The primary aim of the current study is to explore the potential of literary texts in university ESP-oriented courses. Presuming the emphasis on ESP to be one of the causes of reduction of literary texts in English teaching, the paper first reexamines the relationship between ESP and literature. Is it possible to propose an interface between ESP and literature, although they seem to be mutually exclusive for many practitioners? To answer this question, the paper analyzes two case studies: an ESP/EAP course for science and engineering students; and an ESP course for medical students. The findings suggest that literary texts can be used relevantly and effectively in those courses and that students evaluate highly the materials and activities as meaningful ones. The study finally indicates that literary texts have a place in the ESP context especially when we take wide-angle approaches in course design and instruction.

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As many universities in Japan have become global institutions in recent times, more people have come to realize the true value and universality of a liberal arts education in the American style. The purpose of this paper is to review some historical aspects of the liberal arts education in Japanese universities and colleges, and the current practice of the liberal arts education abroad except for the United States. The paper then shares some important findings acquired through research interviews at four universities in the United States, namely Dartmouth College, Columbia University, Purdue University, and the University of California, Berkeley, in 2016 and 2017. Because the liberal arts education in Japan is still quite young and, therefore, developing compared to the liberal arts education in the United States, Japanese universities and colleges will benefit from the lessons contained in the interviews conducted in the four American universities mentioned above and those of other countries. This will allow Japanese universities and colleges not only to catch up with the general practice of a liberal arts education, but also to play a leading role in formulating a new value and standard.

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Emily Berry (1981-), acclaimed London poet, issued her first awarded collection Dear Boy in 2013. In February 2017, her second collection Stranger, Baby was published and shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection. Stranger, Baby contains a poem called “Sleeping” in which Berry begins by mentioning “after Paula Rego”, a reference to her poetical inspiration source. The poem draws on the work of painter Paula Rego (1935-) and Rego's “Sleeping” inspires Berry. Interestingly, in 2012, Deryn Rees-Jones (1968-) wrote a long poem, also, in a referential style to Rego in a similar way. The title of the poem is “Dogwoman” in her Burying the Wren, a collection shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize in 2012. In 2015, Owen Lowery (1968-) attempted a series of poems under the influence of Rego, entitling his own book Rego Retold: Poems in Response to Works by Paula Rego. It is actually 50 poems intended as textualization of Rego's works. The concept of ‘The Sister Arts’ is helpful for the present discussion as it is shown in Jean Hagstrum's pioneering study, The Sister Arts. Here, the attention shall be focused upon this relationship which can be re-defined as the pictorialism in poetry. The present article will discuss how Berry as the poet understands, and signifies, Rego's “Sleeping” in her own poem “Sleeping”. I place my own particular emphasis on the possibilities of how much we can apply the idea of the Sister Arts for the investigation of the poem. As the ultimate aim, I will demonstrate how, in particular, the images of “a desert” and “the sea” are related, and integrated, within Berry's “Sleeping”.

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This study examines observable tendencies and statistical associations between lifestyle-related factors and components of social capital, on the one hand, and variables for English language proficiency on the other. A survey was carried out at Doshisha University in July 2017 to collect the pertinent data from the students taking English language courses. The results illuminated that following variables, e.g., were associated with variables representing English language proficiency: (1) preference for music over sports, (2) classification of average weekly minutes spent studying English outside classrooms, (3) whether or not the respondent has family members, relatives, or friends who are good at English, (4) whether or not the respondent thinks that he/she has many friends, (5) whether or not the respondent has friends from other countries with whom English is used to communicate mutually, and (6) the number of days having been abroad. Not only the presence of similarities between language and music, but also the positive effects of specific social capital as manifested in the above-mentioned variables (3), (4), and (5) that promote the exposure to and the use of English language have been suggested, though positive effects of general social capital were not validated in this study. Other lifestyle-related factors of importance that had to be omitted from this paper shall be addressed in future studies.

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This paper aims to clarify some significant similarities in terms of the notion of unconsciousness between Virginia Woolf and Carl Jung. Previous psychoanalytic approaches to Woolf's works have applied Freud's theory, paying little attention to what Jung's collective unconscious and the description of mind in Woolf's novels have much in common. In fact, Woolf attempted to embody the unconscious sphere in her later works and her idea of the unconscious seems to be identical to Jung's theory, though the writer had never met Jung or read his works. Thus in this paper, in order to clarify how the idea of unconsciousness is shared by Woolf and Jung, I shall investigate Woolf's creative intention noted in her diaries and essays and then analyse her literary texts: two short stories and The Waves (1931). Also by referring to what Jung argues about the relation between artists and art works, I shall elucidate Woolf's creative processes in which she managed to describe the intangible sphere underneath consciousness. It is hoped that my analysis of some of the passages representing collective unconscious will shed a new light on Woolf as a modernist novelist.

