Intelligent japanese learning system for Chinese students -Development of database for Katakana word listening-

Recently, more and more Chinese students begin to learn Japanese as their second language, for the close connections between Japanese and their mother language. However, it turns out that Chinese students feel difficult to learn Japanese, especially Katakana words. They have to listen to the words repeatedly, and it is hard for them to recognize their special sounds and to distinguish the length of vowel. For the purpose of solving these problems (called “weak points” hereafter), we develop a drill-training learning system for Katakana word listening, which is called “KataLis”. It puts ten listening questions of Katakana words together as a set, then analyses weak points based on the result of the drill-training, and subsequently listens to the selective questions produced automatically from the system relevant to the weak points. By this way, Chinese students can train their listening skill for Katakana words, and thus achieve a good learning effect.