This report is a memoir of the author's life as an English teacher at the National College of Technology, Fukui College from 1988, the year he was appointed, to the present (FY2024), focusing on the textbooks he used, especially textbooks not approved by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (hereinafter “unauthorized textbooks”). Here he has limited himself to unapproved textbooks because he can/could select them at his own discretion based on his own teaching policy. Section 2 describes his English teaching policy (teaching beliefs and methods). Section 3 lists the unauthorized textbooks used in order of year and the reasons for their adoption.Section 4 describes the author's first unique (English teaching) activities in FY2022 and FY2023, such as (1) preparing reports by using newspapers, (2) investigating the influence of teaching (textbooks used) on the success of technical English proficiency tests in early grades,(3) giving feedback to individuals after their conducting English presentations, and (4) letting students make presentations in English using AI such as DeepL and On-doku kun. Section 5 is the conclusion of the paper. Appendices include (i) a list of assessment targets other than regular examinations by year, (ii) a record of the 2023 University Transfer Tutorial, (iii) a list of foreign films and music used in English classes at Fukui Prefectural University by year so far, etc.

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It is well known that effective classroom management is essential for successful teaching and learning. From my experience as a classroom teacher, I conclude that establishing a mutually respectful/trustworthy relationship among all individuals involved, such as (classroom) teachers, students, and parents, is an essential foundation for effective classroom management. This paper focuses on how I (have) managed the classroom in order to build the aforementioned relationship. My classroom management strategies consist of the following three main components: (1) making students perform classroom tasks such as class representative (kurasu i-in), class duty (nicchoku), and cleaning duty (soji toban) thoroughly, which promotes individual responsibility and cooperation, (2) having students participate in a variety of (special) homeroom [HR] activities, and (3) having students write short compositions/essays about school events to publish a collection of them called ASHIATO (footprints), the latter two of which I believe facilitate mutual understanding between (classroom) teachers and students. The results of the questionnaire conducted in 2022 among the second year students of the Department of Mechanical Engineering [2M] support the effectiveness of the above strategies for creating a good teacher-student/student-student relationship.

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This paper deals with the past, present, and future of the “singable” translation contest, which was first held at the National Institute of Technology, Fukui College in 2014. Section 2 presents the details of the first contest to the sixth contest held consecutively from 2014 to 2019 and the seventh contest held in 2023, which concerns the past of the contest. Section 3 presents the details of the eighth contest held in 2024, which concerns the present of the contest. Section 4 presents the results of the survey on the 2023 contest. Section 5 proposes the strategies for expanding the competition from the school to the intercollegiate level, which concerns the future of the competition. In the appendices, you will find the first prize winning works from the previous editions of the contest.

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As alcohol intake affects the central nervous system, it may increase the center of gravity sway. This study aimed to examine changes in the center of gravity sway after alcohol intake. The study included 11 young participants (5 males and 6 females). The center of gravity sway was measured twice before and four times after alcohol intake (15% of frequency, 0.54–1.83 mL per each participant’s weight). In addition, simultaneously, blood pressure, heart rate, whole-body reaction time, and one-leg standing time with eyes closed were measured before and after alcohol intake. Position changes in sway were examined using a 5 × 5 cross table (5 categories: A–E) based on the percentile rank values of standard deviations X and Y (dispersion variables), which were made up by of large-sample (population) data. After alcohol intake, the mean values of all variables, except for blood pressure, significantly changed. In addition, the means of the COP sway variables (standard deviations of X and Y, length per unit time, and rectangular area) significantly changed. Among the 11 participants, 5 participants showed changes in the 5 × 5 cross table from near center to the EE position. Hence, it was inferred that the position in the cross table changed with alcohol intake. However, as some participants showed minor position changes after intake, individual differences in the effects of the same amount of alcohol intake were considered to exist. In conclusion, dispersion variables were affected by alcohol intake, but personal change of the position in the cross table made up from large-sample data differed considerably across individuals.

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This study investigated the frequency and combination patterns of hyphenated compound adjectives in two newspapers (The Japan　Times and New York Times). The frequency of hyphenated compound adjectives in the two newspapers was counted based on their categories.Additionally, the hyphenated compound adjectives extracted from the newspapers were compared with the list of word combination patterns to clarify their formation. The results showed that the hyphenated compound adjectives were most frequently observed in the culture section.The most prevalent combination was noun + past participle. Furthermore, two novel word combination patterns were found: verb + past participle, adjective + adverb.

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The purpose of this study is to offer an overview of previous research on Japanese sound symbolism. Previous research on Japanese sound symbolism has focused on obstruent, resonant, and bilabial sounds with many using character names and spells of Japanese anime as data. Previous research has found that obstruent sounds is associated with negative images such as largeness, heaviness, strongness,villainousness, and dirtiness. In contrast, resonant and bilabial sounds evoke positive images such as babyishness and cuteness. This paper argues that while most research has investigated the sound symbolism of obstruent, resonant, and bilabial sounds, many other consonants remain unexplored. Further research is thus needed to examine the sound symbolism of these other consonants.

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