Developing a competency-based training tool to introduce word reading drills to novice learners

Abstract

There are two major goals in this study: (1) propose a novel use of technology for learning Japanese katakana that enables the use of early word reading drills for beginners to help them learn new characters through finishing the drills, and (2) evaluate the effects of introducing assisted word reading drills to beginners compared to character recognition drills. To achieve these goals, we designed and implemented a training tool for word reading skills that was built upon the framework of intelligent tutor systems and mastery learning. We evaluated this tool by comparing it with its character recognition counterpart via (1) 8 qualitative interviews with beginner learners and those who had never studied Japanese before, (2) a quantitative experiment where 57 participants were randomly assigned one of word-based version or character-based version and were asked to finish the pre-training and post-training surveys and quizzes, and (3) indirect observations of quantitative participants’ interactions with the tool. In the quantitative experiment, the two versions (word-based vs. character-based) were compared based on: participants’ change in self-efficacy, excitement towards the learning task, subjective perception of workload estimation, objective measurement of performance, and additional optional comments. Participants in the quantitative experiment, 77% of whom had never learned Japanese before, were able to practice with word-reading drills as their first step to learn katakana with approximately similar ratings in perceived workload and technology acceptance compared to the tool’s counterpart that targets character recognition. Qualitative interviews and indirect observations further revealed qualitative feedback on participants’ perception of the nature of learning new characters through practicing to read words, their interactions with the versions, and further suggestions for improvements. These results suggest that the tool as currently designed or similar computer-assisted training tools could be further developed and explored to assist beginners with learning katakana effectively. Further study would also be desirable regarding the possibility of building upon the concepts of module-based mastery learning proposed in this tool to propose other designs for computer-assisted word reading drills that may be less intimidating for beginners.