In the field of Cognitive Semantics, it is understood that the meanings of words and phrases vary in certain degrees depending on the context and the situation in which they are used. However, there is a kind of shared core sense that supports these semantic variations and expansions. In this paper, I focus on the polysemic structure and its cognitive mechanisms of English phrase "get rid of X" through the lens of Cognitive Semantics. This paper argues that through the employment of cognitive notions such as "Core Sense," the expansion of the polysemic meaning of "get rid of X" can be explained adequately. I also identify a useful way to apply these findings to English language education through explanations and definitions found in dictionaries.

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This paper examines the intonation properties of TV series with a view to utilizing them as English learning materials. By watching English TV series, English learners not only can be motivated to learn English but also can gain background knowledge promoting an understanding of English while being entertained by characteristics of the series such as emotionality and comprehensibility as Bednarek (2018) identified. The study argues that focusing on one episode of a TV series will aid learners in comprehending colloquial English, including the various intonations, from the main characters' personalities and the relationships among them. After watching an episode for half-an-hour, learners will be able to grasp the episode's linguistic and cultural properties. To meet its objective, this paper focuses on situation comedies (sitcoms), a genre of TV series involving a group of characters who find themselves in various humorous situations. The study reveals that English TV series can be used as data sources not only for English usage examples but also for phonetic and phonological information. Eventually, English learners will appreciate the fun of learning English by watching such comedy series, delving into the essence of the English language.

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Since first appearing in Japan's educational guidelines in 1989, "communication" has been an important keyword in English education in Japan, and the teaching of communication skills has been a key point for debate. Considering the still vague definition of "communication (skills)," this paper argues that movies can provide effective teaching/learning materials for a variety of communication skills, particularly in English classes after junior high school. This paper focuses on there constructions with non-be verbs, including the there speak construction (Mino 2020) (e.g., There speaks a rich person!), and points out that their unique properties are not fully described in English textbooks in Japan. More specifically, no reference can be found in the textbooks to the fact that the construction's acceptability changes depending on discourse-related factors such as contexts and the speaker's point of view. In this way, textbooks do not always succeed in helping English learners to achieve sociolinguistic competence, one of four major components of communicative competence according to Canale & Swain (1980) and Canale (1983). By demonstrating how to utilize movies to improve learners' understanding of various types of there constructions with non-be verbs, this paper argues that movies are appropriate materials for the teaching/learning of communicative competencies.

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Movies, dramas, songs, and anything relevant to pop culture have been widely utilized for English education (e.g., teaching approaches, material designs, and development) of Japanese EFL learners at the university level in the past decades. In the relevant context of the 25th anniversary of ATEM, the effects of pop culture-based approaches should be exhaustively reviewed from qualitative and quantitative viewpoints to ascertain to what extent EFL teaching utilizing alternative tools such as movies is meaningful, as compared to other teaching approaches. Following the reviews of pop culture-based approaches focusing particularly on my own studies, in this paper, the effect sizes for past studies selected from ATEM Journal were computed from their sample sizes, mean scores, standard deviations, t-scores, and other scores. Based on the results, the crucial findings will also be discussed in detail.

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The primary purpose of this paper is to reconsider the status quo of "teaching English through movies" in terms of media and intercultural understanding. The fact that ATEM changed its name from "Teaching English through Movies" to "Teaching English through Multimedia" seems to imply that the peculiarity of movies in English teaching has already been unclear. However, is it true?
First, the history of media and intercultural understanding is explored in order to shed light on the social and educational background when ATEM was founded. Second, recent studies on English education with the aid of multimedia, and ones that focus on using movies to teach English and cross-cultural differences are examined in order to characterize some problems of teaching English through movies. Lastly, to overcome the problems, three ideas are proposed: constant pondering on the characteristics of movies, deconstructing the connection between English and western cultures, and focusing on autonomous learning.

