanji (Mori, strategies will be used. It was also speculated that
1999). These researchers concluded that stu-
a teacher's choice of instructional strategies may
dents have definite preconceived notions of how
influence student learning strategies. Teacher at-
to learn a language when they come to class and
titudes might also be particularly important in
learning the writing system of a FL or L2 that
The Modern Language Journal, 86, ii, (2002) differs in very significant ways from that of the
0026-7902/02/227-241 $1.50/0
native language. In these situations, a teacher's
02002 The Modern Language Journal
influence can be crucial. Logographic orthogra-

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 228 The Modern Language Journal 86 (2002)
ment ofkanji
phies such as the Japanese an instrument
andto assess the instructional
Modern
Standard Chinese are quite strategies
distinct that teachers
from used to teach kanji.
Western
language orthographies andInso the provide
broadest sense, an
the issues
impor-that most di-
tant frame of reference to rectly influencethe
which individualized
alphabeticattitudes toward
orthographies used by most other
kanji include: language
(a) the nature of kanji as orthogra-
groups can be compared. phy, (b) kanji education from historical and po-
As numerous approachesliticalto perspectives,
teaching FLs and
(c) cultural and traditional
L2s have developed, it has value in kanji, (d)
become motivation to learn kanji,
increasingly
important to understand how the
(e) kanji beliefs
processing from aand atti-
psycholinguistic per-
tudes of individual language
spective,teachers toward
and (f) affective orientationatoward
target language shape thekanji.teachers' choice
These issues are and
briefly summarized below.
implementation of instructional strategies
Is the writing system, kanji, anin the
obstacle for FL or
classroom. This knowledge L2 is important
students learningJapanese? because
It is commonly be-
the particular style of language instruction
lieved that kanji is more difficultused for American
studentsimpact
by a teacher may significantly to learn thanthethe writing
choices systems of
that students make in theirFrench,efforts to develop
German, and Spanish, which have a com-
effective learning strategies. Teachers'
mon, single attitudes
written alphabet. Tollini (1994) pro-
and instructional strategies
posedmaythat thebe particularly
difficulty in learning kanji comes
salient to student achievement when the learners from the fact that an ideographic writing system,
must confront ideographic writing systems out- in general, is not a common means of expression
side the experience of Westerners. in Western cultures. He claimed that it is difficult
The goal of the current study was to develop fora students to shift their decoding process from a
measure of teachers' attitudes toward kanji andsequential, linear, serial, and unidimensional al-
their approaches to teaching kanji within the con-
phabet to a global, parallel, multidimensional,
text of Japanese language education in theand complex system like kanji. Kanji is a logo-
United States. This study explored the dimen-graphic orthography in which each character cor-
sions of FL teachers' attitudes toward teaching responds to a morpheme, a unit that has some
kanji and their choice of instructional strategies
meaning (Just & Carpenter, 1987). This use of
and how attitudes toward teaching kanji related morphemes rather than phonemes represents a
to the choice of instructional strategies. significant departure from the language decoding
experience of most Westerners. Halpern (1982)
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK claimed that the difficulty also relates to the neces-
sity of learning multiple readings of each kanji and
Attitudes toward Kanji of knowing that each kanji represents many mean-
ings when compounded, because the crucial func-
The BALLI, developed by Horwitz (1988), tionas-
of kanji as ideograph characters is to convey
sesses the difficulty and nature of language learn- For these reasons, the difficulty of learn-
meaning.
ing, FL aptitude, and learning and communica-
ing kanji was conceptualized as a dimension of
tion strategies. The development of the attitude
BALLI toward teaching kanji.
marked the beginning of systematic research into
Just and Carpenter (1987) stated that the mem-
student beliefs about language learning. There is, required to learn kanji is so great that
ory burden
however, an almost complete absence of research
one might wonder whyJapanese society continues
in the current literature that deals directly with
to use it, given that the Japanese have developed
the impact of personal beliefs and attitudes of FL where one single character roughly cor-
syllabaries
and L2 teachers on Japanese language instruc-
responds to one spoken syllable or kana. Indeed,
tion. As a result, instruments have not been devel-
some opponents of kanji argue that it is an ineffi-
oped that specifically intend to gauge the atti-
cient and difficult writing system and that Roman
tudes ofJapanese language instructors toward the
characters or the syllabic orthography (kana)
inclusion and teaching of kanji as part of the Japa-
should replace it. Therefore, views about its future
nese language curriculum. In the currentwerestudy,
proposed in order to construct a framework
the BALLI served as a model for constructing di-
of attitudes toward kanji. However, because some
mensions for the development of an instrument
advocates of kanji emphasize its importance in cul-
to assess the attitudes of teachers toward kanji. In
tural tradition, the cultural value of kanji was also
combination with the BALLI, the Strategyseen Inven-
in this study as one facet contributing to atti-
tory for Language and Learning (SILL; Oxford,
tudes toward teaching it.
1990) was also used as a template for the develop-
As Just and Carpenter (1987) explained, the

