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This article reports on two quasi-experimental studies that investigated the possible development and transfer of audience awareness in novice EFL writers as they engaged in online writing tasks through a Social Networking Service (SNS). Japanese students from two universities were asked to write, read, and comment on other students' writing once a week. The two studies were arranged sequentially so as to capture in an exploratory but jointly illuminating manner whether and how the "elusive" (Hyland, 2005) construct of "sense of audience" can develop and transfer across genres. The results of both studies suggest that the SNS environment can help L2 writers develop audience awareness and transfer that awareness across genres when two conditions are met: (1) the genre of the SNS tasks should be perceived as similar to that for which transfer was expected; and (2) the students did not develop a sense of audience in previous writing instruction.

Background: This study investigates how the criterion-referenced (CR) approach has impacted relationships between goals, classroom practices, and student achievement in English education in Japan from 1994 to the present, a period covering three government-mandated administrations of a national curriculum (Course of Study). No study has investigated such relationships longitudinally as evidence of accountability of these curriculum policies, and this is a first step. Methods: Study 1 compares their alignment from two periods (1994-2002 and 2003-2013) based on the legally-binding goals set by the Government, nation-wide CR tests based on these goals, and English teachers' answers to a questionnaire investigating their classroom practices. Study 2 explores how current goals relate to the results of a new set of CR tests and a new survey of classroom practices. The study contributes to the field in two significant ways. Results: Using Roger's (Rogers, 2003) Diffusion of Innovation Theory made it possible to analyze the implementing processes for new educational policies as multi-faceted and susceptible to influences from stakeholders' societal value systems. Conclusions: Results of tests and surveys collected from large samples truly reflect the targeted populations and provide empirical evidence supporting the widely-recognized narrative that high-stakes university entrance examinations strongly affect Japanese EFL education.

This study adopts Oxford's (2017) definition of language learning strategies (LLS) framed by self-regulation theory and explores the longitudinal development in the use of three second language (L2) writing strategies (global planning, local planning, L1-to-L2 translation) by Japanese university students as it interacts with cognitive, affective, and environmental variables. The study is innovative in its use of a comprehensive, theoretically supported definition of LLSs, a long observation period, and its use of an explanatory sequential mixed methods design. Mixed effects modeling, which provides the main statistical analysis, enabled us to simultaneously investigate the participants' strategy use at both group and individual level while relating these findings to the participants' emic data from a self-regulation perspective. The results reveal that (a) developmental trajectories in LLS use were differentially affected by other cognitive and environmental factors at both group and individual level, (b) the self-regulation perspective was useful in explaining the systematicity and individuality observed in the developing use of the three strategies, and (c) students' motivation related to study abroad experiences may be a key factor in understanding such trajectories.

In response to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS) accident, the treated water from which the primary radioactive substances were removed contained tritium, and the Japanese government discussed how to treat this water. As the storage capacity of the treated water reached its limit, the Japanese government decided on a method to discharge the treated water into the sea in 2023. Herein, a basic study was conducted to develop a tritiated monitor to directly measure tritium in wastewater for preparing the release of tritiated water from the FDNPS. Two plastic scintillators with different shapes (sheet and pellet types) were compared as detectors. The pellet-type detector was found to be more sensitive to tritiated water than the sheet-type, with an efficiency of 2.95 × 10−5 cps Bq−1 L in the test configuration. In the future, optimizing the design for background reduction should achieve a minimum detectable radioactivity of 1,500 Bq L−1, the emission standard set by nuclear power plant operators. Through this study, we could obtain basic data for developing such a practical tritiated monitor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the effects of various motivational variables operating within 44 English classes on 1-year-long gains in the English reading proficiency of 1,149 Japanese university students. The study adds new knowledge to the recent outcomes of second language (L2) motivational studies in 3 major ways. First, the explanatory variables include the participants' own motivation as well as the class norms ("ethos") shared by class members, some of which (e.g., career aspirations) were not directly related to their L2 learning. Second, multi-level modeling enabled a simultaneous analysis of L2 proficiency growth over 1 year at both the individual and the class levels. Third, its explanatory sequential mixed methods design (Cresswell, 2014) demonstrated how the participants' own accounts help to explain the initial quantitative results in ways the researchers' outsider speculations could not. The statistical results indicate that the 44 classes grew in L2 reading abilities at significantly different rates over the year and that these differences can be explained by the students' perceptions of their classmates' normative career aspirations (among other predictors). These results suggest that being surrounded by classmates with high career aspirations may lead to higher motivation to study the L2 even if students are not highly motivated in the beginning.

