works

The purpose of the study was to investigate the college students’ attitudes toward religion and to see differences between males and females, between different religions, and also between Asian and American students. Fifty-four students participated in the questionnaire survey, which was constructed by the 4 experimenters of Experimental Method class at Kansas State University (1984). It was found that the females believed in prayer more stringly than the males; the Catholics were more in favor of marrying someone of a different faith than the Protestants; the Americans emphasized in participating in religious organizations than the foreign students while the foreign students were more in favor of unity of different faiths than the Americans.

(2) A Differences in Value Systems between Asian and American People. Department of Psychology, Kansas State University. 2^nd Annual Psychology Department Convocation, May, 1986.

The purpose of the study was to compare normative values and attitudes of American and Asian college students. A questionnaire was constructed involving statements of values, opinions, and responses to hypothetical situations, adapted from Minami (1971), Lebra (1976), and Christopher (1983). Fifty-one students participated in the study. The results showed that the Asian students did not express their feelings to others as much as the American students did; the Asians had more resigned attitudes towards earthly life; the Americans viewed marriage as an individual affair more; the Asians tried to work out problems alone more; the American men and women were more willing to share house chores; and the Americans thought the elderly are worth being treated respect more than the Asians did. The findings confirmed mot of the previous research. The only exception was the last one, which could be due to a sampling bias in that the current Asian sample was ‘unique’ in that they chose to leave their country to study in the US.

(3) 「東アジア人生徒を理解する」．1996年8月．マックスエル・インタナショナル・スクール。Understanding Asian Students. August, 1996. Staff Development Seminar at Maxwell International School.

現在，東アジアから多くの生徒が同校を含め多くのカナダ西海岸の学校へＥＳＬ入学しているが，彼らには，言語的な事情だけでなく，歴史・政治・経済・地理・心理などの違いから生じる複雑な要因に影響されている．ＥＳＬ教育は単に言語学的な知識を教えるだけのことではないし，新しい文化に慣れることも，単なる時間の問題ではない．東アジアは特に，欧米とはかなり異なった背景を有しているので，彼らを理解するためには，スタッフによる，より深い学習が必要である．ＥＳＬスタッフだけでなく，学校の職員全員がＥＳＬ教員のつもりで彼らに接する必要がある．

(4) 「国際共通語への夢」（The International Language: The Quest for a Common Tongue） 1999年8月1－6日，「国際応用言語学会第12回東京大会」で口頭発表. Presentation at 12^th AILA Conference, August, 1999.

In this study, 52 international high school students in Canada were interviewed to examine their perception of an international language. For Of the six official languages (English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Russian and Arabic), English was rated highest as an international language followed by Spanish, Chinese, French, Arabic, and Russian in the descending order. Because the sampling was a convenient one for this study, there is still a need to conduct a larger scale survey in order to obtain a better picture of how people are thinking about this issue. However, this group of respondents was unique in that they were high school students and staff of an international high school in Canada, who were educated in cross-cultural and global issues. It will also be interesting to conduct a similar survey with a Japanese sample and see differences and similarities.

(5) Language Attitudes of College Students, JALT国際大会（2002年11月静岡）

Since motivation and attitude are crucial components of effective foreign learning, the researcher decided to measure the university students’ attitudes toward language. Two hundred and fifty university students (126 males and 124 females) were given a questionnaire developed by the researcher and asked to rate on a 5-point scale English, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Arabic, Japanese and artificial language as a concept, as an official international language. The results showed that the respondents supported English most, followed by Japanese. A factor analysis yielded several factors that might affect their attitudes.

(6) College English Education Reform. JALT CUE Conference、 2007年7月、名古屋.　

Although colleges and universities are very anxious that their students be able to gain command of English, there seem to be various administrative challenges that impede effective and efficient practice of English teaching and learning. The present paper looks at the situations of seven colleges and universities where the present researcher teaches English and points out 8 dimensions of administration related to English education: (1) Philosophy, purpose and objectives of English education, (2) teacher hiring procedure and teacher evaluation, (3) the native-nonnative teacher issue, (4) syllabi, (5) collaboration between full-time and part-time teachers, (6) class size, length and frequency, (7) placement, prerequisites and pre-registration and (8) entrance examination system and its relationship to earlier education. The researcher suggests that administrators and teachers appeal to the government for an earlier introduction of English education in Japan, which may be a long-term process, and that college English educators continue to take initiatives in implementing innovative English education such as a communicative approach and extensive reading/listening, in order to fill gaps created through the current educational system.

