A study on acquisition of orthographically similar words in Japanese and Chinese by native Chinese speakers learning Japanese: Focusing on Overlap words

Previous studies have broadly focused on the acquisition of orthographically similar (Overlap) words in Japanese and Chinese used by native Chinese speakers who are learning Japanese with the concept of general semantic usage or semantic range between Japanese and Chinese languages. This study focuses on both issues; the author aims to address this issue by administering a true/false test on Overlap words, which are categorized into six types of frameworks that are based on the concept of general semantic usage or semantic range. The test was partially based on previous studies done on native Chinese speakers who are learning Japanese language. The results of the study shows the influence of kanji knowledge onto the acquisition of Overlap words in Japanese and Chinese by native Chinese speakers, depending on the new framework based on the concept of general semantic usage and semantic range between Japanese and Chinese languages of Overlap words. In conclusion, the present study reveals that kanji knowledge improves the acquisition of Overlap words, while, Overlap words, which exists in both (Chinese and Japanese) languages with a solely meaning and not the same general semantic usage will be impeded, and thus the degree of difficulty will increase