Learning kanji consists of three components: orthography, phonology, and semantics (Shimizu & Green, 2002, p. 229).
The conventional strategies are rote, contextual, and mnemonic (Shimizu & Green, 2002, p. 230).
The learner can associate a keyword in the source language with the word to be learned, perhaps according to superficial similarity (Wang et al., 1992, p. 520):
The keyword mnemonic is well known in the educational literature for its effectiveness in accelerating learning speed and in boosting immediate recall of second-language vocabulary. A keyword is a familiar word that bears an acoustic resemblance to a novel word. For example, to remember the English equivalent of the French word eglise (church), one might use egg as the keyword. The mnemonic benefit is provided by generating an interactive visual image linking the two words (e.g., a church built of eggs). Presumably, subsequent presentations of the novel term will elicit the keyword, which permits access to the image incorporating the translation equivalent.
The component analysis method is superior to the whole-kanji method (Shimizu & Green, 2002, p. 238).
Long-term forgetting is greater for the keyword method than rote rehearsal (Wang et al., 1992, p. 520).
It is not necessary to know every word used in a text to understand it. Gains in comprehension are fairly uniform between 90% and 100% coverage (Schmitt et al., 2011, p. 35), but chances are best with >95% coverage (Laufer, 1989, p. 319; Schmitt et al., 2011, p. 35).
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