Wonderful!! One of our students, who started their doctoral program in October, has already turned their master’s thesis results into a paper. Their debut work is in an international journal, and a Springer journal indexed in SCOPUS at that. I am truly moved!! I would like to thank the reviewers and the editors who handled the manuscript.

Geng, X., Yamada, M. An augmented reality learning system for Japanese compound verbs: study of learning performance and cognitive load. Smart Learn. Environ. 7, 27 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40561-020-00137-4

Do you know what Japanese compound verbs are? They are verbs formed by combining two verbs, such as “kumiawasu” (to combine). Other examples include “torihazusu” (to detach) or “hiroiageru” (to pick up). What is the difference between “torihazusu” and “hazusu” (to remove)? And what about “hirou” (to pick up) and “hiroiageru”? If a learner from abroad asked me what the difference is, I honestly wouldn’t know how to explain it…

This research developed and evaluated a system that supports learning by using “image schemas”—a conceptualization of those differences—and visualizing them through AR. There are physical cards for single verbs, and when you hold the developed AR app over them, the corresponding image appears. By combining the verb cards, the image of the compound verb is displayed. If the combination is incorrect, the system indicates that it is “incorrect.”

It feels like a game, and because the concrete images are created in CG, it is very easy to understand. We plan to continue improving this system and to conduct further evaluations through actual use. If you are involved in Japanese language education and are interested in collaborating on this research, please let us know. Also, this paper is Open Access, so I would be happy if you could take a look.

Thank you for your continued support.