This paper examines the features related to pro-forms and copula sentences in English writing by Japanese learners of English. We focus on errors found in English compositions written by Japanese learners, especially first-year college students who have graduated from senior high school within a year and are not very proficient in English. Compositions written by students with low proficiency in English often apply the rules of their first language, Japanese, in terms of pro-forms and copula sentences. Although there is a wide range of research on linguistic theory (especially in semantics and pragmatics) related to pro-forms and copula sentences in both Japanese and English, there is still much room for applied studies to make practical use of the findings in English education and English learning for Japanese learners of English. This study focuses on errors, especially those related to pro-forms and copula sentences, based on composition data provided by 21 Japanese learners, and examines three points: [1] why such errors occur, [2] how they are influenced by the first language of the learners, and [3] how findings from linguistic research can be used to provide feedback to learners about the errors.

The teaching guidelines authorised by the Ministry of Education have seen two major shifts regarding the model variety in the policy and practice of English language teaching (ELT) in Japan: withdrawal from the exclusive orientation to UK/US English in 1977; and fostering awareness of the tenets of World Englishes (WEs) and English as a lingua franca (ELF) since the turn of the century. The objective of this research is to look for a possible change in the attitudes of university students towards varieties of English due to these paradigm shifts. A questionnaire was distributed to advanced-level ESL learners enrolled in a liberal arts-based department that had English as a medium of instruction. The results revealed that the overwhelming favouritism towards US English lingers, despite the learners’ first-hand use of ELF and ample exposure to WEs in academic settings. The background factors for this predilection for US English include its extensive use in ELT materials and in popular-culture contents, whereas a small-scale preference for ‘lesser-known’ varieties of English, whether in the Inner or Expanding Circle, is assumed to have been developed through personal interactions with speakers of those varieties. ELT policy making should take into account what model ‘WEs/ELF-aware’ learners wish to aim at and the underlying reasons for their motivation.

King Lear gives his all to Goneril and Regan, but is betrayed and goes mad, leaving him in a state of nothing. However, Lear regains his sanity through the devoted support of the Fool, Kent, and by being reunited with Cordelia. The Fool predicts a future portraying an ideal Britain, where class distinctions disappear and everyone walks as equals. The French king’s oxymoronic expression “forsaken to be most regarded, unloved to be most loved” refers to the relativity of the two concepts, saying that there is no absolute standard. Lear is reconciled with his beloved daughter Cordelia, but his joy is short-lived, as she is murdered not long after they reunite. He feels a deep sense of loss and loses his life in shock.
Shadrack also loses everything and falls into nothingness and begins to lose his mind, but from a black person’s perspective he sees the truth. On her deathbed, Sula, like the Fool, predicts a future where love is unconditional. The words “the robin shit” and “a movie star”, which represent beauty, ugliness, good and evil, represent the fusion of two concepts, as in the lines of the King of France. Shadrack can relate well to Sula, and views her like a daughter to him, but his happiness is short-lived when she dies. Shadrack also feels a sense of loss, but his sick mind recovers sufficiently to be able to comprehend the feeling of loneliness.
The concepts of good and evil, which seem to be at odds in King Lear and Sula, are not in conflict. To endure and suspend judgement between the two concepts means that Lear’s world of madness eventually turns into the world of truth, the invisible world of the people of Bottom into the visible world, the seemingly opposing and contradictory dichotomies¹ merge, and despair turns into hope. Thus, it can be said that Sula is a work that embraces the themes of King Lear.

In Chapter 5 of Part One, which deals with the conception of the nymphet, Humbert refers to Dante’s Beatrice to justify his obsession with prepubescent girls. This suggests that Lolita, the gray-eyed nymphet (the reincarnation of Annabel Leigh), is symbolized by the number 9, with which Dante establishes Beatrice’s identity. The two motifs of “the transition from 999 to 1000” and “a lake” appear in the three successively published novels: Lolita (1955), Pnin (1957), Pale Fire (1962). About the lake motif in Lolita, Priscilla Meyer points out that unlike Pale Fire’s three conjoined lakes (Omega, Ozero, and Zero=the three Os or zeros), which emblematize Hazel’s suicide and the possibility of another world, Lolita’s three lakes (Onyx, Eryx, and Climax), whose names end in x, “are associated with crass sexuality.” From the numerical points of view, x represents the number 10 in Roman numerals and is the 24th letter in the English alphabet. Humbert says of his fateful encounter with Lolita in Chapter 4 of Part One, “But that mimosa grove ... remained with me, and that little girl ... haunted me ever since--until at last, twenty-four years later, I broke her spell by incarnating her in another.” However, in Chapter 10, he restates, “The twenty-five years I had lived since then ... vanished.” And although Humbert mentions that he began working on his manuscript in captivity 56 days ago, he was not in prison at that time. Analyzing the two motifs of “the transition from 999 to 1000” and “a lake,” the numerical chiasmus (25-52, 24-42, 56-65), and the symbolic meanings of 24 and 25 will allow us to understand the multilayered meanings of the restatement of 24 and 25 and the intricate symbolism implied by the time discrepancy between the 56 days Humbert took to write his manuscript and the number of days until his death.

