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Japanese and Chinese are often labelled as difficult-to-learn languages, due to the fact that their written forms use logographic characters. Students of Japanese frequently have an aversion to learning Chinese characters – called kanji – claiming that they are ‘too difficult’ or that there are 4too many’ of them. This paper aims to examine the role of sound in reading Japanese script Major arguments for semantic vs phonological identification will be examined with a view to determining the relative importance of phonological processes in reading kanji and kana, and to see if any conclusions can be drawn which may assist the teaching of kanji to learners of Japanese as a second language.