Development of and Pilot Studies on Effectiveness of Tasks for Vocabulary Acquisition

为日语初学者开发了一套英语词汇学习系统。该系统被称为“Kaguyahime”，可在日语和英语两种语言中运行，具有以下特点：(1)针对日语词汇的习得。(2)促进自主学习。(3)促进协作学习。(4)从学习者那里获得的数据将用于词汇习得的研究。声音文件今年被添加到系统中。然而，由于2007年是该项目的最后一年，主要任务是测试和评估该系统。它由大分大学的一些国际学生测试，并由澳大利亚大学的日语教师获得反馈。总体上，教师和学生对该制度的反应是积极的；人们普遍认为这个系统对初学者来说是有趣和有用的。然而，最初，一些技术问题浮出水面。其中一个问题，例如，日本信件的损坏，是通过获得良好的技术咨询而解决的。其他偶尔出现的困难包括学生在试图将图片与词汇含义联系起来时正确识别所选图片。这个问题通过为每张图片提供英文含义来解决。该系统现在可供大分大学的远程学习者使用。在项目的研究方面，将需要更多的实质性数据来测试该系统，并且必须对学习者如何使用该系统获得词汇进行额外的研究。在2006年和2007年的日本和海外会议上发表了六篇关于该项目和词汇学习的论文，并发表了六篇论文。

A Web-BT System for Acquisition of Vocabulary for Japanese beginners has been developed. It can operate both in Japanese and English, The System, called "Kaguyahime", has the following features: (1) it is targeted for the acquisition of Japanese vocabulary. (2) It promotes autonomous learning. (3) It promotes collaborative learning. (4) Data derived from the learners will be used in the research of vocabulary acquisition.Sound files have been added to the System this year. However, as 2007 is the final year of the Project, the main task was to test and evaluate the System. It was tested by some international students at Oita University and feedback was obtained by Japanese language teachers at Australian Universities. On the whole, teachers and students had positive reactions to the System; it was generally thought that the System was interesting and useful for beginners. However, initially, some technical problems came to the surface. One of the problems, for instance, the corruption of Japanese letters, was solved by the obtaining of good technical advice. Other occasional difficulties involved the correct identification of the picture chosen by students in their attempt to associate the picture with the vocabulary meaning. This problem was solved by providing a meaning in English to each picture. The System is now available to distance-learners of Oita University.On research side of the Project, more substantial data will be needed to test the system and additional studies must be conducted on how learners can acquire vocabulary using the System. Six Papers on this Project and vocabulary learning were delivered at Conferences in Japan and overseas and six papers were published in 2006 and 2007.