Evaluation of world Englishes among Japanese junior and senior high school students

With the rapid spread of globalization, nonnative speakers of English have overwhelmingly outnumbered native speakers; 375 million native English speakers, 375 million second language speakers, and 750 million foreign language speakers (Graddol, 1997). The concept of World Englishes (WEs) alongside English as an International Language (EIL) or English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) have drawn attention from many researchers and the issue of mutual intelligibility has become a paramount concern. As such, some researchers pay attention to two contradictory orientations: the nativeness principle and intelligibility principle (Levis, 2005); the former posits that it is desirable to achieve native-like pronunciation and the latter that one simply needs to be understandable. To examine how young learners of English in Japan perceive different varieties of phonological features of English, we focused on their response to the recorded passage read by six speakers representing Inner, Outer and Expanding Circle (Kachru, 1985). Recurrent features we identified in their response are characterized by: (a) Native speakerism (Holliday, 2006); (b) Use of reference to own previous experiences, and (c) Familiarity. Noteworthy is that native speakerism embedded deeply in Japanese EFL context influences how they exhibit affiliation and disaffiliation with varieties of Englishes as they shift their footing (Goffman, 1981) from animator, author and to principal. They evaluated Outer and Expanding Circle English negatively and Inner Circle English positively. A segment of elicited data, however, elucidated a potential ownership (Norton, 1997; Peirce, 1995; Widdowson, 1994) emerging among younger learners as they evaluated Japanese English speaker in positive light. The study aims to identify how they perceive different varieties of Englishes and ultimately to foster the awareness among learners of English and teachers alike for the realistic models to pursue through shedding light on the notions of WEs, EIL or ELF

Development of FAIR conductor and HTS coil for fusion experimental device

This study is aimed at the development of high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets for application in a fusion experimental device next to the Large Helical Device (LHD). By applying the features of an HTS, high current density and high stability can be balanced. As a candidate conductor, REBCO tapes and pure aluminum sheets are laminated and placed in the groove of an aluminum alloy jacket with a circular cross-section, after joining a lid to the jacket using friction stir welding, and twisting the conductor to homogenize its electrical and mechanical properties. The FAIR conductor derives its name from the processes and materials used in its development: Friction stir welding, an Aluminum alloy jacket, Indirect cooling, and REBCO tapes. Initially, the degradation of the critical current of the FAIR conductor is observed, which was eventually resolved. The development status of the FAIR conductor has been reported

Improvement of Ic degradation of HTS Conductor (FAIR Conductor) and FAIR Coil Structure for Fusion Device

As a high-temperature superconducting (HTS) conductor with a large current capacity applicable to a nuclear fusion experimental device, REBCO (REBa 2 CuO y ) tapes and high-purity aluminum sheets are alternately laminated, placed in a groove of an aluminum alloy jacket having a circular cross section, and the lid is friction-stir welded. To make the current distribution and mechanical characteristics uniform, the conductor is twisted at the end of the manufacturing process. In the early prototype conductor, when the I c was measured in liquid nitrogen under self-magnetic field conditions, I c degradations were observed from the beginning, and the characteristic difference between the two prototype samples under the same manufacturing conditions were large. Furthermore, I c degradation was progressed by repeating the thermal cycle from room temperature to liquid nitrogen temperature. This I c degradation did not occur uniformly in the longitudinal direction of the conductor but was caused by local I c degradation occurring at multiple locations. If the conductor was not manufactured uniformly in the longitudinal direction, the difference in thermal shrinkage between the REBCO tape and the aluminum alloy jacket caused local stress concentration in the REBCO tape and buckling occurred. Element experiments to explain this mechanism were conducted to clarify the conditions under which I c degradation due to buckling occurs. Then prototype conductors were tested with improved manufacturing methods, and as a result, I c degradation could be suppressed to 20% or less. We have achieved the prospect of producing a conductor with uniform characteristics in the longitudinal direction