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 Hideko Shimizu and Kathy E. Green 229
relationship between orthography
an innate aptitude and culture
for language learning? is
Some
another important factorstudies
in have
grasping the nature
investigated underlying attitudes to-
of kanji. Alphabets are highly abstract
ward the possible writing
existence of specialized abilities
systems. In exploring the evolution of and
for language learning writing
beliefs about sys-
the char-
tems, one finds significant variety.
acteristics Haarmann
of successful language learners (Banya
(1990) proposed that the &
microstructure of the
Cheng, 1997; Horwitz, 1988). Horwitz adminis-
linguistic sign must be linked
tered to its to
the BALLI cultural setting
80 students studying German,
because the conceptualization
French,ofand reality is relative
Spanish, and found that 45% to 55%
to culture. She claimed that the iconic inventory
of all groups agreed with the statement "Some
of pictographs and an ideographic
people are born withwriting
a special ability was
to learn a
culturally specific. For example, the
foreign language." Banya ideographs
and Cheng compared
Chinesefemale
for the concept of male and teachers' and in
American
the teachers'
Egyp- beliefs
tian, Mycenaean-Cretan, about
and Chinese
FL learning. language
They reported that Chinese
systems are different because
teachers they
were more represent
likely than American dif-
instruc-
ferent cultural systems. Intors
traditional education
to believe in innate in
language aptitude and
China and Japan, teachers thatdo not
they were explain
likely the
to view females as-
as better lan-
sociations between the modern written
guage learners than males.characters
Related to their find-
and the more basic original
ings withforms, which
regard to the beliefs are
about gender differ-
clearly related to their society's culture.
ence in learning language, studies Haar-
by Scarcella
mann's view about the relationship
and Zimmerman (1998) between
also pointed to aor-gender-
thography and culture was basedproposed as one
dichotomy in language possi-
proficiency but
ble framework reflecting cultural
found that maletradition.
scores on L2 vocabulary tests
The theories of Gardner and
were Lambert
significantly higher than(1972)
female scores.
that speak of motivation There
were are noused
reports into construct
the current literature that
another dimension of attitude.
address the They
attitudes ofclaimed that
Japanese language teach-
motivation is a constructerscomposed of
toward the existence of different
innate aptitudes for
attitudes, which can be classified
learning kanji.as
The either
closest work instru-
in this area are
mental or integrative. An instrumental
studies motiva-
by Flaherty and Connolly (1995, 1996)
tion refers to the learner's desire
that support to acquire
a correlation a
between visuo-spatial
language as a means to ability
an and instrumental
the ability to read and write goal,
kanji. More
such as furthering a career recentor workreading
by Matsunaga and technical
Crosby (1997),
materials or novels. An integrative however, seems to motivation
refute this correlation.re-
Regard-
fers to the desire of theless language
of whether or notlearners to ex-
such aptitudes actually
integrate themselves into ist, theit is culture and
still possible that society.
language teachers' beliefs
Perceptions of instrumental in innatemotivation,
language abilities maythat is,
have an impact
the practical value of kanji, both on were
the mannerproposed
in which they teachto and on
construct items for another dimension of atti-
the way students subsequently learn Japanese.
tudes toward teaching kanji. This issue was also addressed as one of the dimen-
Aside from motivational factors, Schumann sions of attitude in the current study.
(1991) stated that affective orientation could
either enhance or inhibit a learner's acquisition Instructional Strategies
of a L2. His research on the existence of neural
mechanisms has made it possible to evaluate the This study also investigated from the perspec-
affective content of a L2 situation and may shed tives of psycholinguistics and cognitive psychology
light on the understanding of affective orienta- the types of instructional strategies that teachers
tion as it relates to teaching and learning kanji. used to teach kanji. According to psycholinguis-
In Schumann's research (1994), the role played tics, there are three aspects of informational pro-
in learning by one part of the brain, the amyg- cesses involved in processing kanji: orthography
dala, was investigated, and as a result it was pro-
(grapheme), phonology, and semantics. Recent
posed that the amygdala assigns a positive or psycholinguistic studies in Japanese (Flores d'Ar-
negative significance to incoming stimuli by com- cais, Saito, & Kawakami, 1995; Wydell, Patterson,
paring the new sensory input to previously stored & Humphreys, 1993) and in Chinese (Perfetti &
information (Schumann, 1991, 1994). The issue Zhang, 1995; Tan, Hoosain, & Peng, 1995) have
of affective orientation was considered to be a indicated that all of these types of information
facet forming attitudes toward kanji. seem to be involved in word identification.
Do language teachers believe in the concept of Whereas studies in word identification suggest

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230 The Modern Language Journal 86 (2002)

that phonological activation,3. as

Whata is the relationship
means of access-between attitud
ing meaning, seems to be a toward teachingfeature
universal kanji and the
ininstructor's
all pref
orthographies, some researchers
ence in teachingbelieve that
strategies for kanji instructio
reading kanji involves access to word meanings
Participants
without the use of a phonological process (Bar-
ron, 1978; Coltheart, 1978; Nakagawa 1994; Tan,
The population for this study consisted of 1,104
Hoosain, & Peng, 1995). There are three reasons
teachers of the Japanese language who were mem-
for this belief: (a) The meaning of kanji is evident
bers of the Association of Teachers ofJapanese in
in its pictographic representation of a concept,
North America in 1998. Surveys were mailed to
(b) the appropriate pronunciation of kanji is very
508 of the 1,104 members. A total of 251 surveys
word-specific, and (c) kanji cannot be broken
were returned for a response rate of 50%. Out of
down into phonemes in the same way that an al-
these 251 respondents, 194 identified themselves
phabetic word can be broken down. The conven-
as female, 52 as male, and 5 did not indicate their
tional strategies used for teaching and learning
kanji are categorized as genders.
rote, Tablescontextual,
1 and 2 describe the characteris-
and
tics of the survey respondents. Skewness and kur-
mnemonic or memory. Rote writing and drills
tosis are presented inin
used to be conventional strategies Table Japan
2 to assist in under-
and
still seem to be widely used in teaching kanji. Skewness
standing the shape of the distributions. Con-
textual strategies have beenand kurtosis in a perfectly normalbecause
emphasized distribution are
the reading and meaning of exactly 0.0. Valuescompounds
kanji between -1.0 and +1.0 yieldare
distributions that are
often highly context dependent. roughly normal, as isde-
Mnemonic the
case for age. The
vices have more recently been introduced due todistribution for years of teaching
is more peaked than a normal distribution, and
the influence of cognitive psychology. Metacogni-
teachers
tive learning strategies were pile up at the lower
proposed as end (fewer years in
differing
dimensions of instructional teaching) with a long right They
strategies. tail (some teachers
em-
with many
phasize the decisions of how andyears in teaching). to teach
when
students how to integrate strategies for learning
Instrument Development
kanji, how to organize kanji systematically, and
how to monitor their own learning in an organ-
The current study employed a four-phase hy-
ized manner.
brid design that combined qualitative and quanti-
The issue regarding the difficulty of kanji and
tative approaches to instrument development. In
instructional strategies for it was interpreted from
a psycholinguistic perspective (Higbee, 1996; Just
& Carpenter, 1987; Mori & Nagy, 1999; Oxford, TABLE 1
1990; Thomas & Wang, 1996; Wang & Thomas, Survey Respondents
1992). The future of kanji, cultural tradition, and
motivation were investigated with reference to Category Number Percent
theories of sociology, sociolinguistics, and social
Gender N= 245
psychology (Gardner, & Lambert, 1972; Gottlieb, Male 52 21.1%
1995; Haarmann, 1990). It was assumed that indi-Female 194 78.9%
Cultural Background N= 249
viduals do not have a simple attitude toward kanji
but that several issues would be interwoven and Japanese Culture 210 84.3%
integrated into an individual's beliefs and atti-American Culture 31 12.4%
Chinese Culture 3 1.2%
tudes toward kanji.
Other 5 2.0%
THE STUDY Education in Japan N= 219
Elementary 3 1.4%
Middle School 2 0.9%
Research Questions
High School 16 7.3%
The three major questions that served toCollege
focus 169 77.2%
this study were as follows. Master's Degree 24 11.0%
Ph.D. 5 2.3%
Education
1. What are the factors underlying attitudes ofin United States N = 251
Japanese language educators in the UnitedUnknown
States 24 9.6%
toward teaching and learning kanji? College 6 2.4%
Master's
2. What learning strategies do educators em- Degree 128 51.0%
Ph.D. 93 37.0%
ploy for kanji instruction?

