Developments of Reading Tutor, a Reading Support System for Japanese Language Learners Yoshiko KAWAMURA* Tokyo International University kawamura@tiu .ac.jp Abstract The present paper gives an overview of the tools and materials included in the Japanese language reading tutorial system Reading Tutor and the multilingual lexicographical project Reading Tutor Web Dictionary. This is followed by a discussion of possible uses of Reading Tutor and the Web Dictionary in Japanese language instruction and for supporting autonomous language learning. The paper further presents one particular use of these tools and resources in the development of learning material for foreign candidates taking the Japanese national examination for certifying care workers. We conclude with suggestions for effective guidance in fostering autonomous vocabulary learning. Keywords reading support; multilingual dictionary; autonomous learning; language for special purposes; language learning support tools Izvleček Članek predstavlja orodja in gradiva v sistemu za podporo branju v japonščini Reading Tutor in v večjezičnem slovarskem projektu Reading Tutor Web Dictionary ter njihovo možno uporabo tako za poučevanje japonščine kot tudi za podporo samostojnemu jezikovnemu učenju. Nadalje predstavlja konkreten primer uporabe teh orodij in virov za izdelavo učnega gradiva za tuje kandidate, ki se pripravljajo na japonski državni izpit za zdravstvene delavce. V zaključku predlaga nekaj pedagoških pristopov za učinkovito podporo samostojnemu učenju besedišča. Ključne besede bralna podpora; večjezični slovar; samostojno učenje; jezik stroke; orodja za podporo jezikovnemu učenju Translated by Kristina Hmeljak Sangawa Acta Linguistica Asiatica, Vol. 2, No. 3 2012. ISSN: 2232-3317 http://revije.ff.uni-lj.si/ala/ 1. Introduction The Japanese language reading tutorial system Reading Tutor has been used in many ways by Japanese learners and teachers around the world since its appearance on the web in 1999. It has been accessed more than 2 million times since its inception, and it is presently being accessed 1500 times a day on average. In 2003 a companion project was launched to add multiple languages to the Reading Tutor dictionary tools. This paper is organised in the following way. Section 2 describes the reading support system Reading Tutor, section 3 proposes ways in which this tool can be used to foster autonomous learning, and section 4 presents the multilingual lexicographical project Reading Tutor Web Dictionary and its possible uses In section 5, we present a case study of the use of these resources for the development of learning materials for foreign candidates taking the Japanese national examination for certified care workers, and section 6 concludes with suggestions for effective guidance and learner support geared at fostering autonomous vocabulary learning in the age of the internet. 2. The Japanese language reading tutorial system Reading Tutor Reading Tutor (http://language.tiu.ac.jp/) is an Internet site combining reading materials and various tools to support reading and learning Japanese as a second language. As seen in Table 1, the uses of Reading Tutor are graphically displayed on the front page of this site. Reading Tutor is freely available online and can be accessed and used any time from anywhere in the world. Figure 1: Reading Tutor's top page Reading Tutor includes the following tools and resources which were developed to support Japanese language reading and learning. In order to use the tools, users input (type or paste) text into the upper box, and click on the button of the tool they wish to use. 2.1 Dictionary tool The following dictionaries are available, as can be seen from the button acronyms: a monolingual dictionary with Japanese definitions of the Japanese headwords (ja->ja), a Japanese-English (ja->en), Japanese-German (ja->de), Japanese-Dutch (ja->nl), Japanese-Slovene (ja->slv) and a Japanese-Spanish (ja->esl) dictionary. This tool links all words appearing in the input text to the chosen dictionary and displays the text alongside dictionary information on a new page. When the user clicks any word to look up dictionary information, relevant dictionary information appears on the right side, and clicked words appear at the bottom of the left frame, enabling the user to save a list of unknown words for later revision. Itpadipg Tutor / Enslish / Deutch xti^iitzxn a -IT 1 » ^^^ a ■ as (SIS) ■ ■ alKTi-^i''?