(7) English Speaking Class Action Research Report. JALT Fukuoka Chapter Conference, July 2007, Fukuoka.

In this paper, the researcher will share his English classroom teaching experience. The course was designed for high beginner college students (TOEIC of 350-395) and the aim was to improve their English speaking skills. The students were supposed to speak as much English as possible during the conversations with their partners, but they were allowed to make mistakes. They were graded on the spot for their fluency. It turned out that they could be highly "fluent" in English communication. Their English, however, three distinct features: (1) the pronunciation was Japanese-like (i.e., often having a vowel sound in each syllable); (2) the sentence structure was mixed up with Japanese sentence structure (i.e., the word order confusion); and (3) the ways of responding were shaped by the Japanese style. Could this “Japanese English” be a World English? Or might it be a stepping-stone to more “comprehensible” English? Fluency is conducive to confidence, which in turn may sooner or later lead greater accuracy. Thus, the researcher argues that more fluency-aimed learning activity should be introduced in classrooms with high beginning students. A short DVD presentation of the student activity will be included.

(8) Integrating Intensive and Extensive Reading into a College Reading Course. JALT CUE Conference, July 2008, Osaka.

Intensive reading is something Japanese college students are familiar with through their junior and senior high English education as well as for preparation for college entrance exams. However, the most recent trend in reading skill development is through extensive reading (c.f., Krashen, 2004). Articles and papers ha ve been written and conference presentations have been made on how extensive reading programs are implemented and have yielded positive results. This year even a new special interest group in JALT has been created on extensive reading. However, there are still needs and benefits of intensive reading training. The present researcher was interested in how intensive and extensive reading activities can be combined into one course so learners can develop and benefit from both types of activities. The researcher implemented extensive reading mainly as homework assignments and intensive reading as in-class activity. At the same time, students shared and discussed their extensive reading experiences with each other in class briefly almost every class and extensively twice a semester. A far as intensive reading was concerned, students were given multiple types of activities to work on: oral reading, shadowing, dictating, comprehension questions, speed reading on short articles and pair/group discussion on readings. As a result, many of the students’ attitude and motivation toward reading became more positive and their reading speed was significantly improved. They commented that both intensive and extensive reading activities helped them to read faster and that extensive reading in particular was responsible for their changed attitude and motivation towards reading.

(9) Integrating Intensive and Extensive Reading into a College Reading Course.　JACET Chugoku-Shikoku Conference, July 2008, Hiroshima.

Providing effective writing learning activities in a classroom can be challenging because the act of writing is rather solitary. When planning a college English Writing course, the present author decided to utilize some concepts from a communicative approach (Brown, 2001, p. 43).Conversation and similar interactive communication are conducive to language acquisition (Long, 1996), which can also stimulate meaningful learning (Ausubel, 1968, p.108). It was thus decided that interaction be a main aspect of the present course. According to this syllabus, students first engage in free conversations as warm-up and then do 5-minute rapid writing on a given topic. The number of words written will be recorded each week. The written products are shared with partners and commented on. This is then followed by a mini lecture on a specific writing skill, which students will cultivate by doing some selected exercises. They will then write more on the above-mentioned topic using the skill. The written product will be shared with the partners, who will comment on either the contents or the linguistic aspects. The course is currently underway at Yamaguchi University. This presentation will be made at a mid-term point when the students will have completed 7 lessons and given some feedback of their learning activities. The evaluation will look at the change in the amount of writing, the effects of student interaction on their affective states, the efficacy of the mini lectures, and the role of extensive writing as homework.

(10) Welcome to My Class: English Speaking. JACET National Conference, September 2008, Tokyo.

According to the present instructor’s survey, most of the college students in the classes he teaches have not had much experience speaking English prior to taking the current class, and this despite there are “Oral Communication” courses at the junior or junior high school level. The present course was designed, in view of the above situation, to help college students gain some experience and confidence in using English. Students with the TOEIC score of 350-395 were enrolled. As a result, the students demonstrated their great capacity to actually engage in active, meaningful English conversations. There were naturally many mistakes and errors; however, communication was basically realized and, most of all, the students truly enjoyed their conversations and gained confidence. Most of them commented that they had never known how much fun it is to use English and that they began to like English which they used to “hate” in the past. High beginner/lower intermediate level college students need not only be given opportunity to use English but also be allowed and encouraged to make mistakes and errors in doing so. One student made a very insightful comment: “The best thing I learned in this course is that it is OK to make mistakes!” Such an atmosphere and environment must be provided more widely and at much earlier stage of their English learning-- that is, at the junior and senior high level, and even earlier. This will in turn change the scene of college English education. (245 words)

(11) Motivating College Students to Speak English. JACET Chugoku-Shikoku Block Conference, November 2008, Hiroshima.

