It has long been said that listening is not a passive skill nor a receptive skill, but a creative skill. And the abilities of anticipation and memory (as prerequisite to the anticipation) are considered to be essential factors in the process of listening comprehension. However, what they are and how they work have not been investigated to the fullest extent so that the results can be utilized as a theoretical basis for the training of the listening comprehension ability of foreign language learners. The aim of this study is to explore the mechanism of the abilities of anticipation and memory and to contrive a training method for Japanese students of English. The author assumed that a fill-in-blank method could extract and cultivate the abilities most effectively. Based on the assumption, the author attempted to examine the abilities of native speakers of English by giving fill-in- blank questions and compared the test results with those of Japanese students. The results of checking exemplified what they are and how they work and suggested that in the process of listening comprehension, there seems to be a hierachical structure with various levels, a model of which could be formed. It was also made clear that more exhaustive material should be prepared in order both to investigate and to train the abilities.
The apparent similarities (or dissimilarities) of all possible pairs of twenty-four English consonants were estimated by two independent panels of eighteen Japanese and twenty-four American listeners by using a psychophysical method of magnitude estimation. The normalized responses were analyzed by a statistical technique of cluster analysis (SPSS, V-6: RMODE, AVERAGE DISTANCE METHODE), the program of which was made available through the Computer Center of the University of Tokyo. The results of analysis were obtained in the forms of tree-diagrams and correlation matrices. The apparent interconsonantal differences of all possible pairs of consonants were examined by observing these diagrams and matrices. The results suggested a strong tendency of the listeners to be affected by the manners of articulation in determining the apparent similarities among the consonants they heard. A closer look at the results may give some valuable information to predict the systems of distinctive features for both American and Japanese sound systems.
In the textbooks for junior high school students, each lesson is divided into several sections. And it seems that one period of time is usually assigned for covering each section. Moreover, a large percentage of the period is usually spent in drilling new words and key sentences which appear in the section. As a result, it sometimes happens that the students have understood very little about the contents of the lesson even after they have spent several periods studying the lesson. I thought it the most important for the students to understand the main idea of each lesson. For that purpose, I tried to summarize each lesson of the textbooks within one hundred words so that the students can understand what each lesson is really supposed to convey to the readers. To the summaries I added some kinds of test questions to check the students' understanding. And I had them recorded by native speakers.