An Integrated Approach to Developing Japanese Students' English Presentation and Discussion Skills

We examined the types of difficulties that Japanese high school students have in English presentation and discussion activities. We conducted factor analysis (principal factor method with promax rotation) on the survey data, which was divided into four stages: (1) the presentation preparation stage; (2) the presentation stage; (3) the listening stage; and (4) the discussion stage. The results showed that students had difficulty with the following skills during each of the four stages: (1) "effective ways of providing information," "revision," and "collaborative work" during the presentation preparation stage; (2) "basic presentation skills," "handling questions," and "audience management" during the presentation stage ; (3) "active interaction" and "active understanding" during the listening stage; and (4) "overcoming communication anxiety," "adaptation to classroom activities," "problem solving approach," and "self-relativization" during the discussion stage

An Integrated Approach to Developing Japanese Students' English Presentation and Discussion Skills

We examined the types of difficulties that Japanese high school students have in English presentation and discussion activities. We conducted factor analysis (principal factor method with promax rotation) on the survey data, which was divided into four stages: (1) the presentation preparation stage; (2) the presentation stage; (3) the listening stage; and (4) the discussion stage. The results showed that students had difficulty with the following skills during each of the four stages: (1) "effective ways of providing information," "revision," and "collaborative work" during the presentation preparation stage; (2) "basic presentation skills," "handling questions," and "audience management" during the presentation stage ; (3) "active interaction" and "active understanding' during the listening stage; and (4) "overcoming communication anxiety," "adaptation to classroom activities," "problem solving approach," and "self-relativization" during the discussion stage

A Comparative Study on Teacher Training Systems

　本研究では現在の日本において喫緊の課題である教員の働き方改革について，現行の教員養成制度と諸外国の教員養成制度について取り上げ，研究対象とした諸外国の教員養成の歴史を踏まえて比較・考察を行った。その結果，日本では教員養成の高度化が進んでいないことなどが明らかになっただけでなく，教員養成制度を改革することで新任教員だけでなく現職の教員にとっても良い影響を及ぼす可能性があることがわかった。長時間労働，新任教員の依願退職者数の増加など多くの課題を抱えている日本において諸外国の教員養成制度は，これからの教員養成について示唆を与えている

Effects of Small-Group Facilitators on Speaking Performance of Junior High School Students

本研究は，中学生のスピーキング活動におけるファシリテーターの働きに注目し，その発話の特徴とそれが学習者の発話にどのように影響するかについて，日本人英語教員，外国人英語話者および学習者がファシリテーター役を担う小集団を設定し，調査結果を量的・質的に分析することにより，今後のスピーキング指導の在り方の方向性を提案することを目的とした。結果として，日本人英語教員，外国人英語話者ともに学習者への発話量の多さはあるものの，ディスカッションで求められる学習者の思考の深まりを促す働きは確認できなかった。しかし，会話分析から，ファシリテーターの発話の量と質のバランスを工夫することにより，学習者から発話を引き出し，思考の深まりを促すきっかけを与えることができる可能性があることは確認できた。今後は，今回の調査において，発話回数が少なかった「学習者に自信を与える発話」や「思考を深める発話」に焦点を当てた調査・分析を課題としたい。The aim of this research is to propose how the instruction on speaking activities can be effective by focusing on the role of a facilitator. In this research, a Japanese teacher, a foreign language speaker and a junior high school student played the role of the facilitator in a group of junior-high students. The facilitators’ utterances produced in the groups were analyzed by both qualitative and quantitative ways. As a result, the majority of the facilitators succeeded in letting the students speak out, but their work wasn’t sufficient enough to deepen the students’ thoughts. However, this research suggests that the facilitators can help students to speak out and deepen their thoughts by using adequate types of facilitation, which encourages the students to speak out and allows them to deepen their thoughts

A novel underuse model shows that inactivity but not ovariectomy determines the deteriorated material properties and geometry of cortical bone in the tibia of adult rats

Our goal in this study was to determine to what extent the physiologic consequences of ovariectomy (OVX) in bones are exacerbated by a lack of daily activity such as walking. We forced 14-week-old female rats to be inactive for 15 weeks with a unique experimental system that prevents standing and walking while allowing other movements. Tibiae, femora, and 4th lumbar vertebrae were analyzed by peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT), microfocused X-ray computed tomography (micro-CT), histology, histomorphometry, Raman spectroscopy, and the three-point bending test. Contrary to our expectation, the exacerbation was very much limited to the cancellous bone parameters. Parameters of femur and tibia cortical bone were affected by the forced inactivity but not by OVX: (1) cross-sectional moment of inertia was significantly smaller in Sham-Inactive rat bones than that of their walking counterparts; (2) the number of sclerostin-positive osteocytes per unit cross-sectional area was larger in Sham-Inactive rat bones than in Sham-Walking rat bones; and (3) material properties such as ultimate stress of inactive rat tibia was lower than that of their walking counterparts. Of note, the additive effect of inactivity and OVX was seen only in a few parameters, such as the cancellous bone mineral density of the lumbar vertebrae and the structural parameters of cancellous bone in the lumbar vertebrae/tibiae. It is concluded that the lack of daily activity is detrimental to the strength and quality of cortical bone in the femur and tibia of rats, while lack of estrogen is not. Our inactive rat model, with the older rats, will aid the study of postmenopausal osteoporosis, the etiology of which may be both hormonal and mechanical