The Kanji game: An online word recognition application for SL Italian learners of Japanese

Aim of this study is to investigate the impact of an online word recognition application on the reading skills of Italian Japanese learners. The application is designed to enhance learners' automatic word recognition abilities by incorporating principles of reaction time research and gamification. Japanese being a complex writing system that requires mastery of orthography and phonology, automatic word recognition is a crucial aspect of fluent reading. Reaction time research has demonstrated that the faster a person can recognize a word, the more fluent their reading becomes. Moreover, gamification has been found to bean effective means of motivating learners and improving their performance. The implementation and evaluation of this online word recognition application represents a novel approach to enhancing Italian Japanese learners’reading proficiency.