Manga Vocabulometer, A New Support System for Extensive Reading with Japanese Manga Translated into English

Abstract

Extensive Reading, called “Tadoku” in Japan, is a method of learning a second language to improve reading speed and fluency. Japanese comics translated into English is used as one of the materials for extensive reading, where Japanese comics are called manga. Using manga to learn English is considered to be a good way to learn English because the content can be inferred from the pictures. However, some learners cannot memorize and learn all the words when they read many books. Therefore, if there is a function to automatically save unknown words in the books they read or to create flashcards, they can learn English more efficiently. In this paper, we introduce Manga Vocabulometer, the support system for extensive reading. It is a web-based system that allows students to choose their favorite manga to read. It is also able to check for unknown words, so the system can present flashcards to learners. To confirm the advantage of the proposed system, we compare two memorization methods: one is the memorization method using Manga Vocabulometer and the other is the traditional simple memorization method.