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 Hideko Shimizu and Kathy E. Green 231
TABLE 2

Summary Statistics of Respondents' Ages and Teaching Experience in the United States

Parameter N M SD Skewness Kurtosis

Age 224 41.00 10.00 .59 -.39

Years Teaching in United States 240 10.00 7.00 1.54 3.01

Phase 1, in-depth interviews with 5 Japanese

Administration lan-
of the Survey
guage scholars were conducted, during which is-
In February 1999,
sues in teaching kanji from educational, the survey was sent to 508
sociolin-
guistic, and psycholinguistic perspectives werelanguage instructors
randomly selected Japanese
identified. The scholars were selected on the basis who represented approximately 50% of all Japa-
of their recognized expertise in Japanese lan-nese language instructors in North America. In
guage education, multicultural education, andorder to increase the response rate, a tea bag and
kanji education. There were five initial facets ad- a self-addressed stamped envelope were enclosed
dressed in the writing of questionnaire items that
in each envelope. Enclosure of a self-addressed
would be used to assess attitudes toward kanji: stamped envelope is standard survey practice and
(a) the difficulty of kanji, (b) aptitude for learn-enclosure of token incentives (the tea bag) has
been shown to increase the response rate (Yam-
ing kanji, (c) the usefulness of learning kanji,
marino, Skinner, & Childers, 1991). A letter of
(d) affective orientation, and (e) the future of
kanji. Four initial constructs for instructional transmittal was sent along with the survey. The
surveys were returned by mail. One month after
strategies were: (a) context, (b) mnemonic strate-
the questionnaires were sent, 130 questionnaires
gies, (c) rote learning strategies, and (d) metacog-
(25% of responses) had been returned. Another
nitive strategies. These facets were identified
questionnaire was sent to nonrespondents, and
through a review and thematic synthesis of inter-
within another month a total of 251 (51% of
view notes. Initially, a total of 53 attitude and in-
responses) had been returned. For data analysis,
structional strategy items were written. In Phase 2,
the sample size was 251, which is normally consid-
a panel of experts in Japanese language educa-
ered to be between fair and good (Comrey & Lee,
tion, psycholinguistics, multicultural education,
1992).
classicalJapanese literature, and psychometrics re-
viewed the draft survey instrument for content va-
lidity. The experts decided that all 53 items were
Analyses
relevant, and thus all were included in the pilot
study. The experts were also asked if anything wasSurvey data were quantitatively analyzed using
missing. As a result, some additional items were in-
the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences
cluded. In Phase 3, a pilot study was conducted in
(SPSS Inc. version 9.0). Principal components
which 14 Japanese language instructors in the analysis (PCA) was used to determine the struc-
United States completed the survey. The data were
ture underlying the attitude domains and the
submitted to internal consistency reliability analy-
strategies employed for kanji instruction. PCA
sis. As a result, the number of survey items was re-
generates weighted sums of variables (items) to
duced to 48 items. Some items were deleted, some form coherent subsets (i.e., components or fac-
items were revised, and some new items were tors) that are independent of one another (Ta-
added to improve the internal consistency reliabil- bachnick & Fidell, 1996). The weights are chosen
ity. Two new construct domains were established, in order to create components that maximally
"cultural tradition," which measures attitudes to- explain variable intercorrelations and that are
ward teaching kanji, and "metacognitive strategy," themselves uncorrelated. The subsets of items
which is a strategy domain. The survey instrument identified function as units and are statistically
used 6-point subscales where 1 indicated strong distinct from other subsets of items. Thus, PCA
disagreement and 6 indicated strong agreement makes it possible to elucidate better the funda-
with a given statement. In Phase 4, a survey con- mental trait underlying item intercorrelation.
taining attitude and teaching strategies items and The purpose of using PCA in this study was to
demographic questions was mailed to a random reduce the large number of variables (items in
sample of the Japanese language instructors. Re- the attitude set and items in the strategy set) to a
sults of this phase are reported in detail below. smaller number of subsets, each subset defined

