An Analysis on Swedish Students’ Ability to Estimate Their Own Proficiency in Kanji Production

Abstract: This thesis examines Swedish students’ self-estimation regarding the proficiency in writing kanji characters. Various studies about Kanji exist, but investigations about writing are still limited. In addition, the study analyzed the respondent incorrect answers to see in which way they try to retrieve kanji characters. The theoretical framework is error analysis based on the cognitive model of kanji's three basic elements presented by Ivarsson (2016). As for the parameters which were utilized for analyzing incorrect answers, they were based on the work of Chikamatsu (2005). The Can-Do-Statements (CDS) questionnaire was based on Kano & Wei (2015) and the Tip-of-the-Pen (TOP) test based on Chikamatsu (2005). The CDS-questionnaire and TOP-test were conducted on a single occasion, but handed out separately. After the respondents had finished the Cds-test, they were allowed to begin the TOP-test. The Cds-test consisted of four questions regarding proficiency in writing kanji characters, but also asked which level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) corresponded to their ability, and thus the research was able to divide the respondents into the two following groups: JLPT3 and JLPT2. The TOP-test consisted of forty-four words taken from Kanji Look and Learn (Banno et al., 2009) and the results of the TOP-test were compared to their estimations in order to conclude whether they had a tendency to overestimate, underestimate or could accurately estimate their abilities. The results indicated that the respondents had a tendency to overestimate their abilities in two out of four statements, namely writing daily kanji and various homophones. Furthermore, there also appeared to be a difference in retrieving kanji characters between the JLPT3 group and JLPT2 group.