^) ■ a»T i ti'. "t f i" 1. ÄS1 2. HE 2 3. «®2 -ti, [revision] the work of studying again lessons already learned going-over one's lessons / review / refresher training / go thro:ugh one's lessoris / go over / go over one's lesso'ns / brush up / revision / practice "1 a condition of being able to do something feasibility / ability / possibility/ practicability 2 [possible] able to be carried out or done: possible ■j [be up to ^something] action having to do with progress of action or matter (be able to do thing) qossibly / feasible / within one's qower / possible / practicable 2 [possible] able to be carried out or done; possible 3 possibility / t eivable / be possible Figure 2: Reading Tutor dictionary tool output window Figure 2 shows an example of the dictionary tool's output, where the user has selected the Japanese-English dictionary and clicked once on the word ^^ and twice each on the words BM and The last clicked word is shown at the top of the right-hand frame. 2.2 Level Checker (Vocabulary Checker and Character Checker) These two tools analyse the text, determine the difficulty level of each word or each character in the text according to the old version of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test Content Specifications (JF & AIEJ, 2002; hereafter abbreviated to JLPT), and display the text showing words or characters in the colour of the JLPT level they belong to, alongside a list of all words or characters appearing in the text, divided by JLPT levels, as displayed in Figure 3 (see next section). 2.3 Grammatical patterns tool This tool automatically detects grammatical patterns and functional words in the text, links them to (a part of) information in the dictionary of grammatical patterns Nihongo bunkei ziten [ 0 ^^^M^ft] (Group JAMASII, 1998) and displays them in a layout similar to the dictionary tool. The tool can be accessed by pressing the button [structure]. The site also offers the reading resources listed below. 2.4 Reading resource bank This repository contains reading material that can be immediately used for studying Japanese either in class or for self-study. Each text is marked for level of difficulty, calculated according to the vocabulary it contains, making it easy to choose the material that is most appropriate for the reader. 2.5 Collection of website links The link page presents carefully selected sites that may be useful to learners of Japanese as a second language grouped by subject into news, Japanese culture, Japanese language learning and Japanese language teaching. 2.6 Grammar quiz The site includes grammar questions at levels 1 and 2 of JLPT, where users can check their own grammatical competence. This section includes both an automatic answer checker and grammar explanations. Tools and materials which make up Reading Tutor thus serve different purposes and can be useful both for Japanese language instruction and for supporting autonomous learning, as explained in detail in Tutor's introductory manual (Kawamura, 2009). 3. Editing teaching materials using Reading Tutor 3.1 Verifying learners' proficiency level By combining material from the Reading Resources Bank with the Vocabulary Checker, teachers can easily gauge their students' level. When learners read a passage and click on unknown words to check the reading or meaning, these words are recorded in a section named "Your word list". Teachers can then retrieve this list, feed it into the Vocabulary Checker, and find the JLPT level the unknown words belong to. The same process can be used for any other reading material not included in the Reading Resources Bank, simply by inputting the text into the dictionary tool first and then using it as reading material. One advantage of this process is that it allows students to check their own level objectively. 3.2 Developing reading materials appropriate for the students' level The Vocabulary Checker can also be used to develop reading materials which are appropriate to the students' level. When the user inputs a text into the Vocabulary Checker, the text is processed and appears as in Figure 3 below, with each word in the text colour-coded for its level in JLPT. The text in Figure 3 is an example of a processed text, containing the entry ^ [kaminari - "thunder"] from the site Key Aspects of Japan (Sugiura & Gillespie, 2012). Figure 3: Output of Reading Tutor Vocabulary Level Checker As can be seen in Figure 3 all words in the processed text are colour-coded according to their level in JLPT: level 4 words (the easiest) are displayed in black, level 3 (upper beginners) in grey, level 2 (intermediate) in blue, level 1 (advanced) in red, and words which are not included in the JLPT are displayed in bold red characters. Teachers can thus read through the colour-coded text and rewrite the parts not appropriate to the students' level. For example, if a teacher is preparing reading material for intermediate students, the words in red could be rewritten. This process can be then repeated with the rewritten text to check for any remaining difficult words, thus ensuring the text has been edited appropriately for the level of the students. 