The purpose of the present study was to examine methods and procedures to motivate college students to speak English as an action research. The subjects were 70 high beginning to lower intermediate students in four classes enrolled in the same course titled English Speaking. Most of the students had never taken a course where they were engaged in intensive English speaking, did not think they could speak English fluently at a daily conversational level and thus were not confident or fond of using English. In order to lower the Affective Filter (Krashen & Terrell, 1983), the students were told that making mistakes is acceptable and were even encouraged to go ahead and make mistakes. Most of the errors they made were not pointed out or treated immediately unless they interfered with communication. They were also given immediate positive feedback for making utterances, even if they were not so accurate, and communicating with their conversation partners. This was done in the form of according "point cards" on the spot during their conversations. According to the post-course student survey (Fall 2007), the learning activities were rated in the descending order of communicative games, task-based activities related to and using movies, music, and sports, free conversations on topics related to college life, question-answer form conversations using readings on topics related to college life, vocabulary quiz and comprehension check quiz on readings. The ratings for these activities were all above 3.0 on a 5-point scale with the highest on communicative games (4.2) and the lowest on vocabulary and comprehension quizzes (3.2). Topics closely related to college life and very interesting readings contained in the textbook also played an important role in the effective student interaction. The students also wrote comments on the lesson and their learning at the end of each lesson. This sharing and feedback to the teacher was very conducive to open and positive attitudes of the students and also for the teacher to adjust and prepare the subsequent lessons. As a result, the students made plenty of utterances, communicated with each other, and enjoyed using English. The students agreed that they felt relaxed to go ahead and say something in English because they knew it was acceptable to make mistakes. Although the level of their communication was still at the basic, the results were still overwhelmingly encouraging; by lowering the Affective Filter, the students were able to speak quite fluently though not so accurately. Once they learned to relax, make utterances and communicate, the next step is to raise their awareness of form and accuracy. Task-based learning activities will play an important role in this.

(12) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning: College Courses Cross-Analysis. JALT International Conference, November 2008, Tokyo.

Study of the good language learner (GLL hereafter) has been around for the past 3 and a half decades starting with classic studies by Stern (1970, 1975), Rubin (1975) and Naiman et al (1978) during the 1970s. Oxford (1990) developed the Strategies Inventory for Language Learning (SILL), which has become the most widely employed strategy scale (Oxford, 1995). Nakatani (2005) conducted a qualitative study in the Japanese foreign language context by investigating 67 books on how the authors learned a foreign language. He found some strategies especially favored by Japanese students. Olah (2006) compared learning strategies of senior high and college students in Japan by using SILL and found some significant differences in the patterns of strategies use. Finally, Nakatani (2005a, 2005b, 2006) found that SILL was not perfectly appropriate for estimating success in communicative tasks in the Japanese EFL context and therefore developed an inventory for communicative tasks. It is therefore apparent that language learners may use somewhat different strategies depending on the context. Thus, the present author conducted an action research using his Japanese EFL students by administering a survey including the Japanese version of SILL (version 7.0) and the researcher’s own additional questions. The purpose was to reveal some characteristics, styles and strategies of his students and also to find out any differences between different levels of students. The analysis is still in progress at this time. At the presentation, implications to the Japanese EFL context will be shared.

(13) Integrating Intensive and Extensive Reading into a College Reading Course Part 2. JALT Pan-SIG Conference, June 2009, Chiba.

The course was designed to integrate both extensive and intensive reading because of the importance of both types (Williams & Moran, 1989, p. 222; Nuttall, 2005, pp. 151-153). The course was offered during the fall semester of 2008 with 75 students of lower- to mid-intermediate level proficiency. Each week, the students read one graded reader (=GR) and a short intermediate-level text, and shared their reactions with each other. Their reading rates for both GRs and short texts were recorded. The lessons included developing other reading skills. The results showed that while their reading rates of the intermediate-level short texts improved moderately (=20%), their GR reading rates increased more dramatically (=50%). GR reading, speed reading under pressure, oral reading to each other, student interaction, and authentic reading were all perceived by the students to be conducive to their enhanced reading skills, greater confidence with English, and having fun using it. On the other hand, the students did not necessarily feel that their accurate and analytical reading skills were equally improved. Some wished they had received more grammar instruction and more vocabulary exercises. A future course should, therefore, consider how more of intensive reading and accuracy development activities can be incorporate into the course by, for example, utilizing interactive task-based grammar and vocabulary activities directly embedded into reading materials.