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 232 The Modern Language Journal 86 (2002)

by a common trait. Once factors tive language

were is based on an alphabetic writing
identified,
the relationship between attitude system. variables and
strategy variables was investigated Six items loaded on "affective orientation."
by correlation
analyses and canonical correlation The construct of affective orientation
analysis. Pear- focused on
son correlation coefficientsthe were first
identification computed
of favorable attitudes of respon-
with the aim of investigating dentsall toward the teaching
possible and learning of kanji.
relation-
ships between the attitude and In recording the responses
strategy to individual items, it
variables
identified by PCA. Then a was necessary to reverse
canonical score the negative stem
correlation
analysis was used to assess the statements of two items: linkage
potential "Students do not like
between attitudes as one set of variables and learning to write kanji" and "Students dislike
strategies as the other. Canonical correlation learning to read kanji" (i.e., 6 = 1; 5 = 2; 4 = 3;
identifies relationships between two composite 3 = 4; 2 = 5; 1 = 6) prior to the analysis. Teachers
variables, each of which is a weighted sum seemof toa enjoy teaching kanji (M = 4.35). It was
specific set of variables. The sets of variables interesting
here to note that in spite of the perceived
were attitudes toward kanji and preferences for
difficulty of learning kanji, respondents showed
instructional strategy. The weights are chosen strong to agreement with the view that learning to
maximize the correlation between the two sets of read and write kanji can be fun for students if a
variables. This statistical test makes it possiblevariety
to of teaching methods is used (M = 5.15).
assess the interrelationships that exist between This a finding suggests a potential interest in new
multitude of individual variables. In the current instructional approaches for kanji education.
study, attitudes and instructional strategies com- Four items loaded on "aptitudes." The aptitude
prised two broad sets of variables. construct addresses the issue of instructor beliefs
about the extent to which a student's intrinsic

Results abilities may account for his or her success in

learning kanji. This construct has two dimen-
Attitudes toward Kanji. Six domains of underly-sions: (a) beliefs about the specialized abilities
ing attitudes toward teaching kanji were identi- that enable students to be successful at learning
fied by PCA as accounting for most of the vari- kanji, and (b) beliefs about the existence of spe-
ance in the item correlation matrix (Table 3). cialized abilities that are innate characteristics of
Items with loadings less than .45 were not in- successful learners of kanji. The results indicated
cluded in the component interpretation and that the respondents tended not to believe in in-
cross-loading items were eliminated. Item scores nate aptitude. The results of PCA showed that two
in each subset were averaged to create a total items, "Learning kanji is easier for students who
mean score for the subset. The labels and inter- use Chinese characters in their native language"
nal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha(M [a])
= 5.16), and "Some students have a particular
of each of the resulting subscales were: culturalaptitude for learning kanji" (M = 5.22), did not
tradition, N = 6 items (a = .85); difficulty loadof on aptitudes. The respondents tended to dis-
kanji, N= 4 items (a = .81); affective orientation,
agree that a student's intrinsic abilities (music and
N = 6 items (a = .72); aptitudes, N = 4 items (a
drawing) may account for his or her success in
= .70); the future of kanji, N = 3 items (a =learning
.59), kanji and also disagreed that women are
and the utility of kanji, N = 4 items (a = .63). better than men at learning kanji.
Loadings of variables on components, and Three items loaded on "expectation of the fu-
Cronbach's alpha estimates for each subsetture are of kanji." These items were generated from
shown in Table 3. Internal consistency was expressed
esti- beliefs about the evolution of writing
mated separately for each subset of items. systems (Cleator, 1959; Gaur, 1984; Gelb, 1963;
Six items loaded on "cultural tradition." KanjiYamada, 1987), especially the belief in the con-
and culture are believed by many scholars to cept beof historical language change that shows that
intimately linked in that the worldviews ofsome Eastlogographic systems have eventually tended
Asian cultures and their ancestors are embedded to evolve into new forms. Attitudes toward the
in the elements of individual kanji. future of kanji addressed the issue of whether
Four items loaded on "difficulty of learning kanji will be replaced by a phonetic-based orthog-
raphy. This question has been a source of debate
kanji." The underlying construct of difficulty re-
flected the view of many teachers that students among scholars, some of whom advocate the con-
tinued use of kanji and some of whom favor a
struggle in their pursuit of kanji proficiency be-
cause kanji are difficult to read, write, and learn
shift to a simple system of writing. If instructors
in general-particularly when the students' na- felt that kanji were "on its way out," there might

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 Hideko Shimizu and Kathy E. Green 233
TABLE 3

Attitudes toward Teaching Kanji: Subscales

Statement Loading Mean

Fl Cultural Tradition (a = .85)

Studying the origin of core helps students understand ancient Chinese culture. .82 3.79
Learning kanji helps students understand Japanese culture more deeply. .74 4.39
Learning the origin of kanji is important to understand Japanese culture. .75 4.07
Analysis of separate components of kanji helps students to learn East Asian culture. .74 3.81
Learning kanji is important for students to preserve Japanese culture. .72 3.91
Students learn a non-Western cultural perspective by studying kanji. .71 4.44

F2 Difficulty of Kanji (a = .81)

It is difficult to learn kanji. .84 4.51
I believe that reading kanji is difficult. .74 4.31
Kanji is difficult for students who use alphabetic characters in their language. .74 4.60
It is not easy to write kanji. .73 4.76

F3 Affective Orientation (a = .72)

Students do not like learning to write kanji. .67 3.67

Students dislike learning to read kanji. .65 4.08
Teaching kanji is fun for students. .63 3.87
Teaching students how to write and read kanji is fun for me. .58 4.34
I enjoy teaching kanji. .54 4.35
Learning to read and write kanji ca
are used.

