Below is a summary of each of the 2018 English Department undergraduate thesis presentations:
A Study of the Effective Way to Acquire English Vocabulary Based on Learners’ Perspective
Chiaki Arakawa
Her motivation for choosing this topic was based on her own experience of needing an effective method to learn words and her experience teaching at cram schools trying to recommend ways of vocabulary learning to students.
Chiaki conducted an experiment on two groups. One group studied words the conventional way, Japanese and English word list, the other group studied words where parts were underlined to help learners become aware of a word feature. She found this kind of awareness to be effective for vocabulary acquisition.
A Stylistic Study of Steve Job’s Presentation in English
Ryou Ito
When Ryou was a high school student he heard Steve Job’s presentation and it made quite an impression. He analyzed Job’s use of words, questions, and repetitions. He found that the repetitions were done throughout the speech. He gave some actual excerpts of the speeches to prove his point. The actual examples show how repetition, rhetorical questions, and pauses were very effective means for Jobs to make a sales pitch.
A study of effective methods for conducting mixed level classes
Sakura Iwadate
Her motivation for this research was her teaching practicum at Ueda JHS and her struggle to help students who finished the tasks very early. She gave a definition of a mixed level class: 1) It is a class with advanced and slow learners; 2) It consists of students who need help from the teacher or other students; 3) It consists of students who develop at clearly a different speed.
She categorized the methods for dealing with mixed level students making students to effective learners, meeting the individual needs of students, motivating students to attend the class enthusiastically, making the classroom climate that is suitable for learning, and making a good relationship between teacher and students. She found the fourth method to be most effective, according to the teachers who responded to her questionnaire. Many teachers said it was difficult to set a goal for the whole class to reach.
A study of the Movie Twilight: A Contrastive Analysis of the English Original and the Japanese Dubbing and Subtitles
Ruri Enomoto
She analyzed the contrast from three categories. In Japanese, the translation appears in an abbreviated form as shown below. She talked about the linguistic characteristics of the Japanese translations.
- Original: Where are we going?
- Japanese dubbing: doko he iku no?
- Japanese subtitles: doko he?
How to Create Meaningful Activities in English Classes ~ with Consideration of Career Education ~
Shuto Oikawa
His motivation for this came from, first, his teaching experience at junior high school. He felt a sense of incompatibility with the grammar material. Also, in his part-time job, he saw that non-Japanese at his part time job had communication difficulties with Japanese, and he realized that it would be important to prepare JHS students for this kind of communication.
He took a “career education” perspective to analyze the nature of meaningful activities. In conclusion, he says that activities related to the kind of work children want to do in the future or have instances of the kind of communication students will be expected to do, would be effective.
A Study of the Jude of the Obscure
Ikuya Kudo
Ikuya started off by asking the audience what they thought love was. This study was a chance for him to think about the meaning of love. In the work of Jude of the Obscure, he analyzed the notion of love. He discussed how society’s definition of love and loving people might be different from that of individuals and this might cause them grief.
A Comparison of English Education between Finland and Japan in Elementary School
Shinsuke Saito
Finland has a higher academic rank than Japan so Shinsuke decided to investigate why. He said that Japan tends to emphasize the fundamentals which can be detrimental to children of higher levels attaining the kind of academic proficiency of which they are capable.
A Stylistic Study of English Translations of Japanese Literature – An Analysis of Works by Shinichi Hoshi
Yuuki Sakuma
She discussed the characteristics of the English translation. She talked about how conjunctions were omitted, the supplementation of omitted words, and how the word “you” was used in English.
A Study of Gone with the Wind
Masato Shirotani
Masato’s fascination with the character “Scarlett” motivated him to research this work of literature. He made some analyses about the work:
- It is written from the perspective of the white southerner and ignores the perspective of African Americans.
- It might be discriminatory and representative of an “exclusive America” which the current Trump administration is pushing.
A Study of English Translations of Spoken Language in Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata
Ayaka Suzuki
Her conclusion was that the big difference was that in Japanese the reader had to infer the details of a sentence based on what was written before and after while in English all the details tended to be in the sentence.
