Effectiveness of the Visual–Auditory Shadowing Method on Learning the Pronunciation of Kanji

This study investigates whether the visual–auditory (VA) shadowing method can better facilitate vocabulary learning for learners of Japanese as a second language (JSL) than the visual–visual (VV) shadowing method in K-8 immersion education. Learning vocabulary involves three aspects: meaning, orthography, and pronunciation. The Japanese language has complex orthography and pronunciation. Learners of Japanese need to learn three kinds of orthographic characters: ideographs (kanji) and two kinds of syllabic characters (hiragana and katakana). In addition, because the pronunciation of kanji can vary by context, learners must learn several pronunciations for a single kanji character. This study explores a reasonable way to learn pronunciations of kanji and compares VA shadowing (n = 48) and VV shadowing (n = 47) to investigate which condition better facilitates learning the pronunciation of Japanese ideographs. The analysis suggests that compared to the VV shadowing condition (p < .05), the VA shadowing condition is more effective for Level 3 learners but not for Level 2 or Level 1 learners.