F4 Aptitudes (a = .70)
Women are better than men at learning reading and writing kanji. .83 2.36
People who are good at drawing are good at learning to write kanji. .81 3.40
People who are good at spatial perception are good at learning to read and write kanji. .69 3.70
The ability to read music is likely to facilitate the learning of how to read kanji. .45 2

F5 Future of Kanji (a = .59)

I think that only Roman characters will be employed as writing system in the future. .94 1.28
I think that kanji will be wholly abandoned and that a phonetic system of writing will be .94
adopted in Japan in the future.
I think that kanji will be simplified in the future. .45 2.75

F6 Usefulness (a = .63)

Kanji is just another type of vocabulary. .67 4.16

Learning kanji is mainly a matter of learning a lot of vocabulary words. .67 3.67
Kanji is one of the important components that make up vocabulary. .58 5.01
Learning to read kanji helps students read newspapers and novels inJapanese. .51 5.80
Note. 1 = strongly disagree, 6 = strongly agree;, a = Cronbach's alpha.

be serious implications for their motivation ity"

to in these items addressed to what extent the
teach kanji as part of the Japanese language cur-
respondents perceived the teaching and learning
riculum. The survey respondents, however, of kanji as pragmatic and thus as a source of in-
strongly disagreed with the suggestion that the
strumental motivation in language learning. The
use of the kanji would be discontinued. teachers strongly agreed on the practical utility of
Four items loaded on "usefulness." The items learning to read kanji with respect to being able to
were conceptualized as instrumental motivationunderstand Japanese newspapers, novels, and
(Gardner & Lambert, 1972). The concept of "util-
technical documents. Given this recognized prac-

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 234 The Modern Language Journal 86 (2002)
tical utility, it would be reasonable cognitive strategyto as an indirect strategy.
expect in- In the
strumental motivation to current play study, however, there was
an important no statistical
role
in kanji instruction. support for the independence of these strategies.
Accordingly, the two domains were combined
Instructional Strategies. The into aconceptualization
single strategy which was labeled
of as "mem-
strategy items drew upon the ory strategy"
SILL (M = 4.37).
(Oxford, 1990)
as well as the interviews in Phase 1 and the results Three items loaded on a component entitled
from Phases 1 through 3. PCA with varimax rota- "context strategy." Under context-based strate-
tion was again used in order to analyze the data.gies, word meanings are recognized as being more
The responses to 14 items were grouped into three diversified and context-dependent than the sim-
factors: (a) mnemonic or memory strategy, plistic lists presented in many textbooks. Thus,
(b) context strategy, and (c) rote learning strat-learning is promoted by introducing authentic
egy. Loadings of variables on components and materials that teach students to infer meaning
Cronbach's alpha estimates are displayed in Table from context-specific cues.
4. Item scores in each subset were averaged to Three items loaded on "rote learning strategy."
create a mean total score.
The items were conceptualized as strategies em-
Eight items were grouped together under phasizing repetition, drill, and practice.
"memory strategy." The underlying core concept Among the more important findings evident in
of a meaningful memory strategy for teaching the descriptive statistics for the 6-point subscale
kanji is to link new learning to knowledge of responses was an indication of what survey par-
previously learned kanji. ticipants believed to be more (or less) important
Oxford (1990) reported that mnemonic and with respect to attitudes toward teaching kanji
metacognitive learning strategies constituted in- (Table 5). The respondents strongly agreed that
dependent domains. In that study, she defined a has practical utility (M = 4.67); they also felt
kanji
mnemonic strategy as a direct strategy and a meta- that it is difficult to learn (M = 4.29). By contrast,

TABLE 4

Three Factors Underlying Strategy Items

Statement Loading Mean

Fl Memory Strategy (a = .86)

I teach students how to use etymology to learn kanji. .84 3.96

I use etymological explanations to teach kanji. .83 3.96
When I introduce a new kanji, students are encouraged to create
the new kanji and pictographs (such as mountains).
I teach students learning strategies for kanji. .65 4.35
I encourage students to focus on associations between kanji an
I teach how to use radicals to learn kanji. .60 4.59
I link new kanji with previously learned kanji. .51 5.10
When I introduce a new kanji, I try to create associations between th
or kana which I have already taught.

F2 Context (a = .70)

I teach kanji by having students read signs and other written mater
to daily life situations in Japan (e.g., at a restaurant).
I teach kanji by showing authentic materials (e.g., advertisements). .81 3.50
I instruct students in multiple strategies for determining the meaning of kanji based on .54 4
such cues as character elements or word context.

F3 Rote Learning Strategy (a = .65)

I frequently give quizzes on kanji. .76 4.79
I assign students repeated writing of each kanji. .74 4.32
I often assign students practice drills to learn kanji. .60 4.23
Note: 1 = strongly disagree ; 6 = strongly agree, a = Cronbach's alpha.

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 Hideko Shimizu and Kathy E. Green 235
TABLE 5
Mean, Standard Deviation, Skewness, and Kurtosis of Subscales

Variables N M SD Skewness Kurtosis

Attitudes

Difficulty of Kanji 251 4.29 0.88 -0.69 0.28

Culture 251 4.07 0.95 -0.50 0.26
Aptitude 233 3.06 0.95 0.12 0.14
Usefulness 251 4.67 0.76 -0.77 1.74
Affective 250 4.24 0.71 -0.07 0.02
Future of Kanji 251 1.76 0.69 1.14 1.81
Strategies
Context 249 3.86 1.10 -0.30 -0.43
Memory 251 4.37 0.88 -0.49 0.00
Rote Learning 249 4.45 1.04 -0.75 0.61

opinions on the role of aptitude

kanji and the in three
learning k
item
were mixed (M = 3.06), and there
structional was str
strategies we
disagreement with putation
the suggestion
of simple that
corr k
relations
would be replaced by a phonetic among
writing the sub
system
the future (M = 1.76). These correlation coeff
As important as attitudes
Table 6. toward teachi
kanji are, so is the choice ofmatrix
The correlation instructional
presents several signifi- st
egy. Three classes ofcant
instructional strategy
relationships between individual variables.
strategies based on memory,
"Difficulty of kanji" context, and r
had a positive correlation
with "usefulness"
learning) were identified. The(r descriptive
= .44, p < .01), and wasst
tics showed that respondents reported
negatively correlated with usin
"affective orientation"
rote learning strategy(r =more often
-.19, p < .01). than
In other words, any o
the teachers
strategy (M = 4.45). The
who tendedmemory strategy
to agree that learning kanji is diffi- c
next (M = 4.37). Thecult"context
tended to agree thatstrategy" me
learning kanji is useful.
At the same time, however,
was used by survey respondents toteachers
a lesserwho tendedext
(M = 3.87) than the toother methods.
agree that learning kanji is difficult also tended
to have negative feelings toward kanji.
Relationship between "Cultural
Attitudes tradition" wastoward
correlated with aTeach
Kanji and Instructional Strategy.
number Once
of attitude variables and two factors
strategies.
volved in attitudes and
This in the
finding choiceas of
was interpreted strate
supporting the
view that an awareness of cultural
were identified, the relationships tradition in
between the
item subsets relating kanji
to was attitudes toward
associated with more teach
positive feelings

