イギリス英語の現状と英語教育の方向性

Englishteachersshouldexplicitlyindicatethenumberofsegmentsthattheirstudentsmustdistinguishin ordertoconveythemeaningofdif erentwords. WhileAmericanEnglishcontainsseven-phonemesystemsfor simplexandcomplexvowels,currentBritishEnglishexhibitssix-phonemesystemsforshort,long,andcomplex vowels. Inthispaper,weconsiderwhichvowelsystemismoreintelligibleandlearnableforJapaneselearners oftheEnglish language

日本語史における平成時代の音韻変化

　Phonological system of a particular language could change in thirty years of one generation.　The Japanese　language has undergone phonological evolution of its consonant system and prosodic system in these thirty years of the Heisei period: the distinctive feature of voiced plosives has changed from voicing to tenseness; the prosodic unit is changing from mora to syllable; the culminative function has predominated the distinctive function of word accent.　These phonological changes are reflected on several cases of phonetic change among Japanese speakers of the Heisei generation

The effect of recognition on career development: A study of hotel employees

本稿の目的は、組織における他者からの承認が、ホテル従業員の主観的なキャリア発達の諸側面に及ぼす影響を明らかにすることである。この目的に基づき、ホテル従業員の職務能力や成果に対する上司と同僚および顧客からの承認は、キャリア満足や昇進可能性の認知といったキャリア発達項目に影響を及ぼすという仮説が設定された。パス解析の結果、職場における上司と顧客からの承認は、キャリアに対する満足感を向上させるとともに、当該ホテルでの昇進可能性と専門性への肯定感の向上に影響を与えることが示された。これらの分析結果は、無形の人的サービスを顧客に提供するホテル従業員のキャリア発達を形成するうえで、職場における上司の役割および顧客からの直接的なフィードバックが重要であることを示すものである。The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between gaining recognition from others and career development of hotel employees. Although the study of career development has increased markedly in the past few years, little attention has been paid to the relationship between recognition from others and career development in organizations. Using samples from 534 hotel employees in Japan, structural equation analysis found that recognition from supervisors and customers had a significant impact on three career development dimensions. Conversely, recognition from colleagues failed to influence any dimension of career development. The authors discussed implications of these results for future research and practice

英語の発音表記と音声指導の方向性

What is a realistic aim of learning pronunciation of English as a lingua franca? This paper discusses what should be taught explicitly in class to non-native speakers of English so that they can speak in a way which is minimally intelligible to their listeners. Teachers are encouraged to attempt at a systematic instruction of English segments and prosody, based on the revised transcription of English pronunciation

日本語の音韻変化── 上代から現代まで ──

The Japanese vowel system underwent processes of merger during the Nara period, while voiced consonants split off from voiceless counterparts by the Edo period.　The number of accent types has been decreasing since ancient times, merging into two in the present-day Tokyo dialect.　This paper aims at discovering universal principles of phonological change such as split, merger, rotation, by comparing the sound system of the Japanese language with that of other languages

Cleavage of Toll-Like Receptor 9 Ectodomain Is Required for In Vivo Responses to Single Strand DNA

Mouse toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) is an endosomal sensor for single-stranded DNA. TLR9 is transported from the endoplasmic reticulum to endolysosomes by a multiple transmembrane protein Unc93 homolog B1, and proteolytically cleaved at its ectodomain. The structure of TLR9 and its biochemical analyses have shown that the proteolytic cleavage of TLR9 ectodomain enables TLR9-dimerization and TLR9 activation. However, the requirement of TLR9 cleavage in vivo has not been studied. We here show that the 13 amino acids deletion at the cleavage site made TLR9 resistant to proteolytic cleavage. The deletion mutation in the Tlr9 gene impaired TLR9-dependent cytokine production in conventional dendritic cells from the mutant mice. Not only in vitro, in vivo production of inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α and IL-12p40), chemokine (CCR5/RANTES), and type I interferon (IFN-α) induced by administration of TLR9 ligand was also impaired. These results demonstrate that the TLR9 cleavage is required for TLR9 responses in vivo