FOSTERING AUTONOMOUS LEARNERS OF VOCABULARY ACQUISITION USING CONTENT-BASED ICT METHODS

Purpose: This paper investigated that (1) the effective use of content-based ICT methods of vocabulary acquisition through reading activities, and (2) the encouragement of learner's vocabulary building up autonomous learning. A considerable number of studies have been conducted on vocabulary acquisition in the EFL field in Japan,and researchers advocate vocabulary knowledge is the most important factor contributing to reading comprehension, yet, a firm effective pedagogy has not been established. In fact, university students encounter difficulties in reading comprehension because of their deficiencies in vocabulary knowledge during English reading class. Methodology: The free applications, Quizlet and Kahoot!, were adopted to incorporate language-focused learning while adding some gamification aspects to aid in vocabulary acquisition. The experiment was conducted in a Japanese undergraduate first-year reading class over an 11-week period. Quizlet was used for vocabulary learning prior to the reading class. Students were given multiple-choice vocabulary Cloze tests of new words from the textbook using Kahoot!, a free game-based educational platform. Main Findings: The results of this study indicated that content-based vocabulary instruction using ICT is effective and improves learner’s academic performance in vocabulary acquisition. Moreover, questionnaires were thoroughly reviewed and uncovered that students felt they developed more autonomy and this enhanced their motivation for vocabulary learning. Implications: In view of this study, ICT methods closely related to reading contexts and a variety of applications for vocabulary acquisition and improvement of reading performance should be introduced in EFL classrooms. Originality: This study was conducted in a Japanese undergraduate first-year reading class by author researcher

Image-based Basic Verb Learning through Learner-centred and Teacher-centred Approaches —A Case Study on Japanese EFL Junior High School Students

This pilot study made comparisons on image-based basic verb learning through learner and teacher-centred approaches. To this purpose, 121 Japanese EFL junior high school students participated. In a learner-centred activity, they just engaged in a card game in which they were able to pay attention to relationships between situational images and forms of the targeted basic verbs. In a teacher-centred instruction, the participants were explicitly taught how given definitions of another basic verb were motivated semantically from situational-images. Immediately after each treatment, post-tests were administered. A week after each immediate post-test, delayed post-tests were given. Analysis of the results found that only high proficiency learners were capable of image-based basic verb learning through either the card game activity or the explicit instruction alone. Considering the results and a SLA model, the authors concluded that image-based basic verb learning should be implemented through learner-centred activity first, followed by teacher-centred explicit instruction

Characterization of a bloom-associated alphaproteobacterial lineage, ‘Candidatus Phycosocius’: insights into freshwater algal-bacterial interactions

炭化水素産生藻類ボトリオコッカスの「衣」にドリルで穴をあけて住み着く共生細菌の発見 --藻類屋外大量培養と藻類ブルーム制御の鍵となる可能性--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2023-03-27.Marine bacterial lineages associated with algal blooms, such as the Roseobacter clade, have been well characterized in ecological and genomic contexts, yet such lineages have rarely been explored in freshwater blooms. This study performed phenotypic and genomic analyses of an alphaproteobacterial lineage ‘Candidatus Phycosocius’ (denoted the CaP clade), one of the few lineages ubiquitously associated with freshwater algal blooms, and described a novel species: ‘Ca. Phycosocius spiralis.’ Phylogenomic analyses indicated that the CaP clade is a deeply branching lineage in the Caulobacterales. Pangenome analyses revealed characteristic features of the CaP clade: aerobic anoxygenic photosynthesis and essential vitamin B auxotrophy. Genome size varies widely among members of the CaP clade (2.5–3.7 Mb), likely a result of independent genome reductions at each lineage. This includes a loss of tight adherence pilus genes (tad) in ‘Ca. P. spiralis’ that may reflect its adoption of a unique spiral cell shape and corkscrew-like burrowing activity at the algal surface. Notably, quorum sensing (QS) proteins showed incongruent phylogenies, suggesting that horizontal transfers of QS genes and QS-involved interactions with specific algal partners might drive CaP clade diversification. This study elucidates the ecophysiology and evolution of proteobacteria associated with freshwater algal blooms

