Accounting for Communicative Competence via Pragmatics : A Pilot Test of Instruments

This study reports the results of a pilot-testing project of a video-based pragmatics instrument whose purpose was the assessment of the receptive level of communicative competence of high school and university students in the Japanese context. The instrument was analyzed using Rasch modeling and the results show high levels of item reliability with low levels of person reliability for the sample population. Person logits of ability on the pragmatics assessment were subjected to linear regression (ANOVA) using SPSS as a criterion variable against a set of predictor variables including scores on EIKEN, TOEFL, TOIEC, a 64-item Willingness to Communicate motivation survey, educational year, gender, experience learning in an English-medium school, and time spent in residence abroad. Results indicate three variables to be statistically significant predictors of pragmatic ability: TOELF score, year of education (years 2 and 3 at the high school level and year 1 and 2 in university), and residence abroad

<原著論文>Constructing Narratives: The Controversy over High School History Textbooks

[Abstract] Teaching is often referred to as a political process. This is even more evident within the teaching of history.Controversy surrounds high school history textbooks over their content and adoption. This paper examines this controversy within Japan while also showing that these issues are not unique to the Japanese context.専攻:教

<Original Papers>Education in the Margins Private Academies in the Tokugawa Period

[Abstract] Education during the Tokugawa period was centered not on the government, but on the Confucian ideals reinforcing the four-class (shi-no-ko-sho) system of society. This system placed samurai in the highest position followed by peasants, artisans, and finally merchants. Clearly placed at the bottom, merchants were marginalized despite the economic realities of their situation. The Kaitokudo fulfilled a similar role by teaching the merchant class to understand their place in society using the very ideals, which placed them at the bottom of the four-class system. Private academies in Tokugawa Japan fulfilled a social role of reinvesting into society those groups marginalized by the existing political social system.専攻: 教

<Research Note>Educational Law in Thailand from 1999 to 2003: Impact on Teacher Practices

専攻: 教育