Processing Kanji characters in reading Japanese as a Foreign Language

There is an increasing body of research on the role of phonological codes in reading. To investigate whether readers of Japanese as a foreign language use phonological information while processing Kanji characters, readers of Japanese performed memorization of ordered information (Experiment 1) and cancellation tasks (Experiment 2) involving Kanji characters. Three groups of subjects (intermediate and advanced JFL learners, and native speakers of Japanese) participated in these experiments. The results of Experiment 1 did not show differences in the use of phonological codes among the three groups. Also, individual analyses revealed considerable variability in cognitive strategies among individuals. However, the results of Experiment 2 provided some evidence that fluent readers tended to utilize phonological information to a greater degree than do less fluent readers.U of I OnlyETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permissio