Use of internet and online language tools for teaching reading comprehension to Italian learners of Japanese

Japanese is considered one of the most difficult foreign languages. A major factor is the complex Japanese orthography consisting of thousands of logographic kanji (adapted Chinese characters) and 105 phonetic kana (subdivided into hiragana and katakana). This situation leads to hardships in learning to read Japanese, discouraging students from tackling authentic texts full of unknown kanji symbols. Online language tools might assist and encourage learners to read authentic texts, reducing reading anxiety. To evaluate the potential of this learning support, an experimental study was conducted. Twelve Italian college students with elementary Japanese proficiency participated. They completed two homework reading tasks with the use of online language tools, taking a post-task survey. Three findings emerge from the data: 1) using online tools enables students to read authentic texts; 2) using more tools makes it easier and faster to comprehend texts; 3) students strongly feel that the use of online tools helps to read Japanese texts and reduces their psychological block, willing to continue to use them. Overall, the results show the positive effects of using the tools on both reading performance and psychology, suggesting the potential effectiveness of the use of online language resources for learning to read Japanese texts.