How do false cognates affect Japanese language learners

False cognates can significantly impact Japanese language learners by introducing challenges in vocabulary acquisition and comprehension. Here are some key effects:

Challenges in Vocabulary Acquisition

• Misleading Similarities: False cognates are words that appear similar in two languages but have different meanings. For Japanese learners, this can lead to confusion and incorrect assumptions about word meanings, as they might rely on their first language (L1) knowledge when interpreting new vocabulary in Japanese ³.

• Cognitive Demands: The awareness of false cognates requires additional cognitive resources. Learners must consciously differentiate between true cognates (words with similar form and meaning) and false ones, which can complicate the learning process ¹.

Influence on Language Proficiency

• Lexical Errors: The use of false cognates can lead to lexical errors, where learners incorrectly use a word based on its misleading similarity to a word in their native language. This is particularly problematic in contexts where precise communication is necessary ³.

• Impact on Lexical Inference: Learners’ ability to infer the meaning of new words can be hindered by false cognates. This is because the expected meaning derived from a false cognate may not align with its actual meaning in Japanese, leading to misunderstandings ^{1, 9}.

Educational Implications

• Need for Strategy Training: To mitigate the effects of false cognates, language educators may need to incorporate strategy training that helps learners recognize and correctly interpret these words. Such training can improve learners’ ability to accurately guess the meanings of unknown words by making them aware of potential pitfalls associated with false cognates ¹⁰.

In summary, false cognates pose a significant challenge for Japanese language learners by creating opportunities for misunderstanding and error. Effective language instruction that includes awareness and strategy training can help learners navigate these challenges more successfully.

References

• Unpacking cross-linguistic similarities and differences in third language Japanese vocabulary acquisition among Chinese college students

• How prosodic attitudes can be false friends: Japanese vs. French social affects

• The influence of first language polysemy and first language and second language lexical frequencies on second language learners’ use of false cognates

• Masked priming investigation of cross-linguistic “false friends” with Japanese EFL learners

• False geminates as an effective transitional strategy for Cantonese learners of Japanese

• ON THE PROBLEM OF TRANSLATION “TRANSLATER’S FALSE FRIENDS” ON THE EXAMPLE OF PUBLICISTIC TEXTS

• TRANSLATION OF FALSE FRIENDS AMONG B2 LEVEL ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS

• Analysis of Difficulties Japanese Language Education Program Student in Improving Student Motivation at Teaching Practice

• Morphological and cognate awareness in L2 Japanese word learning: evidence from Chinese-speaking learners

• The impact of cognate strategy training on guessing accuracy for unknown visually-presented words: The case of Japanese learners of English