Setting Up and Carrying Out an Extensive Reading Assignment

The traditional way to teach reading in a second or foreign language is for students to use an intensive approach, that is, to study a relatively short, usually difficult reading passage in detail, looking at grammar and vocabulary and translating parts of it. In contrast, in recent years, teachers and researchers have come to recognize the advantages of extensive reading, which involves students choosing a longer piece of reading that is comfortable for them to read and ofinterest to them, and reading it for pleasure or information. Researchers have found that through extensive reading, students can both improve their reading proficiency and develop other skills in the target language. In this paper, I discuss differences between intensive and extensive reading, look at the effects of extensive reading, and consider issues related to setting up an extensive reading assignment. I also suggest activities that teachers can use in the classroom.研究ノー

Sad Songs

創

Multidimensional replica-exchange method for free-energy calculations

We have developed a new simulation algorithm for free-energy calculations. The method is a multidimensional extension of the replica-exchange method. While pairs of replicas with different temperatures are exchanged during the simulation in the original replica-exchange method, pairs of replicas with different temperatures and/or different parameters of the potential energy are exchanged in the new algorithm. This greatly enhances the sampling of the conformational space and allows accurate calculations of free energy in a wide temperature range from a single simulation run, using the weighted histogram analysis method.Comment: 13 pages, (ReVTeX), 9 figures. J. Chem. Phys. 113 (2000), in pres

Barbara Fujiwara

贈る言

A Preliminary Corpus-Based Study of Japanese Learners’ Apologies in English

I used a concordancing program to search for “sorry” in a corpus of interviews with Japanese learners of English for the Standard Speaking Test along with a parallel corpus of interviews with native English speakers in order to identify apologies. I analyzed the apologies I found using an adapted version of Cohen and Olshtain’s (1981) typology of apology strategies and compared the Japanese speakers with the native English speakers. In addition, I compared the strategies that the two groups used in a role play that required an apology.論

Using a spoken corpus compiled from subtitles to study apologies

Apologies, like other speech acts, are difficult to study, and they are studied in a variety of ways, including Discourse Completion Tests, role plays, gathering of natural language, and using spoken corpora. Each method has advantages and disadvantages. One possibility for developing a spoken corpus is using subtitles downloaded from the DVDs of movies or television programs. In this study, I have used the first two seasons of a US television comedy called Modern Family to develop a corpus of spoken English. Using five keywords ― sorry, excuse, apologize, forgive, and pardon ― I identified the apologies found in the corpus and analyzed them, with particular attention to the types of apologies that would be difficult or impossible to elicit using a Discourse Completion Test

Renormalization group approach to vibrational energy transfer in protein

Renormalization group method is applied to the study of vibrational energy transfer in protein molecule. An effective Lagrangian and associated equations of motion to describe the resonant energy transfer are analyzed in terms of the first-order perturbative renormalization group theory that has been developed as a unified tool for global asymptotic analysis. After the elimination of singular terms associated with the Fermi resonance, amplitude equations to describe the slow dynamics of vibrational energy transfer are derived, which recover the result obtained by a technique developed in nonlinear optics [S.J. Lade, Y.S. Kivshar, Phys. Lett. A 372 (2008) 1077].Comment: 11 page

英語コンテントコースを通した日本人大学生の語彙学習法力の発展

Vocabulary learning is a vital aspect of language learning, and choosing effective vocabulary learning strategies is important. However, Japanese students tend to depend on rote memory strategies. In this study, we investigated the strategies that second-year Japanese university students in an English-medium content course used at the beginning and at the end of the course to learn new words presented in reading assignments, comparing the strategies used at the beginning and end of the semester. The results indicated that the students expanded their strategy use considerably through vocabulary learning strategy instruction in the content course and work on vocabulary learning in the skills courses, which they took at the same time.論文 (Article

College students\u27 vocabulary learning strategies in an English medium content course

Learner strategies, actions that learners take to make their learning more efficient, has been a useful field of research, though there has been relatively little research on vocabulary learning strategies, particularly with Asian EFL students. Such research as has been done suggests that Asian students at all levels of English proficiency depend primarily on rote learning strategies such as repetition. In this study, we looked at the vocabulary learning strategies of second-year English majors in a selective program. In the first half of the semester, students studied learner strategies and evaluated their own. In the second half of the semester, they learned about non-verbal communication and were assigned to choose new words to learn and to write an essay about how they learned their chosen words. The results indicated that, though rote strategies were most common, students used a variety of other strategies as well and some recognized the need to further expand their strategies.論文 (Article

Using internet resources to improve : vocabulary knowledge

In recent years, the importance of English language students developing their vocabulary knowledge has come to be recognized. The Internet has a great many resources for the development of vocabulary knowledge. In this paper, I identify types of resources, categorize them, and explain how they can be used. These resources have been divided into two broad categories, resources for teachers and resources for students, and then further divided into subcategories. The subcategories of resources for teachers include general resources; worksheets, lesson plans, and teaching ideas; games and puzzles; vocabulary learning strategies; vocabulary notebooks; and vocabulary frequency resources. The subcategories of resources for students include interactive activities and online dictionaries.論