英語科教職課程履修生による発音練習への自主的な取り組みと課題

The purpose of this research was to focus on how Japanese EFL learners develop autonomy in language learning. Forty-four female students in their junior year of college,- participated in the practice teaching (teaching practicum) programme at a local junior/senior high school. The student- teacher participants were offered two phases of pronunciation training, and each practice session was 30 mim, conducted daily for 10 days. Each- phase lasted 15 days. Practice materials were chosen from the ATR CALL BRIX 4. 0 application (©2013 ATR Learning Technology Corporation). For the first phase of training, participants were instructed to concentrate on single English word pronunciation, and for the second, on full sentence pronunciation. Participants were also required to write comments after each practice session,- and to respond to questionnaires about the training, at the end of each phase. The results of the questionnaires showed that more than 70% of the participants positively evaluated their participation in the training.,- They also felt that the training improved their pronunciation skills. Moreover, about 80% became aware of personal pronunciation weaknesses,- through the training. Although about 70% of the participants felt that their autonomous learning skills had improved, 65% did not believe that they had gained any substantial confidence in pronunciation ability. In this study, the authors conclude that,- in order to promote the successful development of autonomous language learning, teachers need to prepare an environment where learners are able to,-: 1) choose personally useful and important tasks, -; 2) recognise and appreciate the significance of their decisions:, - 3) feel supported and encouraged by their teachers/evaluators,- regarding what they have achieved in their learning.論

A study of learner autonomy in a teacher-training course using reflection and portfolios

研究ノート (Note

EFL 環境におけるスピーキング向上：語彙学習と反転授業の視点からの提案

The goal of this study was to examine whether Japanese university EFL learners can increase their self-efficacy through flipped English classes, by incorporating collaborative learning. Participants were 34 female Japanese English majors in their junior year of college. As a class assignment, students were given a vocabulary list (200 words) and a list of topics, from which they could choose a topic to create one-minute monologues. They were divided into two groups: the Collaborative-Study Group (Group-C, n=16) and the Individual-Study Group (Group-I, n=18). In this project, all participants were required to work with the new vocabulary and prepare and rehearse weekly monologues outside of the classroom. They then recorded audio clips, which were uploaded to the universityʼs cloud-based learning management system; this enabled us to monitor the project effectively and easily. For this study, participants of Group-C worked collaboratively with opportunities to present their monologues before the class, while participants of Group-I worked individually without giving any monologue presentations in the class. No other special instructions were given. To measure the changes in the vocabulary size and oral communication abilities, participants gave the Vocabulary Levels Test and the Oral Proficiency Interview-computer test, both at the start and end of the project. Neither the pre- nor post-test results (for either test) showed any statistically significant differences between the two groups. However, we were able to record a noticeable difference in participantsʼ attitudes toward the weekly assignments. Twelve participants of Group-C submitted their assignments by the appointed date, while only three participants of Group-I did. We believe that collaborative learning enhanced studentsʼ sense of solidarity, responsibility, spontaneous rivalry, and/or self-efficacy during the project. We further believe that use of flipped English classes, incorporating collaborative learning, can be highly effective for helping Japanese EFL learners achieve various language-acquisition goals.論

Increasing female education, stagnating female labor force participation, and gains from marriage: The case of rural Bangladesh

Despite progress toward gender equality in education in Bangladesh, its female labor force participation (FLFP) rate has been stagnant relative to that of men, especially in marginal rural areas. To identify the overall benefit of schooling investment in women in rural Bangladesh, we examine the impact of female educational attainment on not only FLFP but also gains from marriage and household welfare. Applying a fuzzy regression discontinuity design where plausibly exogenous variation in school enrollment is created by the nationwide stipend program for women, we find moderate impacts of female education on FLFP, while it has positive and significant effects on the husband’s schooling and household income, particularly from non-farm activities. The results also show the significantly positive impacts of women’s education on sanitation control and children’s health. These findings indicate that female schooling enhances women’s role and well-being through marriage and household activities rather than their labor market activities.JEL Classification Codes: I25, I31, J12, J13, J16, J21, O10https://www.grips.ac.jp/list/jp/facultyinfo/takahashi-kazushi

A small molecule that promotes cardiac differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells under defined, cytokine- and xeno-free conditions.

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), including embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells, are potentially useful in regenerative therapies for heart disease. For medical applications, clinical-grade cardiac cells must be produced from hPSCs in a defined, cost-effective manner. Cell-based screening led to the discovery of KY02111, a small molecule that promotes differentiation of hPSCs to cardiomyocytes. Although the direct target of KY02111 remains unknown, results of the present study suggest that KY02111 promotes differentiation by inhibiting WNT signaling in hPSCs but in a manner that is distinct from that of previously studied WNT inhibitors. Combined use of KY02111 and WNT signaling modulators produced robust cardiac differentiation of hPSCs in a xeno-free, defined medium, devoid of serum and any kind of recombinant cytokines and hormones, such as BMP4, Activin A, or insulin. The methodology has potential as a means for the practical production of human cardiomyocytes for regeneration therapies

Results of the search for inspiraling compact star binaries from TAMA300's observation in 2000-2004

We analyze the data of TAMA300 detector to search for gravitational waves from inspiraling compact star binaries with masses of the component stars in the range 1-3Msolar. In this analysis, 2705 hours of data, taken during the years 2000-2004, are used for the event search. We combine the results of different observation runs, and obtained a single upper limit on the rate of the coalescence of compact binaries in our Galaxy of 20 per year at a 90% confidence level. In this upper limit, the effect of various systematic errors such like the uncertainty of the background estimation and the calibration of the detector's sensitivity are included.Comment: 8 pages, 4 Postscript figures, uses revtex4.sty The author list was correcte

Observation results by the TAMA300 detector on gravitational wave bursts from stellar-core collapses

We present data-analysis schemes and results of observations with the TAMA300 gravitational-wave detector, targeting burst signals from stellar-core collapse events. In analyses for burst gravitational waves, the detection and fake-reduction schemes are different from well-investigated ones for a chirp-wave analysis, because precise waveform templates are not available. We used an excess-power filter for the extraction of gravitational-wave candidates, and developed two methods for the reduction of fake events caused by non-stationary noises of the detector. These analysis schemes were applied to real data from the TAMA300 interferometric gravitational wave detector. As a result, fake events were reduced by a factor of about 1000 in the best cases. The resultant event candidates were interpreted from an astronomical viewpoint. We set an upper limit of 2.2x10^3 events/sec on the burst gravitational-wave event rate in our Galaxy with a confidence level of 90%. This work sets a milestone and prospects on the search for burst gravitational waves, by establishing an analysis scheme for the observation data from an interferometric gravitational wave detector

Women Empowerment in Bangladesh: Household Decisions under Development of Non-Farm Sectors and Microfinance Institutions

We analyze the factors and dynamics that contributed to the empowerment of women in Bangladesh. We first investigate the role of non-farm sector growth in facilitating female labor force participation and educational attainment, and then we explore how women’s decision-making roles in a household have improved over the same time period. Our results indicate that the proportion of village non-farm labor force participation is positively associated with female school enrollment as well as other indicators of women empowerment. Moreover, microcredit participation is found to be associated with larger roles for females in making household decisions particularly on non-farm activities