(14) An Interactive College Writing Course: An Action Research. JACET Chugoku-Shikoku Conference, July 2009, Matsuyama.

(15) An Interactive College Writing Course: An Action Research. International JALT Conference, November 2009, Shizuoka.

Providing effective writing learning activities in a classroom can be challenging because the act of writing is rather solitary. When planning a college English Writing course, the present author decided to utilize some concepts from a communicative approach (Brown, 2001, p. 43).Conversation and similar interactive communication are conducive to language acquisition (Long, 1996), which can also stimulate meaningful learning (Ausubel, 1968, p.108). It was thus decided that interaction be a main aspect of the present course. According to this syllabus, students first engage in free conversations as warm-up and then do 5-minute rapid writing on a given topic. The number of words written will be recorded each week. The written products are shared with partners and commented on. This is then followed by a mini lecture on a specific writing skill, which students will cultivate by doing some selected exercises. They will then write more on the above-mentioned topic using the skill. The written product will be shared with the partners, who will comment on either the contents or the linguistic aspects. The course is currently underway with intermediate-level students. Evaluation will look at the change in the amount of writing, the effects of student interaction on their learning and affective states, the efficacy of the mini lectures, and the role of extensive writing as homework. A short discussion will be conducted, if there is time, to generate ideas for further improvement of the class. This is an action research

(16) Attitude towards English an International Language: A Japanese College Students’ Case. JALT International Conference, Nagoya, November, 2010.

ポスター発表Poster Presentations

(1) Can Japanese college students speak English? JALT International Conference, October, Shizuoka.

Can Japanese students speak English? The presenter's answer is "Yes!" Eighty high-beginning students participated in the researcher's "English Speaking" class and demonstrated their "fluency" in speaking English. The course was designed for "low" level students (TOEIC of 350-395) and the aim was to have students speak as much as English as possible. The rationale was that college students have "learned" basic rules of English (in books) but never really "acquired" them by using them (i.e., speaking). There were several basic rules in the classroom: (1) Students speak as much English as possible; (2) they form full English sentences; (3) the accuracy of their pronunciation or grammar other than item two are not graded; (4) they are allowed to insert some Japanese only on a word or short phrase level (if they do not know the English equivalence). They worked in pairs using conversation topic sheets provided by the course. As a result, they demonstrated their high fluency in English. But there were a few distinct features in their English: (1) The pronunciation was often Japanese-like (with a vowel sound at the end of each syllable); (2) The sentence structure was often mixed up (influenced by the Japanese word order); and (3) The ways of responding and stating one's opinions were more Japanese than typical American or British. In the presentation, we will discuss implications of "Japanese English" in classrooms and share participants experiences. There will also be a DVD presentation of the researcher's classes.

(2) Language attitudes: a questionnaire survey. JALT International Conference, October, Shizuoka.

Attitude is one of the crucial factors in learning and acquiring a new language. Whether it is English as a second language for Japan or an international auxiliary language for global usage, social and psychological attitudes toward a language would make crucial difference in the success of a linguistic enterprise. In the present study, Japanese college students were asked to rate the six official languages of the United Nations (i.e., English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Chinese) as well their mother tongue (Japanese) and the concept of invented language. The results showed that they rated English as the international language the highest, followed by Japanese, invented language, Chinese, French, Spanish, Russian and Arabic. Moreover, their rating of English as the international language was higher than that of English as a second language for Japan. We will discuss implications of the study to Japanese foreign/international language education. The study is a follow-up of the same topic from 2002 JALT presentation.

(3) Integrating Intensive and Extensive Reading into a College Reading Course.　JALT International Conference, November 2008, Tokyo.

The most recent trend in college English reading is to put more stress on extensive reading, where learners choose their own books to read with no pressure of being tested on comprehension but share their reading with classmates. Krashen (2004) provides ample evidence for benefits of extensive and free-voluntary reading and a host of teachers have shared how they implemented extensive reading in classrooms (Waring and Helgesen, in Bradford-Watts & O’Brien, 2007). According to the present researcher’s survey, however, many of his reading students recognized benefits of intensive reading and requested some elements of intensive reading be included in class activity. Such elements include reading short passages, analyzing the text, checking comprehension/vocabulary/grammar and possibly translating. Thus the researcher became interested in how to combine intensive and extensive reading activities into one course so learners can benefit from both types of reading . The researcher implemented extensive reading mainly as homework assignments and intensive reading as in-class activity. Discussions and self-portfolio projects were sometimes conducted in class to share extensive reading experience. As a result, almost all the students’ attitude and motivation toward reading changed favorably and their reading speed was significantly improved. The students commented that both intensive and extensive reading activities helped them to improve their reading skills. This study is thus an action research and the presentation will include some discussion among participants on how the two types of activity may be more creatively combined and balanced.

