The purposes of this research are (1) to investigate whether word frequency of the words used in Mochizuki's (1998) Vocabulary Size Test is highly correlated with difficulty of vocabulary for Japanese EFL learners, (2) to delete the bad test items from 210 items of Mochizuki's test, the weak items of which were judged as misfitting items, overfitting items, or low-discriminant-power items using FACETS (a Rasch model computer program), (3) utilizing the remaining vocabulary items of Mochizuki's test, to create new vocabulary tests having some Forms which are parallel tests with one another for quick and rough estimates of examinees'; general English ability in terms, not of word frequency but word difficulty (item difficulty). The results showed that (1) word frequency was not highly correlated with word difficulty, (2) only 102 test items were left after misfitting items, overfitting items, and low-discriminant-power items were deleted, but the 102-vocabulary-item test still worked well to estimate general English tests' scores almost as well as the original 210-item vocabulary test did, and (3) three Forms of the new vocabulary tests based on word difficulty order with only 32 items which can be conducted in less than 10 minutes were developed for quick and rough estimates of examinees' general English abilities, and the concurrent validity of each Form of the new vocabulary tests were theoretically confirmed.

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This paper is an attempt mainly to investigate how L1 reading ability can contribute to L2 reading comprehension according to L2 language proficiency and to explore the reading process of Japanese EFL (English as a foreign language) learners. Three hypotheses were tested: (a) L1 reading ability is correlated with L2 reading ability. (b) L1 reading ability can transfer to L2 reading ability as L2 language proficiency becomes higher. (c) A certain threshold exists in Japanese EFL learners at the high school level. The participants were 186 3rd-year high school students who have been studying English for nearly six years in Japan. This experiment was conducted employing SVT (Sentence Verification Technique) test. Scores from SVT measures were subjected to correlational analysis. The results indicate that there seems to be no evident correlation between Japanese EFL learners' English and Japanese in reading performance.

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This paper examines whether it is appropriate to employ the term 'competence' for the notion of strategic competence by Bachman (1990) and Bachman and Palmer (1996). Section One reviews the emergence and revisions of the term 'strategic competence.' The term first referred only to communication strategies, yet as the notion of 'competence' was enlarged, 'strategic competence' began to denote explicitly the notion of ability for use. It is demonstrated that the terminology of Bachman (1990) and Bachman and Palmer (1996) is not necessarily consistent. It is contended that the notion of strategic competence is pedagogical rather than explanatory. Section Two follows the use of the term 'competence' in a wider context of theoretical and applied linguistics. After examining the different meanings of the term by Chomsky (1965, 1995, 2000a) and Hymes (1972), the author endorses the trichotomy of knowledge, performance and actual use by McNamara (1995, 1996) and Lyons (1996). It is indicated that the term 'competence' is a problematic one, which invites unnecessary confusion. In Section Three, communication is described as a multi-faceted, evolving and interactive process. If strategic competence were to deal with communication as such, the term 'competence' is misleading in that it now assumes the Chomskyean implication of I-language. The notion of strategic competence is probably beyond our current scope of explanatory theories, and as such it should remain as a pedagogical concept. After examining alternative terms for 'strategic competence,' the author suggests that a new term 'strategic capacity' may best describe the notion currently expressed by the term 'strategic competence.'

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This paper aims to present the results of the survey on language learning strategy use by Japanese high school EFL learners. Since language learning strategy research has explored learners' strategy use and has produced several taxonomies or questionnaires, there are still few survey results which serve to measure strategy use by Japanese high school EFL learners. In addition, though it is needed for teachers of English to give strategy training or to grasp the idea of learners' strategy use for that purpose, general tendencies of learners in Japanese high schools have been not reported by the surveys involving a large number of subjects. Purpura (1999) reported the detailed survey results about language learning strategy use by learners in Turkey as well as the questionnaire used. It consists of 80 items, 40 for Cognitive Strategies and the other 40 for Metacognitive Strategies. The items are deliberately chosen and revised from preceding strategy inventories and questionnaires. Purpura's questionnaire (1999) was translated from English to Japanese and used to measure strategy use of Japanese high school EFL learners. In total, 1,227 subjects from 21 schools took part in the survey of this paper. The results are shown in detail as frequency distributions and fundamental statistics. It is proved that there are some difficulties to apply the questionnaire to Japanese high school EFL learners.

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