Structure of Chiral Phase Transitions at Finite Temperature in Abelian Gauge Theories

The mechanism of the chiral symmetry breaking is investigated in the strong-coupling Abelian gauge theories at finite temperature. The Schwinger-Dyson equation in Landau gauge is employed in the real time formalism and is solved numerically within the framework of the instantaneous exchange approximation including the effect of the hard thermal loop for the photon propagator. It is found that the chiral symmetry is broken below the critical temperature T for sufficiently large coupling. The chiral phase transition is found to be of the 2nd order and the phase diagram on the $T-\alpha$ plane is obtained. It is investigated how the structure of the chiral phase transition is affected by the hard thermal loops in the photon propagator.Comment: 15pages, uses epic.sty and eepic.st

Second Language Complaint Realization and Its Future Directions

This paper reviews previous research in second language (L2) complaint realization. Complaint realization refers to a type of speech act in order to express the speaker’s displeasure or dissatisfaction when s/he thinks that the interlocutor’s act is unacceptable. Because it is a type of face-threatening act including both negative and positive face, appropriate complaint realization is difficult to achieve for L2 learners. Research in this field has so far investigated L2 learners’ production (their strategy use and directness of speech) when making complaints. Previous studies have shown that L2 learners’ strategy use plays a crucial role in complaint realization, and their complaint realization tends to be more direct compared to that of native speakers. More recent research has focused on L2 learners’ perceptions about complaints in the L2. However, compared to traditional production-based studies, the number of perception studies is limited, particularly in L2 complaint research. Therefore, more future research is expected to advance our understanding in this field

Identifying Characteristics of the Agile Development Process That Impact User Satisfaction

The purpose of this study is to identify the characteristics of Agile development processes that impact user satisfaction. We used user reviews of OSS smartphone apps and various data from version control systems to examine the relationships, especially time-series correlations, between user satisfaction and development metrics that are expected to be related to user satisfaction. Although no metrics conclusively indicate an improved user satisfaction, motivation of the development team, the ability to set appropriate work units, the appropriateness of work rules, and the improvement of code maintainability should be considered as they are correlated with improved user satisfaction. In contrast, changes in the release frequency and workload are not correlated

A Viewpoint of Authenticity to Enhance Teacher’s Abilities in Studying Teaching Materials : Through an Analysis of the Adaptation Process of a Junior High School English Textbook

本研究は，英語教育における教材の真正性(authenticity)のあり方について検討することにより，教師の教材研究力を涵養するための視座を明らかにすることを目的とする。第二言語習得研究において，できるだけ自然かつ多量の理解可能な目標言語入力にふれることは，必須の条件のひとつとされている。最新のＩＣＴや多様な教材ソフトウエアの開発により，学習者が自然な英語に接する機会は質量ともに格段に向上してきた。しかしながら，教材はできるだけ自然なものでなければならないとする主張に対して，自然な教材の教育的効果を疑問視する主張もあるなど，教材の自然さの有用性については今なお多くの議論がある。さらに，いったい何をもって自然さを定義するかも定まっていない。そこで本論では，英語教育における教師のための真正性の視座について，これまでのさまざまな研究者による定義を概観・整理するとともに，教科書教材の真正性に大きな影響を与えると考えられる教材改作(materials adaptation)過程について検討を行う。教材の真正性に関する理論的考察に加え，テキスト原素材から教科書題材に変化する過程の分析を通して，日本のような外国語としての英語教育環境で必要となる真正性の視座を新たに構築することをねらいとする。The purpose of this article is to consider the meaning of authenticity of teaching materials in English language education, and consequently to clarify the viewpoints for developing teachers’ abilities in studying teaching materials. In second language acquisition studies, it is regarded as essential to be exposed to abundant comprehensible input in the target language. With the advancement of ICT and a variety of educational software, second language learners have the great advantage of getting access to a lot of natural English language resources. Under the recent communicative trend, there is a strong belief that teaching materials must be as real as possible; however, there remains certain skepticism about the effectiveness of authentic materials in second language teaching. Furthermore, there is no unified definition of the term. Therefore, this article will review the concepts of authenticity advanced by several applied linguistics researchers and examine efforts to maintain authenticity in textbook materials adaptation processes. By theoretical consideration of material authenticity and practical analysis of the simplifying process from the original to the adapted textbook material in a Japanese junior high school English textbook, this study will try to construct a viewpoint of authenticity necessitated in an English-as-a foreign-language situation like Japan

Senior High Students' English Learning Motivation : An Empirical Study

This paper empirically examines the English learning motivation of the senior high school students who are studying English at a technical high school in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. Two measures, (1) motivation and (2) orientation, were administered to 144 Japanese technical senior high school students. The results of both the confirmatory factor analysis and the exploratory factor analysis revealed that Japanese technical senior high school students' English learning motivation and orientation were not as developed as those of Canadian learners of English as a second language. The results, however, confirmed the validity of the framework of intrinsic, extrinsic and amotivation, and of integrative and instrumental motivation, in describing Japanese technical senior high school students' motivation