TABLE 6

Correlation among Attitudes and Strategy Variables

DIF CUL APT USE AFF FUT CON MEM ROT

DIF 1.00
CUL .12 1.00
APT .12 **.29 1.00
USE **.44 **.33 .13 1.00
AFF **-.19 **.29 .10 .04 1.00
FUT .50 .06 .10 -.06 -.05 1.00
CON -.05 *0.14 *.14 .05 **.22 *.14 1.00
MEM .07 **0.42 -.12 *.17 **.30 .70 **.50 1.00
ROT .04 0.10 -.07 *.13 .11 .04 **.28 **.34 1.00
Note: DIF = difficulty; CUL = culture; APT = aptitude
FUT = future; CON = context strategy, MEM = memor
* p < 0.05 (two-tailed). **p < 0.01 (two-tailed).

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 236 The Modern Language Journal 86 (2002)
TABLE 7
toward kanji (r = .29, p < .01), more agreement
Function and Structure Coefficients
about the usefulness of kanji (r = .33, p <.01),
and more agreement about the existenceFirst of apti-
Canonical Variate
tudes for learning kanji (r = .29, p < .01). One
Structure Function
interpretation of this finding is that the more
Coefficient Coefficient
teachers are aware of the relationship between
Attitude Setthey are to have
kanji and culture, the more likely
Difficulty
positive feeling about kanji education. -.20 -0.14
However,
Aptitude
they are also more likely to believe -.28 -0.01
that successful
Affective -.59 -0.36
kanji learners have an innate aptitude for learn-
Culture -.93 -0.76
ing kanji. One possible interpretation for this
Useful -.44 -0.11
finding is that teachers are likely to believe that
Future -.09 -0.08
culture in kanji is inherited and could be geneti-
Strategy Set
cally encoded in individuals as Context could the ability to
-.41 -0.09
learn kanji. Memory -1.00 -1.00
An awareness of "cultural tradition" in kanji Rote -.30 -0.03
was also correlated with the use of memory
strategies (r = .42, p < .01) and the context
strategy (r = .14, p < .05) for teaching kanji. A
positive affective orientation was correlated with strategy" and "co
the use of context (r = .22, p < .01) and memory first canonical vari
strategies (r = .30, p < .01) for teaching kanji. flected the same in
This finding suggests that teachers who tend to ficients. This cano
have a positive affective orientation toward teach- teachers who had
ing and learning kanji are likely to employ mem- ward kanji were lik
ory and context strategies. kanji is useful and
of the cultural val
Canonical Correlation between Attitudes toward who had a less po
Teaching Kanji and Instructional Strategy. In order to with a more posit
answer the first research question, PCA was used were also more lik
and six domains of attitude were identified result- dependent instru
ing in the creation of six subscales. The second teachers who had
research question asked what strategies are util- kanji tended to d
ized by teachers. PCA analysis resulted in identifi- kanji is useful, di
cation of three factors and the creation of three value in kanji, and
subscales. The third research question-"What is and context-based
the relationship between attitudes toward kanji were the teachers
and the instructor's preference in teaching strate-
gies for kanji instruction? "-was addressed using a
DISCUSSION
canonical correlation. Prior to use of this statistical
technique, subscales in the attitude set and the
Attitudes toward Kanji
strategy set were examined for normality, linearity
of relationship, and outliers in order to assure an The current study employed a mixed metho
appropriate analysis. These assumptions of ca- (i.e., qualitative/quantitative) design. This ap-
nonical correlation were reasonably well met. The proach had the advantage of providing a mor
purpose of this multivariate technique was to clar- holistic view of attitudes toward kanji. Throug
ify the complicated nature of independent rela- the use of in-depth interviews with Japanese lan
tionships existing among the five variables reflect- guage scholars specializing in kanji, it was poss
ing attitudes towards teaching kanji and the three ble to facilitate the subsequent use of quantitativ
strategies used for teaching kanji (Stevens, 1986). methods and ultimately achieve a better under
Results of the canonical analysis revealed that standing and interpretation of the results of t
only the first canonical correlation was significant study as a whole. The instrument developed fo
(F = 4.28, p < .01, R = .49). Among attitude this study represents the first instrument d
variables, "affective orientation," "cultural tradi- signed to measure attitudes toward teachin
tion," and "utility of kanji" had structure coeffi- kanji. The instrument showed acceptable conten
cients above .40. In the strategies set, "memory validity and internal consistency reliability. Th