学術論文・研究ノートAcademic Papers & Research Notes

(1) Psychology of Bilinguality. Kansas State University, July, 1984.

(2) Introduction to Psychology of Yoga. Kansas State University, May, 1985.

(3) 「日本人の神観念」　The Japanese Concept of God. 1991. 山口短期大学学術研究所報告. 第2号.1991.3. Bulletin of Science Reports of Research Institute, Yamaguchi Junior College, 1991, (2), 35-41.

The concepts of ‘God’ and ‘religion’ in Japan are rather vague and even confusing and radically different from those of other cultures. It even seems impossible to achieve mutual understanding of beliefs, thoughts and value systems between Japanese and other countries. Thus, in order to take the first step towards better understanding, this study investigated the Japanese concept of God. As a result, we found that the traditional concept is rather vague, polytheistic and pantheistic. It was even influenced by some political elements, resulting in some human-made religious products..

(4) ｢国際化の再定義A Definition of ‘Internationalization’｣．1991.12. 山口短期大学学術研究会研究紀要．第13号. 1991.12. Journal of Yamaguchi Junior College Research Institute, 1991, (13), 1-8.

Today, Japan has become one of the most influential nations of the world, and thus there are many things it is expected to fulfill by the rest of the world. ‘Internationalization’ is one of them and is probably listed as the most significant of all priorities the nation has set for itself. However, it seems that Japan’s internationalization has not been successfully carried out no even its concept has been fully understood. This study examines the past and present of Japan’s internationalization and redefines the term, thereby making it clear what Japan must and can do.

(5) ｢仏陀とキリストの比較研究：生涯と教え｣　A Comparative Study of the Life and Teachings of the Buddha and Christ．1991.12. 山口短期大学学術研究会研究紀要. 第13号.1991.3. Journal of Yamaguchi Junior College Research Institute, 1991, (13), 1-10．

仏教とキリスト教はそれぞれ，現代世界においては東洋と西洋の宗教思想を代表する重要な宗教である．各宗教の創始者の生涯を比較研究した．仏陀とキリストの生涯には，あまり知られていない類似点があるのみでなく，その教義に中にも，西洋では特に知られていない類似点が見出される．

(6) 「英語支配の構造と日本英語教育との関係」 The Structure of Domination of the English Language and Its Relationships to English Education in Japan. 1992.12. 山口短期大学学術研究会研究紀要．第14号. Journal of Yamaguchi Junior College Research Institute, 1992, (14), 1-16.

日本は世界の経済に大きな影響を及ぼす「大国」になったが，国際的なコミュニケーションと言う意味では誤解が多い．その言語的な障壁について，分析する．英語を始めとする外国語教育の問題点を指摘し，国際補助語の採用，人工語などについて述べる．

(7) ｢短期大学における英語教育の事例研究｣ A Case Study of English Education at a Two-Year College in Japan． 1993.3. 山口短期大学学術研究所報告. 第4号. Bulletin of Science Reports of Research Institute, Yamaguchi Junior College, 1993, (4), 1-9.

短期大学の英語教育の問題点について検討する．中等・高等学校での英語教育欠陥の影響，コマ数不足，教師不足などに関して，ある短期大学での事例を挙げて英語教育改善策を論じた

(8) ｢日本と世界における言語障壁について｣The Linguisti Barrier Issues in Japan and the World．1993. 山口短期大学学術研究所報告. 第4号.1993.3. Bulletin of Science Reports of Research Institute, Yamaguchi Junior College, 1993, (4), 11-20.

(9) 「米国の教育制度：日本との比較論」A Study of the American Educational System: A Comparison with the Japanese System」．1993.12. 共著（小野一臣）山口短期大学学術研究会研究紀要. 第15号. Co-authored with Kazuomi Ono. Journal of Yamaguchi Junior College Research Institute, 1993, (15), 1-17.

