A major problem for computer mediated communication (CMC) is the marked lack non-verbal information compared to other communications styles (e.g., handwriting). This study examines the role of face characters,known as “emoticons” (a term based on “emotional icons”), in CMC. This study investigated the effects of emoticons on impressions in two experiments. In experiment 1, three emoticons were presented alone and the participants were asked to rate how the emoticons were perceived using the SD method with 19 adjective pairs. A profile of the ratings indicated that different emoticons elicit different impressions. Experiment 2 compared impression ratings for an entire message under two conditions;a text-only message and a message with emoticons.The results indicated that the message with emoticons evoked more positive impressions towards the complete message. This effect does not depend on impressions for the emoticons themselves. The findings from these experiments indicate that the use of emoticons can serve to improve impressions within communications.

This paper reports on a practice to facilitate reading in children. Reading presentations were held twice a month for five months with 24 sixth graders at a public elementary school. The number of books read was significantly greater during the intervention and a follow-up period than during a comparison period. Moreover, the percentage of correct answers on a literacy test for Chinese characters was significantly higher during the intervention than during the comparison and follow-up periods. In addition, childrenʼs summaries for books that they had read markedly improved during the intervention and the follow-up period compared to the baseline period.

This paper examines the impact of and particular problems with teaching critical reading, by focusing on education for critical literacy in Australia. In particular, the paper examines the theory of critical literacy, how the theory is being introduced into the state school syllabus, and how each school organizes its literacy curriculum accordingly. Teaching critical literacy can be defined as the practice of interrogating our recognition of legitimate meanings and our understanding of the political functions of a language. In that sense, critical literacy cannot be considered as being a thinking skill, but rather a political practice. According to the state school syllabus and a school unit in Queensland, teachers and students can develop their critical literacy by reflecting on the politics of language and commonsense. This style of teaching critical reading has some impact on Japanese education, because the educational system tends to avoid political issues. However, the ways in which teachers organize critical literacy in their classrooms remain an area of concern to be discussed. This paper argues that we should explore philosophical and practical approaches to discovering how students can gain access to literacy practices based on their own histories and experiences.

The purpose of this research is to examine the characteristics and mannerisms observed when a reader reads aloud in school. The results of this study suggest that the kinds of strategies adopted by readers depend on audience characteristics in terms of the interaction between the reader and the audience. Two different performances of reading aloud with the same text were video-taped.For one reading, the audience was a class of first graders, while it was a third-grade class for the other reading. Each performance was transcribed and processed to voice weveforms in order to analyze structural and performative dynamics. Specifically, the features analyzed included phonetic elements (speed, volume, voice impersonation), directions of reader glances, and audience interaction (laughter, comments from the children).The results of the analyses, which compared the first and third-grade classes, indicated that the following strategies were employed with the first-grade class. (1) The strategies of reading in a loud voice, leaving pauses, and emphasizing words that will rouse the audienceʼs imagination. (2) The strategies of placing the book in front of the reader, and strengthening the relation between the text and the reader. (3) The strategy of seeking to capture the audienceʼs attention by spending a considerable time in introducing the textual material. Such strategies would appear to function in strengthening the reader-audience relationship at various communication levels for an audience that has not yet fully acquired the culture of “reading aloud”, and thus help to establish the practice of reading aloud.