The paper attempts to redefine communicative competence as it has been traditionally interpreted by EFL/ESL language educators. A number of researchers have explored the nature of communicative competence in language learning in order to clarify the various factors involved in communicative competence. In the case of EFL learners, however, researchers often overlook the importance of the learners' basic knowledge of their own culture and the target language as well as the significance of perceptions and thought patterns cultivated by the learner's native language and the target language. These factors influence communication patterns in the target language as well and it is the awareness and understanding of these factors, crucial to language learning, that is defined in this paper as "cultural competence." The paper begins with theoretical arguments regarding the importance of "cultural competence" as a factor in communicative competence and then proceeds to present the results of a study, based on qualitative analysis of English writing tasks, into the importance of cultural competence to EFL college students. Finally, the paper offers EFL teachers strategies to help students improve their language-learning skills by comprehending the importance of "cultural competence" to language learning.

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Many language specialists and theorists point out the close relationship between speaking and writing and how they develop concurrently and exert mutual influence. This paper confirms this relationship and presents the results of research in which I compared the writing skill improvement of a writing class and a debating class. In the debating class, speaking and writing were integrated throughout the preparation and a match, and in the writing class, activities were only focused on writing. The research is done from two perspectives: how much writing skill was improved after one year in each class. and how expository writing should be taught. Statistical results show that debate, which requires lots of clarification and elaboration throughout the process, is effective for teaching writing and that low level writers in debating class improved their writing far more than high level writers did in one year.

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Dictionaries are useful tools for language learners. As good dictionaries may change the quality of work, it is important to choose the most appropriate ones. Using bilingual dictionaries has been a controversial issue in language teaching. Though it is said that monolingual dictionaries "tend to be unquestioningly regarded as better than bilingual dictionaries" (Thompson: 1987), many students choose to use bilingual dictionaries. Such students say monolingual dictionaries are inefficient and not motivating because using them is time-consuming and does not always offer a positive result in reading comprehension. One kind of dictionary may be a great learning resource for one group of students, but it may not be very helpful for another group of students. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of monolingual and bilingual dictionary use on Japanese students' performance on a reading test which consists of two sections, comprehension and recognition of word meanings. A significant difference was found between the monolingual dictionary group and bilingual dictionary group on both sections of the reading test. The advantages and disadvantages of using monolingual and bilingual dictionaries are discussed based on the result. Questionnaire data is also presented describing students' habits and preferences in regard to dictionary use. This article ends with suggestions for teachers who are considering introducing monolingual dictionaries into the classroom.

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Evelyn Waugh's novels have at least two impediments when Japanese readers try to read them. The one is the Englishness of his novels. As James Kirkup has said, his novels are written for English readers, using strong English idioms. Therefore, his foreign readers often find it hard to understand the scenes in his novels. The other impediment is the seeming frivolousness of his characters, which can lead careless readers to take his novels to be frivolous. In fact, the author's intentions are very serious. It is worth noticing that the Englishness is indispensable for Waugh's novels because they deal mainly with the decline of English culture which is closely connected with the Englishness. Also, in back of the seeming frivolousness lies a keen sense of cultural crisis. Waugh thinks that modern England is surrounded by non-cultural elements, which are the causes of crisis. He not only depicts those elements but also shows how he copes with them.

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In Loitering with Intent, Muriel Spark dismantles fiction itself by creating a novel with a paradoxical motif of an invented story's coming into existence as fact, in a form of real story (autobiography). The protagonist Fleur is a novelist-to-be, and the novel which she is writing begins to influence the real world around her; people around her become more and more like the characters she has created. This produces a strange reversed feeling in her, and she begins to think as though she herself had invented real people around her; they now seem to her fictional, based on her characters in her novel. However, she insists that her novel is nothing but fiction. And moreover, she feels as if she herself were a character of fiction who never exists. But as a matter of fact, "real" people, including herself, and "real" events around her, are not real at all. All are Spark's invention. In this way, Spark reveals Loitering with Intent to be fictitious; and its being narrated as the fact, makes the matter even more complicated. Spark actually knows that fiction could influence and control reality. Spark calls such magical power of fiction "daemon", which inspires her to create a work of art. This power might be diabolical and manipulating, but driven by this creative power, she conveys "ideas of truth and wonder." Loitering with Intent is the consummation of Spark's theory of creating fiction she presented in her first novel; it is truly the monument of Spark's fiction.