日本とアメリカの教育制度は，全般的に対照的と言われ，日本では特に日本の制度の短所が指摘されると必ずと言ってよいほどアメリカがその対照的な例として挙げられる．アメリカの根本的な教育理念を分析し，なぜアメリカがそのような制度を導入しているのかを調べ，日本の教育制度がこれからどうあるべきかについて論じた。

(10) ｢日本人と欧米人の結婚観比較研究」　A　Comparative　Study　of　the　Marriage　Attitudes　between　the　Japanese　and　Westerners:　A　Social　psychological Study．1994.12．共著（喜屋武剛・三浦澄恵・三好真美）.山口短期大学学術研究会研究紀要. 第16号. Co-authored with Takeshi Kyan, Sumie Miura, & Mami Miyoshi. Journal of Yamaguchi Junior College Research Institute, 1994, (16), 1-22.

日本の文化を異文化と比較することは，日本の文化とその異文化両方をより深く理解することにつながる．最近注目を浴びている「国際結婚」に題材を得，日本と欧米の「結婚観」を質問紙及び面接の方法により，比較研究した．結果，ほとんどの項目で，日本人と欧米人の間に有意な差が見られ，欧米人のより強い「個人主義」的，「男女平等主義」的傾向が見いだされた．また，日本人では，結婚観の主流が欧米の「個人主義」・「男女平等主義」的傾向を示しているが，同時に，伝統的日本の傾向も多少残っていることが示されていた．この研究の結果を基に，より効果的な結婚生活を営むことにつなげることが望まれるが，単に欧米の傾向を自動的に導入する（あるいは日本の価値観を欧米に取り入れる）のではなく，宗教・哲学・道徳・倫理などの人文的視野からも結婚観を見直し，将来への改善に結びつけていくことが指摘された．

(11) 「ハワイ海外研修に関する一考察」．1994.12. 山口短期大学学術研究会研究紀要. 第16号. Journal of Yamaguchi Junior College Research Institute, 1994, (16), 53-62.

例年実施されている同短大でのハワイ海外研修を94年度の研修旅行を事例に分析し，それが国際交流・国際理解に与える影響，及び児童教育専攻学生の分野での教育に与える効果についての考察をおこなった（短報）．

(12) 「北米におけるアジア人生徒用ＥＳＬプログラムの総合的アプローチ：カナダ西海岸における国際学校のＥＳＬプログラム事例研究」（A Comprehensive Approach to an ESL Program for Asian Students in North America: A Case Study of the ESL Program at an International High School in West Coast Canada）．1998年5月Greenwich University．

(13) 「第２公用語としての英語」案に関する一考察。 2000.8. 全国語学教育学会・日本教育カウンセラー協会：山口支部研究紀要、第7回。Journal of Yamaguchi Chapter, The Japan Association of Language Teaching, 2000, (6), 191-198.

故小渕首相が提唱したこの案は賛否両論とも熱い議論が買わされているが、それぞれの論点を考察した。英語を日本の第二公用語にできる可能性はあるが、そのためには、『第二公用語』の定義の明確化、克服しなければならない社会的・心理的障壁や誤解、学校での英語教育の方法論的改革、さらには教育制度そのものの改革など、総合的な変革が要求される。

(14) The Quest for a Common Tongue: A Questionnaire Survey Study. 2001.8. 全国語学教育学会・日本教育カウンセラー協会：山口支部研究紀要、第7回。Journal of Yamaguchi Chapter, The Japan Association of Language Teaching, 2001, (7), 181-191.

(15) 「英語学習者の背景・意識調査：比較研究」。 2001.8. 全国語学教育学会・日本教育カウンセラー協会：山口支部研究紀要、第7回．Journal of Yamaguchi Chapter, The Japan Association of Language Teaching, 2001, (7), 192-201.

In this study, nursing college students’ attitudes to English were examined. Although the students had a regular amount of English education, their grades were rather poor and their attitude towards English was rather negative. However, they liked English as a language significantly better than as a subject. Therefore, it would be important that teachers make effort to make classroom learning experience comfortable and pleasant. They also supported English as an official language for Japan and also as an international language for the world despite their disliking it as a school subject, realizing the status of English and its importance as a working world language. On the other hand, their knowledge of other languages including invented language was limited, being swayed easily by familiarity and therefore restricting potential to explore possibilities of other languages.

(16) A Questionnaire Study on the Language Attitudes of College Students, 2002.8. 全国語学教育学会・日本教育カウンセラー協会：山口支部研究紀要、第8回。Journal of Yamaguchi Chapter, The Japan Association of Language Teaching, 2002, (8).