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The current study focused on listening activities outside of the classroom. It investigated how Japanese EFL learners engaged in listening activities outside of the classroom, and how those activities affected their listening skills. Seventy-four Japanese university students, whose proficiency levels were intermediate, participated in the study. The participants chose listening sources on their own and wrote a summary and comments as a listening journal entry. In class, they reported the contents of their journal to their classmates. After eight weeks, the participants took a listening test and answered a questionnaire about their journals. The test results did not show statistically significant improvement, but the questionnaire results revealed that the participants felt that their listening skills had improved. Most participants chose TED Talks, speeches by famous people, or news. Half of the participants felt that the activity was difficult because of the fast speech rate of the material, while the remainder felt that it was not difficult, either because they were able to listen to the material multiple times, or because they could choose the difficulty level of the material.

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This study examined Japanese (N=137) EFL students' Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE), Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety (FLCA), and shyness in second language learning in the classroom, as well as the effectiveness of the use of music in the classroom. For these purposes, a mixed-methods research study was conducted using web-based Google Forms questionnaires on the first day and on the last day of the 2019 spring semester at three universities. Quantitative t-test results showed that there were significant effect sizes on variables of FLE, ELCA, shyness, as well as WTC and intrinsic motivation scales. The content analysis of qualitative data conducted to reveal classroom enjoyment from an open-ended question found that while students enjoyed classroom activities involving music, there were some students who felt shyness during these classroom activities. These findings suggest that a classroom environment where students can relax and enjoy themselves needs to be provided carefully, especially for East Asian students including Japanese students.

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The Breakfast Club (1985) is an American movie that depicts high school teenagers' struggles with communicating with other people in different groups. In the beginning of the film, the five main characters are delineated with their stereotypical appearance, personalities, and biased attitudes; however, they gradually acquire a better understanding of one another through the process of self-disclosure, a notion found and examined mainly in psychology and psychotherapy. It is widely known that people disclose themselves as courtesy to others in many cultures, but the Japanese often hesitate to reveal their thoughts because of their cultural norm, which respects being silent about oneself. If positioned in a global context, then, Japanese learners' attitude of not disclosing themselves may cause critical misunderstanding, which hinders the development of appropriate intercultural relationships. To help avoid this cultural issue, this study aims to examine how English speakers in the movie disclose themselves in multicultural circumstances. The analysis found that unsuccessful self-disclosures are caused by the wrong timings and motives, whereas successful communication with self-disclosure proceeds when the characters keep asking questions, which makes the norm of reciprocity function well in conversations. Through the results of this analysis, English learners in Japan can establish good communication in multicultural situations, disclosing themselves in a way they are expected to in a globalized world.

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American cinema is ubiquitous and monarchic, yet many recent American films have faced a new problem. Throughout 2020, people all over the world have intensified their advocacy for human rights protections, gender and race equality, as well as equitable language. In such time, movies' goal of wide popularity challenges not only graphic violence but also depiction of anything considered evil and disturbing, from violence to enmity. This paper aims to disclose how the zeitgeist of this historical moment molds portrayals of evils into mainstream American cinema. The paper first analyzes anti-communist movies produced in the age of the Red Scare as well as the Reagan presidency. Enemies once depicted as fearful invaders become tame in the Reagan era when Communism no longer presents an imminent threat. Then, the paper examines portrayals of violence in recent mainstream films to suggest strict restrictions are imposed on portrayals of evil, as the target market expands globally. The final section of this paper argues that the recent trend of combating images of violence generates another form of violence, namely systematic violence. Mainstream filmmakers produce decaffeinated versions of realities which make people docile enough to accept fragmented depictions of the world.

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This paper introduces Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) activities between Korean and Japanese university students that took place as part of English courses provided online due to the coronavirus pandemic. The four-week program included two sessions of pair talk and a joint discussion using Zoom. First, the students were paired up and they introduced themselves to each other via email and decided on their meeting dates. The pair talks covered a wide range of topics including foods, movies, music, animation, etc. Some students did Show & Tell presentations using PowerPoint and internet resources. For the group discussion, the students were asked to see two movies in advance, Parasite (Bong, 2019) and Shoplifters (Koreeda, 2018), and they talked about the global issue of poverty, which is the common theme of both movies, and discussed if they had found any cultural differences between Korea and Japan. The project has enabled students to engage in authentic communication in English through technology (telecollaboration) and their post-activity journals show that it helped reduce anxiety and they learned a lot from each other. Further research is expected to assess the effects of telecollaboration as well as to improve methodology.

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