Modalities of Subtitling and Foreign Language Learning

本論文は、（１）映像と英語音声＋日本語字幕、（２）映像と英語音声＋英語字幕、（３）映像と日本語音声＋英語字幕の三つの異なる音声と字幕のコンビネーションが、言語獲得の前提となる内容理解にどのように影響するかを実証的に考察したものである。被験者は、日本人中級英語学習者156名で、英語聴解力テストにより3つの等質なグループに分けられた。このそれぞれのグループに、上記の3条件で題材を提示し、その内容理解を調べた。題材にはアメリカ映画の一部を利用した。その結果、（２）→（１）→（３）の順に内容理解が高いことがわかった。この結果を被験者のアンケートなどから得られた結果と総合すると、中級学習者にとっては、多様な情報源（映像、音声、文字）を利用することが困難であり、特に情報が外国語で提示された場合には、外国語字幕→外国語音声の順で困難さが増すことがわかった。本論文では、この結果に基づき、効果的な音声と字幕のコンビネーションの在り方、今後の研究の方向性などについても言及していく

Toward the Establishment of Country -by-Country SILL (Strategy Inventory for Language Learning) Norms

This papre attmpts to establish the country-by-county SILL (Strategy Inventory for language Learning) norms advocated by Oxford and Burry-Stock(1995). First, a brief description of the SILL, a self-report quetionnaire, is provided, and empirical studies indicating its drawbacks are summarized. Then we report an analysis that shows the underlying factor structure of the SILL when administered to 200 college students studying English as a Foreign Language in Japan. In this analysis, the universality of the SILL is challenged, and also, a sugggestion is made that not only county-by-coungry SILL norms but also proficiency level-by-level norms should be establised. After the factor analysis, relationships are sought, using a multiple regression procedure, between the factors found and EFL proficiency measered by the TOEFL. The rsults provide theoretical implications for further improvement of the SILL (especially concerning the validity issue) as well as for the development of sound strategy training programs in the EFL environment

SARS-CoV-2 B.1.617.2 Delta variant replication and immune evasion

Abstract: The B.1.617.2 (Delta) variant of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was first identified in the state of Maharashtra in late 2020 and spread throughout India, outcompeting pre-existing lineages including B.1.617.1 (Kappa) and B.1.1.7 (Alpha)1. In vitro, B.1.617.2 is sixfold less sensitive to serum neutralizing antibodies from recovered individuals, and eightfold less sensitive to vaccine-elicited antibodies, compared with wild-type Wuhan-1 bearing D614G. Serum neutralizing titres against B.1.617.2 were lower in ChAdOx1 vaccinees than in BNT162b2 vaccinees. B.1.617.2 spike pseudotyped viruses exhibited compromised sensitivity to monoclonal antibodies to the receptor-binding domain and the amino-terminal domain. B.1.617.2 demonstrated higher replication efficiency than B.1.1.7 in both airway organoid and human airway epithelial systems, associated with B.1.617.2 spike being in a predominantly cleaved state compared with B.1.1.7 spike. The B.1.617.2 spike protein was able to mediate highly efficient syncytium formation that was less sensitive to inhibition by neutralizing antibody, compared with that of wild-type spike. We also observed that B.1.617.2 had higher replication and spike-mediated entry than B.1.617.1, potentially explaining the B.1.617.2 dominance. In an analysis of more than 130 SARS-CoV-2-infected health care workers across three centres in India during a period of mixed lineage circulation, we observed reduced ChAdOx1 vaccine effectiveness against B.1.617.2 relative to non-B.1.617.2, with the caveat of possible residual confounding. Compromised vaccine efficacy against the highly fit and immune-evasive B.1.617.2 Delta variant warrants continued infection control measures in the post-vaccination era

E-waste Management in Japan: a focus on Appliance Recycling

As 10 years have passed since the Japanese home electrical appliance recycling system came into operation, the results of the system have become clearer, and it is therefore time for us to analyze and evaluate its performance in terms of both the environment and the economy. The system covers 4 specified house appliances, and although roughly 2/3 of these discarded appliances are collected and recycled formally by the manufactures, the greater part of the remaining 1/3 is exported as used items or scrap. Consequently, the government has issued guidelines for the reuse and recycling as countermeasures against illegal dumping and to regulate the export of e-scrap