Support System for Romaji Learning through Exercise

There has been a steady increase in educational learning using information devices. In Japan, Romaji is used to input text into computers and other information devices. It was developed to describe the sound of Japanese in the Roman alphabet. Therefore, learning Romaji is important for computers literacy in Japan. We developed a support system for learning Romaji through exercises using the Kinect device for elementary school students in the lower grades. The system supports students in their studies by recognizing the alphabetical characters they write in the air. We believe that students can have fun learning by performing physical actions that keep their motivation to learn high. We had some elementary school students operate the system, and the results confirmed that they studied merrily and learned new characters. The students taught and learned alphabetical characters they did not know and learned how to use our system together. Their motivation to use the system was high, and some students continued their learning experience longer than their everyday school hours. There were students who had already learned some Romaji at school and students who had not learned them at the time of the study, but they all had fun using our system and learned new Romaji they did not previously know.