(17) Translation: Its role in English writing courses. JALT国際大会（2004年11月奈良）発表、大会収録。

Is translation an evil method for Japanese learners because it interferes with the production of English sentences? Or can it be used effectively along with other methods of teaching English writing such as process writing? This is a comparative study of the translation and process writing methods in terms of quantity, quality, structure and creativity of student writing. The results showed that the translation group made more significant improvements in quantity and quality whereas the process writing group made more significant improvements in structure and creativity. It was suggested that the translation method is more effective with beginning to lower intermediate level learners who still need to work on more basics of writing while the process writing method is more useful for intermediate to advanced learners who are ready to work on deeper contents and logical structure of their writing. For most of Japanese college students who have gone through the translation method in high school, process writing may be more effective.

(18) English as a global language: Its implications to English education in Japan. JALT国際大会（2004年11月奈良）、大会収録。

This presentation is a review of David Crystal's book "English as a Global Language" and discusses the implications of this concept to Japanese education of English. English is now a global language and its status seems here to stay. However, its linguistic map is a very unique one in that the number of its non-native speakers is three times as large as that of native-speakers. The Non-native speakers’ sense of ownership of English is very strong, and there is a new phenomenon called World Englishes, new variations of English. In Japan, a new variation is appearing. There is an indication that Japanese college students can actually converse in English fluently using this “Japanized English.” English educational reform is needed to meet unique needs of Japanese students of English including both timing and contents of such educational programs. In this study, the concept of artificial language is also discussed.

(19) Is Japanese college student’s English pidginzied? JALT 国際大会(2007年11月東京)．

A pidgin is a simplified language where the need to communicate forces users to create a language that is sufficiently functional. A pidgin usually involves at least three languages with one of them being the dominant and therefore acts as a common language, which is a native language of none. It becomes the basis of a pidgin. According to Schuman, however, pidginization can take place within a second language learner’s situation, involving only two languages. The present study addresses three research questions: (1) Is pidginization taking place in Japanese college students’ English and, if so, how has it come to pass?; (2) Providing that pidginization is taking place, is their pidgin a “degenerate” form of English and therefore should not be used in classrooms?; and (3) What are implications to college English teaching? This is an action research involving the researcher’s English Speaking classes.

(20) Attitude towards English an International Language: A Japanese College Students’ Case. Birmingham University, September, 2010.

Attitude is one of the most crucial factors that affect second language learning and acquisition, and, therefore, understanding student language attitude is vital to the betterment of English teaching practice. The present study examined Japanese college students’ attitudes towards English as an international language (= EIL) and as semiotic sign. The methods used were a questionnaire and observation, and the Structural Equation Modelling (= SEM) technique was utilized for an analysis of possible causal relations. The results showed that the respondents (N = 194) held a positive attitude towards EIL on the whole as well as to its sub-dimensions of EIL Use, General and Bilingual Attitudes. All the four background variables were significantly related to EIL Attitude on the whole with more impact from gender and English proficiency level yielded than the students’ major and grade level. EIL Use Attitude produced four sub-dimensions with the domestic-international axis and the instrumental axis. SEM analysis indicated that EIL Use Attitude was most strongly linked by students’ EIL culture and grade level while General-Bilingual Attitudes were most strongly connected to an international orientation, International Posture (= IP). IP was, in turn, linked by the gender and English level of the respondents. Semiotic observation revealed that there is a great deal of EIL use in the students’ immediate environment, which showed some gap from their own self-perception of their EIL use. The educational implications to ELT were threefold: promotion of de-Anglo-Americanized communicative English; further cultivation of International Posture; and increasing daily use of EIL.

未発表論文等Unpublished Papers

(1) Uncertainty Avoidance: A Case of Japanese College Students. Unpublished paper, 2008.1.

In this study, uncertainty avoidance as defined by Hofstede (1986) was examined by developing a new questionnaire. The subjects were a convenient sample of the author’s college students. The students surveyed manifested a relatively weak uncertainty avoidance tendency. This is a result contrary to Hofsetede’s original study done in the 1980s. It may be a piece of confirmation of a recent shift of Japanese people towards weak uncertainty avoidance. On the other hand, the respondents of the survey are the students specific to the present author’s teaching environment. Therefore, conclusive generalization is difficult. Either way, each classroom has its own culture and we as teachers must be careful not to assume too much. Conducting this kind of survey at the beginning of a course may prove very useful in adjusting lesson plans.

(2) Good Language Learners: Their Characteristics and Strategies. Unpublished paper, 2008.5.

This study examines the characteristics and strategies of good language learners (=GLLs) as well as how learners can become better at learning a language with some illustrations from the actual learners and classes the author has taught. GLLs are those who have learning styles, personality factors and strategies which facilitate the process of second language acquisition (=SLA). Research shows that many of such factors are often complementary. Thus, those who can combine and adapt different styles and strategies to the learning situation are GLLs. In particular, those who can manipulate meta-cognitive strategies mark the best of language learners.

