We investigated robot-assisted recreation (RAR) for improving the quality of life (QoL) of older adults with dementia in an aged care facility. However, as a simple method to evaluate RAR has not been established at the field level, limited scientific data exists to show its effectiveness. To solve this problem, we studied a method to evaluate RAR based on speech analysis, which can reduce the burden on subjects (older adults) and data analysts. This study conducted both subjective and objective analyses of speech data. Subjective analysis based on the transcripts of speech data resulted in findings that supported and added to the knowledge of previous research, such as an increased willingness to participate in RAR, positive feelings toward the future, and interest in interacting with others. The results of the objective analysis based on the fundamental frequency (F0) demonstrated that there was a difference in the distribution of F0 during RAR and the interviews conducted before and after RAR. This study thus provides the prospect for easy evaluation of recreational activities, including RAR, in aged care facilities at the field level using speech analysis.

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この論文は、宗教社会学と女性学の交点に関わる実証研究であり、研究対象は第IV期新宗教の代表格のひとつであるGLA系諸教団(「エルランティの光」)、研究テーマは日本的母性(文化的構築物としての母性)である。まず第1章では、女性の社会進出の潮流とともに、日本的母性が文化的構築物として問題化されるようになった経由を振り返る。第2章では、GLA系諸教団とは何かを、その教義上の大きな特色である科学宗教複合世界観と内向的現世離脱的宗教性を中心に説明する。第3章では、内観療法とは何かを、その宗教的起源・母子関係の重視・広範囲の応用を中心に説明する。第4章では、「エルランティの光」の大小セミナーにおける「母の反省」を、「当然視/美化→憎悪→感謝」と進める過程を中心に紹介する。第5章では、日本的母性の中の「愛情という名の支配」あるいは「共依存の病理」一般に対するこのグループの鋭敏な姿勢を見る。最後に第6章では、日本社会である程度まで進行しつつあるジェンダーレス化の潮流の中で、このグループがどのように位置づけられるかを分析する。

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The Input Hypothesis claims that human acquire language in only one way - by understanding messages, or by receiving 'comprehensible input' (Krashen: 1985,2). This paper reports the classroom practice and the learner's performance which shed light on what comprehensible input is to the learners. Using the video of the movie, 'Titanic' together with its script, we try to search for the effective way to make the input more comprehensible. After the three months classes, students were given a couple of questionnaires, follow-up interviews, and a dictation test in order to see how the classes affected the university EFL learners. Under closer scrutiny, it can be seen that, including 'fast English' pronunciation, comprehensive analysis of the conversation of the authentic material accompanies the instruction results in the gains of meaningful input.

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This paper will question the ideal of integration of song, dance, and story in the Broadway musical and re-evaluate the dramatic importance of musical numbers therein by means of an analysis of The Mystery of Edwin Drood (or Drood; first produced 1986), a musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’s unfinished novel of the same name. The show became a critical and commercial success and won that year’s Tony Award for Best Musical. However, because the adaptation of the novel was conceived as a show-within-a-show in its performance at London’s Music Hall Royale, with the murderer chosen by audience vote, Drood is referred to as “unfaithful” to its source in some reviews.
Moreover, the musical is unfaithful to the ideal of the integrated musical. While integrated musicals aim to unify story, song and dance into a seamless whole, Drood’s performance is repeatedly interrupted. The show stops abruptly in the middle of the musical number “Don’t Quit While You’re Ahead,” as it reaches the point where the original story ceases due to the untimely death of its author. This scene suggests that, while reviews and previous studies focus on the narrative of Drood and the conceptual nature of its adaptation, the musical is in fact a story of the actors of the Music Hall Royale and their desire to perform through the interruption, the diversion, and the vote on the murderer and other roles.
In Drood, the songs are not the “servant” of the play, as in integrated musicals. Instead, the performance of musical numbers is the focus of the show. As the character Drood sings, “if you hear my voice, then you’re alive”; and the goal of the actors is to achieve mutual affirmation of their lives through singing. Thus, the musical numbers in Drood bear unique dramatic meaning.

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