An Analysis of Teacher-Student Interactions in Senior High School English Classrooms

The purpose of this study is to identify features of teacher-student interaction in senior high school English classrooms in Japan. In recent second language acquisition research, many studies have been carried out on corrective feedback to L2 learners’ oral and written errors. However, although classroom interactions include far more diverse interactions including error corrections, few studies have analyzed how meaningful and communicative those interactions are. Therefore, the present study chose two 50-minutes English lessons by two experienced high school teachers, extracted from their lessons a total of 85 units of teacher-student/ student-to-student interactions in English/Japanese and closely scrutinized them for common classroom communication patterns among Japanese teachers of English. The results indicated that the analyzed classroom interactions contained many teacher-dominated one-way interactions both in English and Japanese

A Study of Teaching Materials for Cross-curricular Lesson Planning in an Elementary School: Reading Academic Research for CLIL Materials Development to Connect Social Studies and English Classess

　本共同研究の目的は，学校教師が，専門科学（研究）者が行う研究を教材研究として読み解き，その読み解きから一人の研究者の「学習」過程を読み取り，授業づくりに応用する，論文読解から学習構造への変換システムを開発することにある。 　本稿では，小学校における教科横断型単元を開発するために，社会科と英語科が協働して進めるCLIL（Content and Language Integrated Learning : 内容言語統合型学習）単元を事例に取り上げる。社会科と英語科の教員がフロイド＝シュモーの活動を共通事例に，それぞれの教科授業を構想し，協働した単元を作るために，共通の教材研究として用いた論文（著書）読解を研究対象とした。ここではシュモーに学ぶ会編『ヒロシマの家－フロイド＝シュモーと仲間たち－』の読解から，専門科学（研究）者の「真正な学び」を学習者の学びへと変換する過程と，その構造を解明した。そのうえで，小学校社会科・英語科が協働するCLIL 単元を開発し，その開発過程を説明した。この教材研究からCLIL 単元作りへの過程をどのように進めたのかを明らかにすることを通して，教科横断型単元開発における，著書読解，その教材研究，単元づくりという教師の学びのプロセスを明らかにした。 　明らかにした点は，次の3 点である。 （１）小学校段階においても，またその教科横断型単元開発でも，論文（著書）読解による研究者の学びの構造理解は教材研究－単元づくりの過程に有効に活用することができる。 （２）小学校段階では，単元づくりにおいて，論文（著書）読解で見いだした研究者の学びの構造は応用・活用できるが，発達段階，学習環境に応じて別のものに変えた方がよい場合がある。教科横断型単元では2つの教科における学習双方に有効な材料を見いだすことが戦略上，大切である。 （３）教材研究としての論文（著書）読解において重要なことは， １）その論文（著書）の構成に示されている構造の発見である。 ２）その構造が示す中心観念である。そして，その中心観念が単元づくりの中心に活用できるかどうかを検討することである。 ３）小学校の教材研究と単元づくりでは，発達段階や子どもの学習における適切性である。The purpose of this collaborative study is to design a transformation system in which school teachers read academic literature as a way of materials study; they learn a researcher’s learning process by reading his/her research articles/books; and they apply their findings to lesson planning. In particular, the present study focuses on a lesson for Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) collaboratively developed by social studies and English teachers in order to carry out cross-curricular lesson planning at the elementary school level. First, a social studies teacher and an English teacher individually planned a lesson based on the activities by Floyd Wilfred Schmoe as a common case and later studied a book about his work as a common ground for collaborative materials development. Here they read the book about Schmoe’s Houses for Hiroshima Projects and learned the process and structure of how to turn professional researchers’ learning to learners’ learning. Then the authors developed a CLIL lesson together and showed its design process. This materials development study shows the process of CLIL lesson planning and by doing so, it showed a teachers’ learning process in cross-curricular lesson planning ranging from reading articles/books, materials study, and lesson planning. There are three findings from this study: (1) Understanding the structure of researchers’ learning process can be utilized in the process of materials study and lesson planning in cross-curricular lesson planning in the elementary school. (2) Although it is possible to apply and use the structure of researchers’ learning found in their articles/books, findings should be adapted to the children’s developmental stages and learning environment. It is important to make sure that the developed cross-curricular lesson should provide effective materials to both subjects. (3) Important things in reading articles/books as materials study are: 1) to identify the structure of the target articles/books 2) to identify the key concepts of the resource materials and see if those concepts can be used as a core in lesson planning 3) to consider if the developed materials/lessons are appropriate for children in elementary school※内容訂正のためPDFファイル差替え（2017年7月18日