In this paper, several reasons for the unwillingness of Japanese university students to actively participate in English classes taught by native speakers will be explored. One of the main reasons is that Japanese have a high level of a trait labeled uncertainty avoidance by Hofstede (1991). Results of a survey (n=275) conducted by the author at two universities showed that 85% of respondents consider themselves to have either a slightly shy or very shy personality. An even higher percentage (92%) feels this way when speaking in English. A matrix cross-check analysis conducted on individual participant responses to the two questions found that 44% feel shyer when speaking English versus only 8% who feel less shy. In addition, over half of all respondents (57%) either often or sometimes do not answer questions in English classes with a native speaker even though they know the answer, with the top three reasons for doing this all being related to the concept of uncertainty avoidance. Survey results suggest that students need to be encouraged to become more willing to take risks in the English classroom. Several possible ways to help students overcome uncertainty avoidance will also be presented and discussed.

View full abstract

Takeshita (2011) has disclosed syntactic differences of the narrative part of the four scenes in Hemingway's "The Undefeated", employing the idea of the T-unit proposed by Hunt (1965), and examined the stylistic roles of free modifiers which appear in the longest bullring scene. As a result, it has been made clear that the author's strategic use of such modifiers lends itself to making us feel as if present and the tension of the scene. In this paper, with the intention of further exploring the cause for such a characteristic atmosphere and tense feeling throughout the text, we will throw stylistic light on the roles of verbs of visual perception, which Takeshita (2011) did not mention at all due to limitations of space.In the text, every single verb of visual perception in itself is not so noticeable, but, when combined with various other expressions in context, each shows us its own role as an essential factor for producing the characteristic atmosphere of the text. At the same time, this could possibly be a hint for helping us grasp the whole picture of psychological descriptions of Hemingway's `hard-boiled' style.

View full abstract

Jack London (1876-1916) took an interest in such sports as boxing, fencing and swimming, and he wrote some articles about boxing games. He is the first celebrated American author that got his materials from boxing. His two boxing novels are The Game and The Abysmal Brute, and his two boxing short stories are "A Piece of Steak" and "The Mexican". In this paper, we will mention those four works with special attention being drawn to "A Piece of Steak" in which London describes the contrast between youth and age.

View full abstract

Kumamoto City assumed that it reviewed the region inclusive support center when shifting to the government-designated major city in April of 2012 age. Concretely, It synchronizes with the review of the operational district according to the ordinancedesignated city shift, and aiming at of the functional enhancement at the region inclusive support center by the nursing care insurance law revision approved in June of 2011 age, shape to advertise for the consignment entrepreneur newly after the charge sphere region at the center was set again, and a current number of central installations was decreased decided to be taken. However, the re-setting of the central charge sphere region and the reduction in a central number can be pointed out that it takes in the region inclusive caring system that stares at a population estimate of the criterion mechanism and ① center and local populace and ② public advertisement system are taken and there are a lot of proble ③ future when the mutual trust of the situation to date ofms.

View full abstract

This paper analyzes verbs of expressed emotion in Japanese, such as komaru (be in trouble), irairasuru (be irritated), and so on. The verbs of expressed emotion have two idiocyncracies: person restriction on the subjects is observed when the suru-forms are used, but it is cancelled when the te iru-forms are used; the suru-forms of the verbs of expressed emotion can refer to the utterance time. This paper reveals that these two peculiarities result from the following: (1) the phase structure of verbs of expressed emotion is composed of emergence of emotion, expressing emotion, and emotional state; (2) the cancellation of person restriction is due to the fact that the phases described by the teiru-forms of the verbs of expressed emotion are observable; (3) person restriction is due to privacy of emergence of emotion.

View full abstract

Two university rankings (KPR &CR ) were created from Knowledge Pool Indicator ( KP ) that defines the relationship between implicit citation, and the number of citations (Cited).This paper was an analysis of Spearman's rank correlation coefficient between these university rankings and several major university rankings. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient of KPR & THE, KPR & AR, KPR & RW, KPR & NW, CR & QS, and CR & SIR were high. KPR was shown similarity indicators of university rankings.

View full abstract

In this paper we will review a practical use of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) devices in a junior high school English class and point out that it faces some challenges in relevant respects. It is, then, argued that the ICT deviceused class cannot capture a significant aspect of what English classes should be, giving some suggestions and insights into English education in Japan.

View full abstract

In this paper I will explore what structure can be embedded in a sentence, focusing in particular on the embeddability of direct quotes. I will then propose, contra Collins(1997), that direct quotes constitute a clausal adjunct parallel to the complement of manner-of-speaking verbs.

View full abstract

In order to clarify Shokei Junior College student's lifestyle and the actual condition of physical strength, the "new physical test" and the "questionnaire in question paper" were carried out. The result is as being shown below. 　　1) About a student's physique, there was no difference with the national average in height, weight, and height sitting down. 2) 90 percent of students did not belong to an athletic club. The movement implementation time on the 1st had "much less than 30 minute", and was the present condition of lack of exercise. 3) About physical strength, the grader was excellent in muscular endurance and whole body tenacity. The second grader was excellent in pliability and inferior in whole body tenacity and muscular endurance.

View full abstract

Teacher-training course portfolio involves students' self-evaluations on their own qualities and abilities of school teaching. Previous researches on practice-of-school-teachingclass have not studied the changes of the self-evaluations. This study investigated the selfevaluations data of teacher-training course portfolio from the first year of teacher-training course until the completion of practice teaching. The reasons of changes in selfevaluations were also investigated using questionnaires.

View full abstract

In this paper, based on the list of Han,where Samurai(messengers) were sent to the Shimabara Uprising. I will show that it had a nation wide influence in those days.(This work was supported by KAKENHI (20520198) Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C))

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract