The purpose of this study was to clarify how the place where bookshelves create in a school library affect the engagement of students’ science inquiry learning focusing on the scaffolding as teacher support.

 This research was based on micro-ethnographic case studies using observational data.

 During fieldwork at a public junior school, the researcher observed inquiry learning lessons and interviewed a science teacher.

 During data analysis, the researcher categorized places where the teacher had provided support in the school library.

 Second, based on the speech and behavior the teacher had used with the students, the researcher classified each of the teacher’s supports as one of three types: formal (F), informal (I), or ambiguous (A), which was mixed formal and informal. When judging the teacher’s supports as formal or informal, the researcher adopted the strategies for scaffolding from PBL (problem-based learning) and the strategies for creating third spaces in inquiry learning. Finally, focusing on one student, the researcher examined the cases.

 The results first clarified that, as scaffolding to support for reading or writing, the teacher had their students select learning places within the school library. Secondly, in this case of studies it was suggested that when a student felt uneasy for her learning or peer that not only she moves from her own seat at a reading space to a dead space where bookshelves created, but also the teacher was coping with her with using ambiguous supports. Finally, taking as a cue learning places the students chose in the library, with using ambiguous supports the teacher facilitated for students to engagement of reading or writing. Then, it was indicated that the school library was the place that the teacher supported ―by scaffolding―individual students for reading or writing in inquiry learning.

 Japanese comics (manga) are now one of the most popular reading media among young generations. However, the cognitive mechanisms that might underlie reading comprehension of manga remain unknown. This study aimed to clarify the characteristics of reading comprehension of manga with respect to the functions of working memory. In this study, 61 sixth grade readers were asked to read a manga story and then complete a comprehension test based on van Dijk & Kintsch’s (1983) model of three distinct levels of text representation: the surface form, the propositional textbase, and the situation model. The participants then completed several types of working memory tests measuring verbal short-term memory, verbal working memory, visuo-spatial short-term memory, and visuo-spatial working memory. Correlational analysis and multiple regression analysis were used to assess the associations between each level of reading comprehension and each of the working memory capacities. The results showed that high-capacity readers for both verbal and visuo-spatial working memories showed a higher performance compared to other readers in the process of textbase comprehension, implying the involvement of integrated propositional representation of verbal and visuo-spatial information for understanding manga stories. On the other hand, verbal and visuo-spatial components of working memory were found to be separately involved in situation model processing. Based on these findings, media characteristics of manga and its potential usefulness as a learning material in language class are discussed.

 The effectsof behavior at school, and home, and when with friendson reading activitiesamong elementary, junior, and high school students were examined through path analysis using structural equation modeling. The results indicated; (1) behaviors at school affect behaviors among family and friends, and they are mutually correlated with the attractiveness of school libraries. (2) The effects of different behaviors related to reading on the attitude toward reading differed depending on students’ stage of education. (3) The effectsof the attractivenessof school librarieswere comparable to the effectsof behaviorsamong family and friends.

 This study investigates syntactic complexity and diversity in the text of Japanese picture-books and evaluates the extent to which picture-books can be considered as significant linguistic input for children’s language development. The text of fifteen picture-books for 2- and 3-year-old children was compared to the child-directed speech (CDS) by thirteen mothers, in terms of syntactic structures, argument ellipsis, and particles attached to overt arguments. Results revealed that the sentences used in the picture-books involved complex as well as simple structures more frequently than the sentences used in CDS. Overt arguments and case particles attached to themwere also used more frequently in the picture-books than in CDS. These results suggest that picture-books could provide children with syntactically diverse and enriched input, which implies the possibility that picture-book reading may have positive effects on children’s grammatical development.

 Previous studies of phrase production process in English have indicated that conceptual level accessibility of a word affects a functional process when grammatical roles such as subject, object, and so on, are attached to each word. Consequently, the resulting the functional process concerns decisions regarding word order in a positional process. Studies have also indicated that lexical level accessibility directly affects the positional process, which is related to decisions regarding coordination word order. Studies of Japanese, however, have indicated that conceptual level accessibility affects both functional and positional processing,but it remains to be considered whether lexical level accessibility affects positional processing. In this study, the first three experiments investigated whether an adjective with higher lexical level accessibility in a noun phrase with two attributive adjectives tends to be preposed. Drawing on previous studies, experiment 1 asked participants to memorize noun phrases and to recall two adjectives with the head noun as a cue; experiment 2 asked participants to sort two adjectives to fit a head noun and to wrap up a noun phrase. The results show no difference in the order of adjectives related to accessibility because the production process for noun phrases in these tasks is affected by direct priming. Experiment 3 presented head nouns to participants and asked them to fill in two blanks with suitable adjectives. The results show that attributive adjectives with higher familiarity tend to be preposed. To investigate replication in other expressions, experiment 4 presented coordinate conjunctions to participants and asked them to fill in two blanks with suitable nouns. The results show that nouns with fewer characters tend to be preposed. These results indicate that, although weaker in effect, lexical level accessibility affects the positional process in Japanese phrase production.