On the Use of Mother Tongue in the English Language Classroom

Article信州大学教育学部紀要. 79: 19-27 (1993)departmental bulletin pape

An overview of English as a global phenomenon: implications for the English classroom in the Japanese context

More than thirty years have passed since Larry Smith proposed his ‘ETL’ (English as an International Language) paradigm, and during those years newer paradigms from various view points have been presented with regard to English as a global phenomenon. This paper examines some of those literature published after the assertion of EIL by Smith, including partially Smith’s, and consider the implication for English language education in Japan. First, we survey Kachru’s ‘Three Concentric Circles’ and his paradigm of ‘WE’ (World Englishes) in relation to Smith’s EIL. Second, we outline the paradigm of ‘ELF’ (English as a Lingua Franca) proposed by Jenkins and Seidlhofer comparing with EIL. Third, we give an overview of Birch’s paradigm of ‘AE’ (Academic English), especially paying attention to her taking notice of the variation of the registers from formal to informal on the World Englishes spectrum. Lastly, taking into account of all the things stated so far, we propose that Academic English as a lingua franca might be an acceptable candidate for the model of English classroom in the Japanese context, meaning that it would be more practical and efficient in the achievement of goal in terms of methodology and time to put more emphasis on reading and writing formal English than listening to and speaking informal colloquial English

An Appropriate English-learning Activity for Japanese University Students - A Case Study of Shinshu University Students -

Article信州大学教育学部紀要. 76: 63-71 (1992)departmental bulletin pape

A reconsideration of Smith’s ideology of English as an International Language: What it is and what it implies for English language education in Japan

It is a simple fact that English is an international language in that it is one of the most widespread linguistic media of international communication. Larry Smith(1983),analyzing the state of English language usage around the world, advocated a new philosophy of ‘English as an Internationaland Intranational Language’ (EIIL). Smith thought that EIIL was a more accurate term for how English was being used in most of the world than was the cover term ‘English to Speakers of Other Languages’ (ESOL) which included ‘English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and ‘English as a SecondLanguage’ (ESL). Also, Watanabe and Ihara (1990) largely accepted Smith’s position of ‘English as an International Language’ (EIL), and considered prerequisites for realizing multinational-English language education in Japan and how best to achieve them. This paper expands and deepens Watanabe and Ihara’s discussion by reexamining past literature and examining others published thereafter, and reconsiders Smith’s ideology of EIL and its implications for English language education in Japan. Lastly, this paper touches upon English linguistic imperialism which should be resolved when thinking of international communication

Post-translational amino acid conversion in photosystem II as a possible origin of photosynthetic oxygen evolution

How photosynthetic oxygen evolution is originated on ancient Earth is unknown. Here, the authors find that some amino acid residues at the ligand sites of the Mn cluster can be posttranslationally converted to the original carboxylate residues, which could have contributed to the evolutionary process of photosynthetic oxygen evolution

Large enhancement of photocatalytic activity by chemical etching of TiO2 crystallized glass

The authors aim to report the largest enhancement of photocatalytic activity by chemical etching in anatase-type TiO2 crystallized glass. Optimization of several conditions for crystallization behavior and chemical etching to realize the nano-structured ceramics (NSC) has been performed in the crystallized glass. NSC-fabrication by chemical etching in the crystallized glass is one of the most effective solutions to provide bulk materials with high specific surface area. We have found that the best condition for the NSC fabrication as a novel bulk photocatalyst in our glass system, and have obtained 16 times higher catalytic activity than that of non-etched one

Reduced Risk of Progression from Non-Severe to Severe COVID-19 in Hospitalized Dialysis Patients by Full COVID-19 Vaccination

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination reduces the risk of progression to severe COVID-19 in the general population. To examine that preventive effect in dialysis patients, the association of vaccination status with severe COVID-19 progression was investigated in this retrospective observational study conducted from December 2020 to May 2022 of 100 such patients hospitalized for non-severe COVID-19 at Inoue Hospital (Suita, Japan). Fifty-seven were fully vaccinated, defined as receiving a COVID-19 vaccine second dose at least 14 days prior to the onset of COVID-19, while 43 were not. Among all patients, 13 (13.0%) progressed to severe COVID-19 with a median (interquartile range) time of 6 (2.5–9.5) days, while 87 (87.0%) were discharged after 11 (8–16) days. Kaplan–Meier analysis showed that fully vaccinated patients had a significantly lower rate of progression to severe COVID-19 (p = 0.001, log-rank test). Cox proportional hazard analysis also indicated that full COVID-19 vaccination was significantly associated with reduced instances of progression to severe COVID-19 (hazard ratio 0.104, 95% confidence interval 0.022 to 0.483; p = 0.004) after balancing patient background characteristics using an inverse probability of treatment weight method. These results suggest that full vaccination status contributes to reducing the risk of progression from non-severe to severe COVID-19 in dialysis patients