(3) Syllabus Analysis: A College English Speaking Course. Unpublished paper, September, 2008.9

In this study, the syllabus for a college English Speaking course in Japan is analyzed. The course syllabus is based on the interactionist view of language and founded upon two language learning theories from the process perspective and one language learning theory from the condition perspective: the Output Hypothesis and the Interaction Hypothesis for the process and the Affective Filter Hypothesis for the condition. All three hypotheses work out quite effectively through with the topic-based and communicative components. The textbook is organized by topics, whose contents are very appealing to the students, which further motivate their learning. The learners’ affective filter is significantly lowered because they are encouraged to go ahead and make mistakes and also because there is much more emphasis on their speech fluency rather than accuracy. The syllabus is more of Type B than Type A in that contents for mastery are not specified in advance but rather the learning process of the students is much more emphasized. Points for improvement include: (1) more use of communicative games to enhance learners’ meaning-focused interaction with each other and to further lower their affective filter; (2) incorporation of task-based learning activities, which will help to raise awareness of language form and also to prevent fossilization; and (3) adoption of more group work, as opposed to pair work, in order to stimulate interaction and to cultivate a more positive affective climate. The English Speaking syllabus already has several strong points, which are evidenced by successful results; however, adoption of the suggested measures may prove to enhance its appeal and strengths even more

(4) A Written Discourse Analysis: An Advanced Japanese Learner’s Case. Unpublished paper, 2009.1.

Discourse is “texts and genres in their social context” (Moon & Caldas-Coulthard, 2000, p.2) and is thus multiple dimensional. Therefore, discourse analysis must consider such domains as socio-cultural aspects, coherence, discourse structure and function, cohesion, grammar and lexis (Holland, 2000, p. 144). In this study, an advanced EFL student’s written work was analyzed. The problems were found in three main areas: the discourse pattern, clause relations and cohesion. Of these, the discourse pattern was the most problematic. The writer was apparently unaware of the English discourse patterns but was presumably influenced by the rhetorical style of her first language, particularly the Japanese ki-sho-ten-ketsu. The Claim-Counterclaim discourse structure was suggested in order to achieve a greater coherence. In terms of clause relations, a majority of the sentences changed the topics and rhemes, leading to weak coherence on the whole. This was apparently related to the confusion of the discourse pattern and also to the lack of topic sentences. It was suggested that the student writer prepare an outline with main ideas and their supports before writing and also checking drafts against it as she writes. The weak grammatical cohesion is expected to improve when the thematic progression is also improved by being more aware of topic sentences and their supports. The weakness in lexical cohesion may be improved by an active utilization of collocation dictionaries and language corpuses.

(5) The Role of English as an International Language: Its Past, Present and Future. Unpublished paper. 2009.5

English is now widely regarded as a global language. However, it is not necessarily received favorably by all the peoples and nations. This paper examines the three widely held views of the roles of English as an international language (=EIL): the democratic, the neutral, and the imperialist views. The democratic view sees English as playing the role of liberating its users whereas the imperialist view regards it as oppressing them. The neural view takes essentially a lasses-faire approach where the development and spread of English is natural and spontaneous. According to this examination, each has its own elements of truth but none seems to explain the whole story. In fact, they seem to supplement each other. It is also suggested that the roles of EIL have changed over time and are still changing. EIL may play a more democratic role in the future through not only World Englishes but also through some sort of spontaneous standardization such as Emerging World Standard Spoken English (=EWSSE). These two phenomena represent unity in diversity, which may be viewed as a sign of a democratic language. Finally, the roles of EIL can possibly be changed consciously through raising social and individual awareness of language human rights, promotion of language ecology, critical pedagogies in language classrooms and more equitable language planning and language policy

(6) Validity and Reliability of the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC). Unpublished paper, 2009.9.

The Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) has high stakes for students and company employees, especially in Japan, in terms of academic and career advancement. It is thus necessary to examine its validity and reliability. The TOEIC has very strong face validity because of its test development and administration by Educational Testing Service, its very large number of test-takers, and widespread reputation among students, schools and companies. However, it has some serious issues with its construct validity and content validity. Consequently, criterion validity studies require careful interpretation. In contrast, the reliability of the TOEIC is very strong in general. However, for lowest proficiency and younger test-takers the TOEIC Bridge is recommended. Finally, despite the impressive reliability of the TOEIC test, high reliability is meaningless if the construct validity is questionable. Thus, the most immediate attention should be paid to the examination and improvement of its construct and content.