Suggestions for the Elementary School Class on Discrimination
Motoi Takahashi
He talked about discrimination in Japan. He concluded that discrimination was included in 同和 or “harmonization” education but should be included in “moral” education. He also concluded that “bullying” and “discrimination” are related in that they can originate from appearance.
A Study of The Notebook: Comparing the novel and the movie
Yoshihiro Takahashi
Yoshihiro chose this work because he loved the movie. He discussed how the movie chose to emphasize different parts of the story and how the development of the characters differed. He discussed while movies can give the viewer a multi-sensory experience (sound, images, etc.) the novel can reveal more about the character.
A Proposal for a New Curriculum for English as a Subject in Elementary School
Ayano Tsushima
The recent changes in English education in elementary school inspired her to begin this study. She developed an original curriculum to use at elementary school with the new textbook. The time schedule would consist of three modules and a class each week. The evaluation would be based on the Council of Europe Framework of Reference for Learning Foreign Language.
A Study of Reading Tests and their Evaluation from the Perspective of Communicative Competence
Koki Niinuma
Koki attempted to develop a reading test that would test students’ communicative competence. He talked about his test’s reliability. The reliability score (chronbach alpha) was 0.62 and he was aiming for a 0.80.
He also compared students’ scores on his test with their score on TOIEC. He found some inconsistencies.
A Study of Commentary on Basketball Game: A Comparison between English and Japanese
Uiri Niwa
One observation was that the Japanese announcers tended to attribute actions on the court to a team while the NBA announcers used individual names to say who got the rebound, made a shot, etc.
Perceptions of global citizens in high school
Takeshi Hamada
According to Hamada, the world that we live in requires global solutions such as environmental problems. He says that there is some criticism of English Language Education in that it is not raising students as global citizens. Hamada was interested in understanding the concept of global citizenship and thinking about how to incorporate it into high school education.
His findings were that there are three perspectives for looking at global citizens. Global and local issues we deal with are environment, women’s rights, history, sustainable development, water quality, and economic war.
He found that uncovered principles were migration, multi-national corportations, assertiveness, school-related gender related violence, and financial skills.
A Story of 1984
Yuuki Hishinuma
Yuuki discussed how reality can be distorted when it is discounted. He talked about how people in power can use their authority to distort reality.
The Image of Right Adolescents in 1950’s America and its Margin: The Catcher in the Rye
Yuuka Yachimori
Yuuka incorporated a very informative mind map into the presentation to explain the main character, Holden’s ideal image of adults and the type of ideal image that America had about youth in the 1950s.
A Study of Japanese Subtitles of English-Language Movies: In Terms of Cases of OUT
Miho Yamaguchi
Cases of OUT refer to instances in which Japanese subtitles omit English phrases. The majority of omissions were when there were repetitions or for the sake of keeping the utterance within character limitations. She argued that omitting the subtitles can sometimes actually add to the power of an utterance.
A Study of the Relationship between Self-esteem and English Education
Chika Yamashita
Chika’s motivation for doing this research was the fact that so many people in Japan lack self-esteem. She developed a lesson plan to develop students’ self esteem from the following perspectives:
- Pupils can feel they made efforts or they could do something.
- Pupils can have chanced to talk with various people, and the communication is meaningful.
- Pupils can have common experiences.
A Study of the Movie, High School Musical: A Contrastive Analysis of the English Lines and the Japanese Subtitles
Sae Yamada
Her motivation for this study was to investigate why subtitles differ in Japanese from the original English. The technique for writing subtitles is for the viewers to be able to read quickly and understand what is being said.
The Effects of English Teaching with ICT
Shota Yoshida
Shota concluded that ICT was not a panacea for education and discussed its advantages and disadvantages. Knowing both will help teachers use it wisely.
A Study of Donald Trump’s Inaugural Address
Ryouta Watanabe
Ryouta chose this because it had been researched by few people so he could do something new. He identified the techniques Trump uses to get the crowd interested. Ryouta spent the most time talking about one technique in particular, using gestures. Ryouta identified 6 gestures: OK sign (pay attention to me), air pointing (something good), palm (something important), both palms (obedience and unity), pistol (war, argument), pointing to the audience and their meanings.