William Empson’s conception of “ambiguity” is so complex that I categorized it into three types, “an obscure meaning”, “a two meaning” and “a multiple meaning”, in my paper I wrote, instead of the seven types of “ambiguity” Empson identified. Furthermore, “a two meaning” type including the opposite meaning was able to be translated into “a double meaning”. By focusing on “a double meaning”, it is possible to associate ambiguity with “argufying”. The reason for focusing on “argufying” is that Empson said he had been interested in it for a long time in “Argufying in Poetry”. However, it seems that he never explained the reason that he was interested in “ambiguity”. On the other hand, his thesis, which became the basis for Seven Types of Ambiguity, was influenced by Principles of Literary Criticism by I.A. Richards, who was his mentor. Therefore, this paper examines whether Empson’s ambiguity attributes Richards’ book, Principles of Literary Criticism, and G.E. Moore, who is said to have influenced I.A. Richards, wrote his book, Principia Ethica, or not.

Content and Language Integrated Learning, (CLIL) is an approach where students learn a subject and a second language at the same time. It deals with the language used by a discourse community for communication for specific purposes. It is also relevant for teaching English language including academic English in the field of sustainable developmental goals (SDGs) ¹. SDGs class materials with using a CLIL method can be classified into genres, which consist of three features, such as discussion, oral presentation and academic writing. Teaching the use of a language for specific purposes enables learners to become aware genre texts, where they have an opportunity to understand grammatical, lexical, technical and phonological patterns while learning about SDGs. CLIL can be also considered as an avatar of language for specific purposes. First, CLIL is defined to meet specific needs of learners. The CLIL method is widely practiced in many universities in Japan. Second, CLIL is centered on the language appropriate to these activities in terms of grammar, lexis, register, study skills, discourse and genre, focused on content-based learning on SDGs. Third, CLIL is likely to be designed for adult learners, including university students from intermediate level to academically advanced students. Fourth and finally, CLIL courses assume some advanced knowledge of the language system, but it can be used with intermediate learners. In a sense, CLIL teaching has much in common with English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and English for Academic Purposes (EAP). Quickly developing CLIL can be considered as part of a larger concept of English for Specific Purposes. In this paper, the author conducted a questionnaire survey of 37 students majoring in veterinary medicine at Nihon University to survey whether or not students could acquire English from SDGs using CLIL methodology. Based on the results of the questionnaire, the author also provides discussion as the effectiveness of CLIL teaching, examining some good points and bad points to substantiate the survey results.

The purpose of this paper is to offer a critical comparison between Shakespeare’s King Henry IV Part 1-2 and the Machiavellian concepts of Chapter 3 of The Prince.
King Henry IV tells his son that his entire reign has been like a scene in which he acts out his struggle with those who had helped him to become a king. King Henry IV Part 1 and 2 follow the rules which are the same as these maxims in Chapter 3 of The Prince.
The chapter argues “you cannot satisfy [those who have helped you to become ruler] in the ways that they expect, [n] or can you use strong medicine against them, since you have obligations to them” (7), “the ruler, because of the rebellion, will be more ruthless in consolidating his power, in punishing the guilty, unmasking suspects, and remedying weakness in his government” (7), and “anyone who enables another to become powerful, brings about his own ruin [, ] for the power is increased by him either through guile or through force, and both of these are reasons for the man who has become powerful to be on his guard” (14).

William Shakespeare’s Richard III is now often regarded as a history, but actually, it was named The Tragedy of King Richard the Third by the author as seen in the quarto edition. If the social chaos Richard developed in the text is focused on, it can be a history. On the other hand, if the protagonist’s talents, extraordinary charisma and miserable disability are emphasized, it will be a tragedy. In this paper, it is shown that these two characteristics of the text work complementarily by examining the dialectic relationship between the society and Richard. In fact, not only Richard but also other ruling class people around him are responsible for the social dislocations, including even Richard’s dark deeds. It is because they actually depended on or took advantage of his political power for survival, though they also seemed to feel fear. It is just like Thomas Hobbes’ “bellum omnium contra omnes” (“the war of all against all”) in Leviathan, concerning the social contract theory. According to his theory, everyone wants to make an attack for survival before the others do. It leads to “the war of all against all”. Hobbes concluded that social disturbances like civil war can be avoided only by an absolute political power. His theory may be resulted from his hard experience during the English Civil War (1642-51) just like the Wars of the Roses (1455-85) where everyone around Richard was responsible for the social disorder. In conclusion, Shakespeare’s Richard III can be regarded as one of the precedents of Hobbes’ theory of social contract.

Languages allow us to indicate the source of information by using various expressions. In English, for example, speakers are able to indicate that they have acquired some information through hearsay by using the expression such as I heard that ... (e.g. I heard that it is raining outside.) Besides, they are able to indicate that they have directly experienced things by using expressions such as I see that ... (e.g. I see that it is raining outside.)
According to previous studies, some languages require that the information source be expressed grammatically, by means of a dedicated class of morphemes or an inflectional system (e.g. Cheyenne (Murray 2010), Tucano (Aikhenvald 2004), Tuyuca (Barnes 1984), and Wintu (Aikhenvald 2004). Other languages (e.g. Cuzco Cuechua (Faller 2002), Japanese (Aoki 1986), Matsubara 2017), and St’át’imcets (Matthewson et al. 2007) do not have grammatical requirements but do have morphosyntactic markers that are used to express evidentiality. Some researchers (e.g. Aikhenvald 2004) claim that the term ‘evidentiality’ is fully grammaticalized, systematic, and obligatory linguistics markers that encode the information source. In this research, however, I will follow Matsubara’s (2017) position that the evidential is a linguistic form whose primary function is to encode information sources. Faller (2002), Matthewson et al. (2007), and Murray (2010) take this position.
By observing evidentiality systems of Japanese and other languages, it is expected that characteristics of English would be understood more clearly.