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 Hideko Shimizu and Kathy E. Green 237

erature
discussion focuses on the on integrative
study motivation
results (Gardner
that are& in
line with theories of social
Lambert, psychology, psycholin-
1972) is informative in understanding
guistics, cognitive psychology,
this aspect of attitude.
and L2 acquisition.
The PCA identified six reliable dimensions that
accounted for most of the variance in the matrix Affective Orientation. As had been hypothesized,
of items used to measure attitudes toward teach- many teachers agreed that specific curricular and
ing and learning kanji. In order to develop the instructional approaches employed for kanji edu-
cation may affect the extent to which students
measure for the attitudes of teachers, in-depth
interviews with scholars in Japan and the United display a positive affect toward the experience of
States were conducted. The following is a further learning kanji. These findings are in line with the
discussion of each attitude subscale. views put forth by Schumann that a student's
affective orientation has the potential either to
Usefulness. The respondents strongly believe enhance or to inhibit subsequent acquisition of
that the role of kanji in the Japanese languagekanji.
is
very important and that the level of instrumental
motivation to learn kanji is also very important.Aptitudes. The often contradictory results of
One of the important and useful characteristics cognitive and neurological studies on word iden-
tification have left the issue of innate or gender-
of kanji is the productivity of the vocabulary (Hal-
pern, 1982). If students want to read written ma- specific aptitudes for learning kanji both contro-
versial
terials for a specific purpose, it is important for and inconclusive. Similarly, the beliefs of
them to build a knowledge of kanji because it is respondents with regard to aptitude in mastery
seemed to be more divided than had been ob-
the primary script used to read and write most
Japanese vocabulary. The concept for this sub- served for other subscales. In fact, the only trend
that was evident with regard to this issue was a
scale, therefore, is linked to instrumental motiva-
tion (Gardner & Lambert, 1972). tendency for many respondents to display nega-
tive attitudes toward the existence of a correla-
Difficulty of Kanji. Although the respondents tion between gender or drawing/musical apti-
tended to agree that learning kanji is difficult,
tudes and the learning of kanji. Collectively, these
writing kanji was seen as slightly more difficult
responses (or lack thereof) suggest that whereas
than reading it. A comprehensive understanding some people may not have given the issue much
of the construct, however, is difficult to obtain.
serious consideration, others may have felt that
The primary reason for this incomplete under-
the issue's many subtleties make it difficult for
standing may be the sheer complexity of the "dif-them to develop a firm opinion. Of course an
ficulty" construct, which becomes apparent when alternate, and even simpler, explanation is that
one takes into consideration the fact that there the teachers may have rejected the concept of
are many dimensions and personal perspectives "aptitude" because it may promote prejudicial be-
likely to have a bearing on the perception of what havior toward students who are seen as lacking
makes learning kanji difficult. This result raises the aptitude.
an important question: Will viewing kanji as "dif-
ficult" cause teachers to emphasize verbal profi- Future of Kanji. The responses to these items
ciency, which is independent of kanji, over read- displayed substantial positive skewness, indicating
ing and writing, which are dependent on kanji? that the respondents strongly disagreed with the
suggestion that the use of the kanji should be dis-
Culture. Haarmann's (1990) view that the con- continued or replaced with new phonetic writing
ceptualization of reality is embedded in the writ- systems. This result was surprising because there
ing system was supported by many teachers who has been a debate amongJapanese and American
agreed that there are associations between kanji scholars who advocate the continued use of kanji
and Ancient Chinese culture and its people. The and their opponents who favor a shift to an alter-
teachers agreed that decomposing kanji into native system of writing (Gottlieb, 1995).
smaller elements facilitates students' under-
standing of the relationships between kanji and Instructional Strategies
culture. It seems that if teachers believe these
statements, and if they use strategies in cognitive For this question, PCA of the data from our
psychology to teach kanji by telling etymological questionnaire identified three principal teaching
stories and "story mnemonics" (Higbee, 1996), strategies: rote, memory/mnemonic, and con-
their students may become more interested in text-based. It is surprising that the descriptive sta-
kanji and thus more motivated to learn. The lit- tistics showed that the respondents used rote

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 238 The Modern Language Journal 86 (2002)

ing a story
learning more than any other about the mnemonics
strategy. (These etymology
re- of a
sults should be interpretednew cautiously
kanji through component
given analysis
thatmay help
teachers' perceptions are not
studentsalways reflected
to process kanji by
in an in-depth manner. A
study conducted
actual behavior.) This finding can be by Flaherty and Noguchi (1998)
interpreted
on the "whole-kanji
to mean that the respondents believe method"
rote andlearn-
the "component
analysis
ing is very effective or that theymethod"usewas administered
the strategy to adult L2 and
FL learners; it demonstrated
because it is perceived as traditional. that the component
A discussion
of each strategy follows. analysis method promoted significantly improved
memory compared to the whole-kanji method.
Rote Learning Strategy. This strategy has long
Metacognitive strategy was not separable from
been popular and was supported by many teachers
mnemonic strategy in the present study. Metacog-
in the study. This result is surprising given that
most scholars believe that rote memorization
nitive strategies emphasize the decisions of how
and when to teach students how to integrate strate-
neither enhances nor facilitates meaningful learn-
gies for learning kanji, how to organize kanji sys-
ing (Heisig, 1986; Higbee, 1996). The popularity
tematically, and how to monitor their own learn-
of rote learning strategy among the teachers, how-
ing in an organized manner. Inclusion of the items
ever, is in line with the results of recent studies and
in the present survey using different wordings was
has prompted some researchers to revisit the value
useful for identifying constructs in the meta-
of this approach. A series of studies (Thomas &
cognitive strategy. The mean scores determined
Wang, 1996; Wang & Thomas, 1992; Wang,
for each item in Table 4 indicated that teachers
Thomas, & Ouellette, 1992) has demonstrated
strongly agreed on the use of strategies that sought
that under the keyword condition mnemonic
to link learning new kanji with previously learned
learning fails to enhance the longer-term reten-
kanji (M = 5.10) and strategies that sought to
tion of Chinese characters, French, and Tagalog
associate previous kanji and kana and new kanji
vocabulary. Wang et al. argued that the keyword
(M = 5.00). This finding indicated that most
method in general is inferior to rote learning in
teachers use cognitive and metacognitive strate-
the longer-term retention of vocabulary. However,
gies in a systematic approach to teaching kanji.
Gruneberg (1998) counterargued that the key-
Many teachers also seemed to emphasize the view
word method in both short-term and long-term
that an understanding of radicals and kana was
vocabulary retention is highly advantageous com-
important in the process of learning more compli-
pared to rote learning if testing is provided imme-
cated kanji. However, teachers were less favorable
diately after the participants learn the vocabulary.
toward the use of etymology (M = 3.96) and the
Another possible explanation for the popularity of
use of associations between kanji and pictographs
rote learning strategies may be that native Japa-
(M = 3.85) as memory strategies. One possible
nese teachers tend to draw on their own experi-
reason for this attitude may be that the use of
ences when they teach students how to learn kanji,
pictographs and etymology would require a
and most of them learned kanji by using rote
greater effort and depth of understanding on the
methods. Further study will be necessary to learn
part of the instructor than other strategies in or-
how rote learning strategies function in and out of
der to convey to students an in-depth view of the
the classroom and whether they will prove to be
culture, history, and philosophy embedded within
superior to the keyword method.
the kanji being taught. Another possible reason is
Memory Strategy. The descriptive statistics show that teachers may believe that the majority of kanji
that "memory" strategies for teaching kanji re- are not pictographs. It appears that teachers pre-
ceived the second highest score. The important fer a direct visual association between kanji and
underlying concept for this strategy is that it is meaning, which may require less conceptual work
possible to make the learning of new kanji more by teachers and students than etymology.
meaningful if they are presented within the con-
text of a student's previous knowledge. Memory Context Strategy. Teaching inferential skills for
strategy often involves a component analysis determining the meaning of kanji is based on
method where the instructor breaks down the teaching students to look for cues to words in
kanji into simple components, attaches meaninginternal and external contexts. Teaching context
to those components, and presents a story to tiestrategies is important because there are many
the components together. The efficacy of this ap-
homophones in kanji and because the meaning
proach is based on theories in cognitive psychol-
of kanji compounds cannot always be inferred
ogy that suggest that the use of mnemonic devices
from knowledge of the basic meaning of the indi-
enhances human memory (Higbee, 1996). Tell- vidual kanji (Mori, 1998). Mori and Nagy (1999)