3.3 Developing supplementary learning materials Reading materials for language courses are usually accompanied by supplementary material such as word lists, comprehension questions, cloze tests, grammar tests, Chinese character tests, texts with phonetic guides (also called furi^ana, text in smaller type added above or below Chinese characters to show pronunciation), and other types of material. Some of these materials - word lists, Chinese character quizzes, phonetic guides - can be easily prepared using the tools offered on the Reading Tutor web site. a) Word lists: To prepare a word list for a reading passage, teachers can feed the passage into the Vocabulary Checker and obtain a list of all words contained. If needed, they can then feed this list into one of the dictionary tools to obtain a list of words with their readings and translations. b) Kanji quiz: The colour-coded output of the Vocabulary Checker can be used to prepare kanji quizzes. The colour-coded text may be useful in helping student visually grasp their reading level. c) Text with phonetic guides: A text with phonetic guides can easily be edited using the fu^gana function of the Reading Tutor Web Dictionary, as explained in section 4. A text with phonetic guides can be used as preparation for a kanji quiz, for practicing reading aloud and other exercises. 3.4 Integrating autonomous learning into reading classes Reading classes can be conducted more effectively by combining them with autonomous learning, individual preparation and review. This is especially effective in classes of students with very different proficiency levels, or mixed classes with students from countries using kanji script and those where kanji is not used. If the text to be studied is made available on the web, students can prepare and review their reading using the dictionary tool. They can also use these tools to prepare for writing or reading aloud tests. However, they should be warned that all tools use an automatic parser and that errors may occur. 4. The multilingual Japanese dictionary Reading Tutor Web Dictionary To answer the demand for different dictionaries from learners of Japanese around the world, a project for the creation of a multilingual dictionary was started in 2003. The result of this project is offered online as the Reading Tutor Web Dictionary!. In this project, a monolingual dictionary of Japanese headwords with Japanese definitions and examples is being translated into more than 20 languages by dictionary teams around the world. Each entry is made available online as soon as it is edited by the editing team. The compilation of the Japanese-Russian and Japanese-Vietnamese dictionaries have been completed for words in the JLPT. The I^eading T^i^or Web D^ct^^o^^ry includes a tool for analysing any input and glossing it with entries from any of the dictionaries it includes, a tool for adding phonetic guides (^fur-i^ana) above all Chinese characters, and an example search tool. All tools can be accessed from the Reading Tutor Web Dictionary top page, as shown in Figure 4. TSo The Reading Tutor Web Dictionary ^a'^TfeOWebSf^ Ver 1 4 7 268. Input a Japanese text and click the "Dictionaiy" button. liZB ^ An TDictionaryTt^ 5 > ^ W L T < Td ? L Dictionary Language H Ai-abic H Bulgarian M Chniese-Simplified IS Clmiese-'l'raditional B Czech ® ünghsh H Finnish H French B Gemian E Hungarian H Indonesian B Italian ® Japanese H Korean H Kyi-gyz H Malay B Maori B Mai athi B Naliuatl H Poituguese H Romanian H Russian B Slovak ® Slovenian H Spanish H Tagalog «Thai H Turkish B Vietnamese Jargon rn^m mx^ Option H Fmigana s Hide idiom H Hide example Figure 4: The Reading Tutor Web Dictionary top page The tools on this page can be used in the same way as Reading Tutor. When a user types or pastes any text into the text box at the top of the page, and presses the Dictionary button, the text is automatically analysed and glossed with entries from the selected dictionary or dictionaries. By default, the dictionary of the language set as the preferred language in the user's web browser is automatically selected. In addition, the user can choose to add any number of dictionaries by ticking the boxes in the dictionary list below the text box. For example, by ticking the boxes next to the words http://chuta.jp/ Japanese, English and Slovenian, as in Figure 4 above, the user obtains glosses from the Japanese-Japanese, Japanese-English and Japanese-Slovenian dictionaries at the same time, as shown in Figure 5. diPifl 10 > 10 D Chuta DictionEuy Project mx^izxi,]^ JSx-S" [Biasäi [prekoračiti] nekaj postane več kot normalno presegati, prekašati, biti več kot IPI^] Obiskovalcev je bilo več kot 100 tisoč. ris^^j rts^žj s^fid. [presegati] iti še bolj naprej s svojim mišljenjem ali stališčem biti nad čem, iti nad kaj Raba; Uporabljata se obe pismenki äS^-S in SX-S [■ifflSil] presegati v&e predstave presegati razumevanje m^] Njegov