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The purpose of this paper is to clarify the mechanism and function of life review’s summary, reconstruction of narratives told by two elderly Japanese men at a nursing home, from a cognitive and narratological point of view. Firstly, we explain the background behind this research and the interpretative devices generally used in the narratology. This study is part of a project currently being carried out in collaboration with researchers in other fields of study, in which the life reviews of the elderly were collected. Secondly, we present a narratological analysis of the two contrasting summaries, poor or wealthy in remarkable incidents, focusing on narrative functions and interpretative devices. Finally, we consider how the narratological analysis can make a contribution to the ongoing interdisciplinary research.（This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) Number 16K02606.）

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The purpose of this study is to discuss issues related to immigration policies in Japan. The country is now facing a shortage of labor force due to declining birthrates and a rapid increase of the aged population. The government and many companies are aiming to survive in such an aging society by accepting more immigrants. Japan, however, has been criticized as politically and culturally closed, historically speaking, and people are not very accustomed to co-inhabiting with foreigners. As a result, there is lack of measures, or consideration, to promote immigrants’ comfortable living. This paper analyzes the situation of immigrants in Japan, comparing with the one in Canada, one of the most popular nations for immigrants. The paper also discusses the possibility of improving quality of circumstances in which immigrants are currently set in. The findings suggest that we need to provide immigrants with some help, such as language programs, to encourage them to become better members in Japanese society.

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The purpose of the present study was to analyze the verbs used in the model answers for describing pictures in the Grade Pre-2 EIKEN interview test. Under the basic educational promotion plan by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, 50% of high schools students are expected to have English proficiency equivalent to Grade 2 or Grade Pre-2 of the EIKEN Test in Practical English Proficiency when they graduate. However, the proportion of those who achieved the goal is quite unsatisfactory with respect to writing, and especially for speaking. Features of the verbs used in the picture description tasks for the EIKEN interview tests from 2007 to 2016 were analyzed using AntConc. The two lists of features of the verbs shown in this paper would be of some help for Japanese learners of English to improve their English speaking and writing skills.

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While literary works are suitable as teaching and learning material in the EFL classroom, many Japanese EFL students find it difficult to read authentic materials due to inadequate linguistic proficiency and/or cultural and literary knowledge. However, supplementary teaching materials that could help the students to read and appreciate classic English literature have recently become available to the EFL classroom, such as simplified texts, and film and TV adaptations. In this paper, we examine what EFL learners could and should learn from these different types of texts. For this purpose, we have chosen to carry out a stylistic analysis of different versions of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility (1811). The chosen versions are the original text, Graded Readers (GR), a film version, and a Japanese translation. Austen is well-known for her subtle narrative techniques and complex speech and thought representations. The characterization of both main and minor characters in her works is conducted through both a seemingly ‘omniscient’ narratorial voice and the characters' dialogues. We examine how Austen's stylistic and narratological features are retained, reflected, adapted, or deleted in other versions. Finally, based upon this analysis of the texts, we discuss how different versions of Sense and Sensibility should be employed in the EFL classroom. We clarify the specific role that each text should or could play in English teaching and learning environments.

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The purpose of the present article is to report on the outcome of the preliminary survey on students' perceptions of literature circles in English language classes at a Japanese university, where principles of active learning are translated into practice. By so doing, the article presents advantages and challenges of applying such student-centred approach to English language teaching, through exploratory findings and insights gained from the author's experience. First, the general background of the project is given, as it informs the principles behind the author's pedagogical practices in classes. Then, a brief overview of the use of literary texts and literature circles in language classes is provided in order to give a broader context for this report. It is followed by the description of the course taught with this style of collaborative learning. This section also outlines the reasons for selecting the novella used as the coursebook in the class. Finally, analysis and discussion of the results of the survey on students' perceptions are provided, followed by suggestions on how this approach might be employed to promote the intellectual and moral growth of students.

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The purpose of this paper is to critically reviews the instruction of English pronunciation and prosody described in the course of studies from 1947 to 2009 in detail. In this paper, the following four viewpoints are provided: (1) the model of English was the language spoken by educated native speakers of American or British English and phonetics, and phonological features were all covered for a while after World War II, (2) objectives mainly concentrated on daily and practical language use from the late of Showa to early Heisei eras, (3) target models of pronunciation were specified as “standard English” and teaching and learning suprasegmental features become more valued than vowels and consonants as the general conceptions such as “English as an international language” or “English as a Lingua Franca” rose, and (4) the importance of drilling and continued teaching of pronunciation has also been emphasized in recent years.

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By introducing various admission policies and procedures, many colleges in Japan have started to accept students with low levels of basic academic skills. As a result, it is reported that many Japanese college students today do not even read their textbooks, let alone newspapers. Keeping in mind that this might be the case resulting from the students’ poor language skills, which are to serve as the foundation for higher education, we, the authors of this paper, started to work on a project for the enhancement of our students’ overall Japanese language proficiency. In Spring 2017, we began an extra-curricular program, called Bunsyoryoku Yosei Koza. The present paper discusses the possible effects of the program. We compared the average scores of pretest and posttest of 21 students on a standardized Japanese proficiency test. The pretest was given at the 1st week of the program, and the posttest at the 15th week as a final. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test shows that the difference between the average scores on the pretest and posttest is statistically significant, Z = 2.69, p<.01, r = .59. Further, the program participants’ results of the 20th Nihongo Kentei are reported. Our study suggests that even one-semester program could benefit students. We argue that to provide this type of program, possibly called Japanese 101, is a responsibility of colleges today.

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