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From its complicated plot and the ambivalent ending, Measure for Measure is called a tragi-comedy, or a 'problem play'. While numerous attempts have been made by scholars to explore the problematic aspects in the play, in his postmodern production Measure for Measure (1994), David Thacker attempts to interpret the play in his own way. For example, the director additionally endows the heroine Isabella, whose verbose tendency also presents some contradictions in her personality, with boyish elements so as to make her position more tolerable. Furthermore, while Shakespeare provided the Duke with a monk's costume so that he can observe the state without being known who he is (this might be enough for the Shakespearean period), Thacker endows the Duke with a state of the art technology such as hidden cameras in order to secure his unshakeable power, as well as to imply the stability of the invisible power discourse in the modern state. In this sense, it can be said that this production makes the fact 'visible' in an ironical sense as postmodernists usually aim at. By using the tactics of postmodernist interpretation, the director seems not only to wrestle with the controversial aspects in this playtext, but also to represent the actual state of our present mood.

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Muneyoshi Yanagi, who is the founder of theories on folk handicrafts, respected Lafcadio Hearn as his predecessor. Perhaps Hearn was the first foreigner who had a high opinion of Japanese folk handicrafts. Hearn had a certain influence on Yanagi, but they differ in their attitudes towards folk handicrafts. The aim of this paper is to discuss this difference. Hearn and Yanagi alike have a distaste for mass-produced industrial arts. Yanagi thinks so highly of folk handicrafts that he goes so far as to personify them. He regards the craftsmen a less important element in the production of folk handicrafts, and insists that a long-established tradition is more essential. Hearn, on the other hand, regards every craftsman as a creative being. He argues that this creativity (of every craftsman) springs from a kind of memory called 'organic memory.' This memory, in my opinion, is a syncretism of Buddhist ideas and the theory of evolution by Herbert Spencer.

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First, the investigation was made into Steinbeck's descriptions of men and women. Originally his men work outdoors, and women at home. But, during this novel, men lose their lands, tools and jobs, and the original androcentric system no longer works. On the contrary, women's business such as cooking, washing and home-protecting invariably must continue. Thus women can keep their status. Then examinations of the human life cycle have been done. That is, birth, aging and death. Steinbeck thought the living have higher priority than both the dying and those who will be born. When aging is described realistically, it is sometimes considered as ugly. He makes candid descriptions of aging. He also describes the aged as respectable figures, respected in a very American way as ancestors and pioneers. A man dies after a life cycle. But men, as a whole, continue to live. In the Life Cycle as a whole, deaths, alternations of generations, mishaps and accidents are surely step-backs. But a death is not a 'full step-back,' but 'only half a step-back,' if it brings something helpful to the living, or if the person who is dying leaves something. This kind of idea is one of the underlying philosophies of the novel. Steinbeck built a frame of nature by putting the description of natural forces both at the beginning and at the end of the novel. In the frame, he describes men living despite of some step-backs, and praises them for their resilient attitudes.

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Since the victory of the Conservative Party at the general election in May 1979 till her resignation in November 1990, Margaret Thatcher was a dominant figure in British society as prime minister. Her consecutive governments tried to reverse Britain's economic decline and embarked on radical reforms known as 'Thatcher's revolution'. She saw the social systems such as the welfare state which had been created by the Labour government elected after the Second world War had made British people dependent and weakened their spirits of self-reliance. Therefore, she determined to reduce the degree of state intervention and encouraged people to find virtues in individual success and self-help. In the 1980s, profitable nationalised industries were privatised, the size of the public sector was reduced by making thousands of workers redundant and public expenditure for the welfare state was curtailed. As a result, the number of the unemployed and the homeless increased sharply. While the rich got richer, the poor got poorer and the gap between the classes became bigger. Also the tension between the whites and the ethnic minorities became intensified seen in several riots in deprived areas of inner cities. Hence British people experienced many social changes under Thatcher's governments. By looking at a film, My Beautiful Laundrette which depicts racism, unemployment and Thatcherism, I will examine how those changes affected British society in the 1980s.

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After "the 45" (the failure of the Jacobite rebellion at Culloden), the Highlands came to face a enormous transformations. In a political aspect the British Government had done her best to make the Highlands not isolated from other parts of Britain. And in social and economical aspects the industrialization and capitalism / commercialism were marching into the Highlands. Various kinds of improvements or changes could have been seen in the Highlands since the second half of the eighteenth century. Now, I am picking up the Highland Clearances as one of the major causes that dissolved the clan society and altered the traditional way of life. When it comes to the Highland Clearances, it has been often said that the Sutherland Clearances were the most notorious, though it was never the typical Clearance. This paper surveys the Sutherland Clearances with social interests.

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The business of convenience stores has been expanding remarkably these days in Japan. It has depended much upon young customers, because the operation system of convenience stores has been accepted as a part of the life and culture of the younger generation which tends to get tired of what they have and are always looking for something new. Then I will introduce the history of convenience stores in Japan and explore the operation and strategies of each store at the present in order to reveal the secret of the popularity of convenience stores among the younger generation. Moreover, showing the result of my survey on the business situation of convenience stores, I will reveal their strong points and weak points as well. Finally I will make some suggestions about how convenience stores should cope with the coming aging of society in Japan.

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