način mišljenja presega zdravo pamet. ADHHfflffiL-B-LiOTTtDnt, Potekali so razgovori o demografskih problemdi, ki presegajo verske razlike. Figure 5. Reading Tutor Web Dictionary's text output Figure 5 shows the output obtained by inputting the Japanese version of this paper's first paragraph into the Reading Tutor Web Dictionary and selecting Japanese, English and Slovene. Each word in the processed text in the left frame is linked to the dictionary entries listed in the right frame. When the user clicks on any of the linked words on the left, the corresponding dictionary entry in the frame on the right side automatically scrolls up and appears at the top of the right hand frame. At the same time, the same word appears in the bottom part of the left frame, under the heading fe ^^W^^y^h [anata no tang^o i^isuto] ("Your word list"). Figure 5 is a picture of the user's monitor after the user has clicked on the words [kokai "opening"], [kankei "relationship"] and M^^ [koeru "to get over"]; the last word clicked is displayed at the top of the right hand frame. As can be seen in this screenshot, each meaning described and translated in the dictionary entry is also accompanied by examples, so that users can check not only the meaning or translation of each word, but also its typical usage. The dictionary entry for the verb l^oeru has been completed in the Japanese-Slovenian dictionary and is therefore displayed with examples and their Slovenian translations. In the case of English, Korean, Chinese, Indonesian and Tagalog, all entries of the JLPT word list have been translated into these languages in the form of a mini-dictionary where entries have only the word's translation equivalents without examples, so that even for entries of the main multilingual dictionary where the examples have not been edited yet, the word's translations appear in the glossary. In the Figure 5 example, entries from the Japanese-English mini-dictionary appear in the right frame. All words listed under "Your word list" are linked to the glossary on the right, so that users can easily review them after reading. Examples in the dictionary entries are also preprocessed, so that the user only needs to click on any example to see it with a glossary of all the words it contains on its right side. The furi^ana function can be used by ticking the "Furigana" checkbox at the bottom of the Reading Tutor Web Dictionary top page. If the checkbox is ticked, the output in the left frame is displayed with phonetic guides above each word, as can be seen in Figure 6. Kir^ntzxm 'mi^m^iMm-'} > 1??^-LTus-j- IC U t r Lrt-i L i. y. I T T «> - T 1. i. <• t rt T fc !■>/.. ««--I.. >: IJ t r !.<|'| Si-i'.^Tj-A.iJpL-? mix','6. JsÄ». mnia ■.I.SA. cfy.'-a-ii '.i-- tli. ^ - -i t L-i "! - i ii «S 7 t if 4 -• [fit; ri A r L- L i (i fl T ft »«J ««fflUfciWifSMii-^v.-cfflfrV«. i L T^^BA/fW ic o i- > t«©f a i i t C, il'S^ STI^Ä'A si» ^ HS ± T c-r ž t'01 L i' -j'ji-h X'.'ifA. iJ-Lfi „„ to get over/to cross mx^" esi Iprtkoračlti] nekaj poslane več kot nomialjio presegali. prekaSali, biti več kot 01]Lsko\aJeev je bilo več kot 100 tLsoč. miais-pii ra^^j , „ij^-ft-i Ipresesatij iti še bolj naprej s svojim inišljentem ali stali.^em biti nad čem. iti nad fcaj Figure 6: Sheading Tutor Web Dictionary's text output with phonetic guides (furigana) 4.1 Example search, fuzzy searches Users can also search for single dictionary entries and examples using the "Word / Example Sentence Search" box at the bottom of the web dictionary top page, as shown below in Figure 7. Here it is possible to use the special character * (an asterisk) for fuzzy searches. When the user inputs a word without any special characters, the system displays the entry of the headword that exactly matches the word. By adding an asterisk to the end of a character string in the search box, the user can find entries for all headwords beginning with that character string (for example, L^* returns L^L,L ^^ etc.), and by adding an asterisk to the beginning of the word, find all headwords ending with that string (for example, * ffi^ returns ffi^, but also S^ffi^, , etc.). Moreover, by adding an asterisk to both sides of the search string, the user can see all occurrences of that string both within headwords and in the examples, thus finding words that are present in the examples, even if they are not yet included as dictionary entries. Word / Example Sentence Search Japanese 2 Search Figure 7: Word/Example sentence search box on Reading Tutor Web Dictionary's top page In Figure 7, the string thX [toshite "as"] is enclosed in asterisks to search for all examples containing this character strings. Figure 8 below shows the result of this search. Examples I: ^13 J äo --^tj' A tb Tl 1 Tii^lo 11fco (MiUaAl) SIT LIJ 13 IS® ^s FfftuT^am 1 (£äku ^ h 15 ti^XfcUT 1iT^TI". (S£ItiAl) m 1 SI 3 wj j¥tL-T