A study of Universal Design for Learning (Ito Rui)
Rui argued that students have diversity and need to provide various methods to encourage students to learn. Based on his background research, he shows various activities and methods to facilitate the learning of various students.
A study of Harry Potter (Onodera Minami)
Minami compared the original English Novel of Harry Potter with the original English movie. She found that the movie and the novel added data and omitted it. This was influenced by the characteristics of each media. Comparing novels and movies, movies are suppressed by time pressure, but novels can be written in detail. She also found that Japanese to English translation reflected the culture.
Dickens’ View of Life in A Tale of Two Cities(Kato Naoto)
The goal of this study was to compare Dickens’ views of life and death in the story.
特別な支援を必要とする児童生徒に対する効果的な英語指導法(Riho Takaba)
Six point five percent of students at school have learning disabilities. The number is higher for students studying English. In order to respond to this problem, Riho investigated ways to teach phonics to children with learning disabilities. She tried to phonics methods on a JHS student and received favorable results.
A study of the Movie, Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi: A Contrastive Analysis of the Japanese Lines and the English Dubbing (Saki Nakagawa)
Saki found that the English scenes had to explain Japanese culture in addition to translating the original Japanese lines. She also found that where the Japanese used non-verbal expressions the English would use very ones. Lastly, she found that while people tended to speak indirectly in Japanese, the English for these utterances was shown in a direct way. She concluded that it might not be possible for students to explain everything by language.
Incorporating Waldorf Education into English class at Elementary School(Nanbu Chisato)
Chisato found commonalities between MEXT’s Zest for Living and Waldorf Education, a child-centered method originating in Germany. She interviewed a teacher who used the Waldorf Method and learned about the kind of methodology used for teaching English.
How to use “Small Talk to develop elementary school student’s ability to interact about their thoughts in English according to the situation (Aiha Neda)
Small talk is a way to realize the goal of English education: students are able to ask and communicate with each other. Teachers were interviewed to understand their perceptions about the effectiveness of small talk. It was recommended that teachers increase the rate of small talk in elementary school to prepare them for junior high school.
How to Teach Impromptu Communication to Elementary School Students (Motoka Miyano)
For the English subject, Junior high school students’ speaking ability was found to be low. In particular, impromptu communication was found to be weak. Motoka investigated which activity is effective for impromptu communication. She found that students’ fluency increased by the frequency of small talk they did. She recommended that teachers choose topics based on the interests of children and teach conversation in steps.
A phonological and Morphological Analysis of Abbreviated English Loanword in Japanese (Kazuya Akagami)
Kazuya studied abbreviated English loanwords in Japanese. Sounds of English words are recognized by syllables. On the other hand, the sounds of Japanese words are recognized by moras. So, Loanwords in English tend to be long because Japanese people add vowels to English words. They usually shorten them to use them easily in their daily life. Almost all shortened words are three or four moras. Abbreviated English Loanwords can be reproduced with their original words.
Example) personal computer (6 syllables)→パーソナル・コンピューター(11moras)→パソコン(4 moras)
The lesson of using “Whole Language”(Sena Igarashi)
Sena Igarashi argued that whole-language is a way to do cross-curriculum studies in the class. To test the whole language approach, he conducted a class at the university for university students. They read a picture book about the tsunami. He concluded that whole language was a way to develop students’ individuality as wall as helping them learn to cooperate with one another. He also concluded that is was a good way to integrate the four skills.
The important points of teaching communication ability(Ito Rino)
To answer the important points of teaching communication, Rino interviewed non-Japanese about their experiences communicating with Japanese people. She found areas in which foreigners in Japan struggled to communicate with Japanese. She recommends that we see all people as the same human beings and understand our own identities.
The comparison between direct and Indirect Written Corrective Feedback for Beginners (Gaia Oikawa)
This was experimental research. There were two groups of students. One group had direct written feedback and the other had indirect written feedback. He found that there was no difference in errors between students who had direct feedback or indirect feedback. He says that:
- Direct feedback is good for beginners.
- Indirect feedback is good for advanced learners.
Suggesting the appropriate grammar instruction for elementary school grade students (Keita Chiba)
He thinks that Students in ES need to study grammar but teachers don’t teach it clearly (明示的に). He analyzed a textbook to teach grammar. He found that “past tense” “an order of words” and “singular and plural words ” were taught in the textbook, but not explicitly. He recommended some explicit instruction of grammar for students in the higher grades.
The effect of reading aloud and speaking (Isao Arakida)
Isao investigated reading aloud and retelling as a means of helping students develop fluency in speaking. He found that reading aloud could be effective for fluency. He also found that the paralinguistic communication such as back channeling encouraged students to speak more.
A Contrastive Study of Loanword Adaptation from English into Korean and Japanese (Miyuki Kaneda)
Miyuki compared how Japanese and Korean dictionaries express consonant clusters in English loan words.
The reason why she chose Korean is that she is interested in Korean. She felt Korean people seem to speak well compared to Japanese people.
An Analysis of English Proverbs in Terms of Structure (Toshiyuki Saito)
He compared English proverbs made up of words, proverbs made up of sentences, and proverbs using alliteration. He found that alliteration, rhyme, repetition made Proverbs impressive for people.
A Contractive Study of Loanword Adaption from English to Chinese and from Japanese to Chinese (Fumiyuki Takahashi)
One interesting finding Takafumi had was how AEON was given in Japanese, English, and Chinese. In Japanese, the name is Katakana. The meaning of Aeon in English is 永遠. The Chinese way of writing AEON is close to its original meaning.
The Effective Use of Google Translation in Essay Writing (Sho Miyamoto)
Sho argues that because students will use google translation, teachers need to consider how to make effective use of it. He found a total of 10 pre-editing rules that are necessary for translating Japanese into English. In addition to pre-editing, post editing is necessary to use translations effectively.
A study of The Merchant Of Venice :Bullying Of Shylock (Otoha Izumi)
Otoha analyzed how the character of Shylock affected the comedic quaility of the story, the Merchant of Venice. The play has a feel-good ending. She discusses the conflicting values in the play: capitalism versus romanticism.
A Compared Analysis of English Sound Columns in Junior High School Textbooks (Mai Saito)
She compared the Sound Column of the New Crown Textbook with the Sunshine textbook. She found that Sunshine tended to focus on vowel sounds while New Crown tended to feature vowels and consonants equally.