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Hideko Shimizu and Kathy E. Green 239

claimed that integration ofemphasize

who information
the from
import
kanji elements and surrounding context
kanji, who tend is
toa enjoy
strat- te
egy that facilitates student learning
believe of new like
that students kanji
k
meanings. Lawson and Hogben
use memory (1996) claimed
and context st
that students who study In Italian use cues
the analysis in sen-
of relationsh
examine
tences to generate possible meaningshow for
each thevariable
Ital-
ian words. They suggestedandthat
affective orientation)
it is necessary to
distinguish between the use of
needs context for
underlying gen-
motivatio
eration of the meaning offora the
newexamination
word and the of use
thes
of context for acquisition of the meaning
underlying for of
construct sub-cul
sequent recall. Whether onthis suggestion
integrative will be
motivation,
applicable to context strategies
bert and for teaching
Gardner kanji In
(1972).
is a question that remains to be answered.
focusing on students' In the
mot
present study, two types of context
guage, states thatstrategies
students
seemed to be used for teaching
culture and kanji. One strat-
people of the
egy included using internal and external
construct features
of usefulness of k
of kanji to acquire the meaning
stood from the of kanji. The
perspective
other strategy was using authentic
vation. This materials
motivation as is
context. Table 4 shows desire
that teachers'
to learn repeated
a language
agreement with the use of to
tool authentic contexts t
get information,
(e.g., menu in a restaurant, advertisements)
college, or to obtain dif-
a jo
fers somewhat from thestated
use ofthatkanji affective
features.orien
hance or inhibit a learner's
information
Relationship between Attitudes processing theo
toward Teaching
information that may lead
Kanji and Instructional Strategy
motives and to purposeful
A significant negative correlation
Both memorybetween the
strategies a
difficulty of kanji and affective orientation
are based on makingwas mean
re-
vealed by the simple correlation. This relationship
tween existing and new
means that the teachers strategies
who believe thatstudy
in this teaching
are st
kanji is difficult tend to believe
are that in
arranged students do
order; asso
not enjoy learning kanji, and these
elaborated teachers
through are
imagery
not likely to enjoy teaching kanji either.
component This find-
patterns. Conte
ing could be interpreted defined
to mean as
that students in
strategies arew
willing to learn kanji andthrough
that they will find
multiple learn-
meaningf
ing kanji fun if their teachers believe
In toto, that of
analyses kanji
theisda
not difficult to learn and if they
tudes want
toward to interest
teaching and l
students in kanji. Another significant
plex. finding was
This complexity is co
that cultural tradition isvidualized
correlated clustering
with multiple
of pe
attitudes: aptitude, usefulness
Althoughof the
kanji, affective a
underlying
orientation, and memory ingstrategy.
kanji andA significant
the instructio
relationship between cultural tradition and
multidimensional andmem-
dynam
ory strategy could be interpreted as meaning
tivational factors that
are signifi
teachers who are aware of the cultural traditions
memory and context-based s
that are embedded in kanji are likely toassociation
on meaningful use mne-
monic devices and metacognitive strategies-in-
new knowledge and previou
cluding associating the encoding and
Because of decoding
the of
complexity
kanji with etymology, sound, mental images, and
teaching and learning kanji
elaboration-that make for
meaningful connections
future research is to ex
between kanji and culture.
sions and items for investi
Canonical correlation analysis made
following it possible
dimensions may a
to investigate how the ward
combinations
teaching of the kanji
kanji: six
attitudes related to the combinations of the three
tity, kanji as an ideograph
strategies. An interpretation
natureof
ofthe resulting
kanji. ca- to
Attitudes
nonical correlation is that teachers who are more
nology in kanji instructio
aware of cultural tradition associated
Other possiblewith kanji, f
directions

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 240 The Modern Language Journal 86 (2002)
clude addressing the relationship
Japanese between teach-
characters. (3rd ed.). Tokyo:Japan Publica-
ers' strategies in teaching kanjitions Trading
and Co. students'
Higbee, K. L. (1996). Your memory: How it works & how to
strategies in learning them. Discrepancies be-
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Horwitz, E. K. (1985). Using student beliefs about lan-
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guage learning and teaching in the foreign lan-
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18, 333-339.
Horwitz, E. K. (1987). Surveying student beliefs about
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