Phonological processing of Japanese <i>Kanji</i> word by L1-Chinese learners of Japanese: verification of consistency and frequency effects

Abstract Studies investigating phonological processing indicate that words with high regularity/consistency in pronunciation or high frequency positively impact reading speed and accuracy. Such effects of consistency and frequency have been demonstrated in Japanese kanji words and are known as consistency and frequency effects. Using a mixed-effects model analysis, this study reexamines the two effects in Chinese–Japanese second-language (L2) learners with two different L2 proficiency levels. The two effects are robustly replicated in oral reading tasks; in particular, the performance of intermediate learners is similar to that of Japanese semantic dementia patients, whose reading accuracy is affected by sensitivity to the statistical properties of words (i.e., reading consistency and lexical frequency). These results are explained by the interaction between semantic memory and word statistical properties. Moreover, the interaction highlights the important consequences of statistical learning underlying L2 phonological processing.