The Modern Language Aptitude Test (Paper-and-Pencil Version, henceforth, the MLAT) measures "an individual's ability to learn a foreign language." It targets English-speaking adults (over Grade 9) who are literate. The test has only one form, which has not changed since it was first published by the Psychological Corporation in 1959. The test can be taken either in short or in long form. The long form consists of Parts I to V, requires a CD player, and takes about 70 minutes to complete. The short form consists of Parts III to V, does not require a CD player, and takes about 30 minutes to complete. Users can score the test using a hand-scoring stencil. Information about the mean scores and percentile rankings of different types of learners is available in the manual. With the deaths of the first author, Dr. John B. Carroll, in 2003, and the second author, Dr. Stanley M. Sapon, in 2010, the 53-year-old test has now lost both of its creators. Given that the single original form of the MLAT has remained unchanged since its first release in 1959, it is truly remarkable that the test is still widely used for both practical and research purposes. This review presents the test in historical perspective, bridging its past, present, and future. (Contains 1 table.)

The present study investigated the effects of varying lengths of overseas experiences on 37 Japanese students' English writing ability and motivation over 3.5 years. The students were observed at the beginning of their first year and in the middle of their second, third, and fourth years at their university. During the 3.5-year observation period, 28 of the 37 students spent 1.5 to 11 months in English-speaking countries. The results revealed that (1) students' second language (L2) writing ability did not change in a linear way; (2) over the 3.5 years, students who spent some time abroad significantly improved their L2 writing ability whereas those who stayed in Japan did not; (3) many of those students who went abroad formed L2-related "imagined communities" that possibly motivated them to improve their L2 writing ability; (4) those students who spent more than 4 months abroad improved their L2 writing ability significantly more than the other students; and (5) only those students who spent more than 8 months abroad became intrinsically motivated and voluntarily practiced to improve their L2 writing. (Contains 6 footnotes and 3 tables.)

In the present study I describe the 150-year history of school-based English language assessment in Japan. The history is divided into four major periods according to the purposes of English language education set by the government in the different periods: (1) 1860 to 1945, when English was first introduced and taught in schools mainly for elite classes; (2) 1945 to 1970, when English became part of the compulsory education for the first time; (3) 1970 to 1990 when English began to be regarded as the most effective means to communicate with foreign people in the rapidly shrinking world; and (4) 1990 to the present, when several innovative policies have been introduced into classroom measurement systems. I describe how assessment practices for English education at schools in each of these periods were and still are affected by various factors, including political, economic, and demographic changes in society, as well as academic paradigm shifts in the fields of education and applied linguistics. (Contains 1 figure and 12 footnotes.)

The present study investigated the changes in Japanese students English writing behaviors over a 3.5-year period using multiple data sources including written texts, videotaped writing behaviors, and stimulated-recall protocols. Data from student interviews supplemented the analyses. Because 6 (henceforth, English as a second language [ESL] students) out of the 11 participants spent 2 to 8 months in English-speaking environments, the study was also able to examine the effects of such overseas experiences. The results revealed that over the observation period (a) both the English as a foreign language (EFL, remaining in Japan) and the ESL students improved their English proficiency, English composition quality-fluency, and confidence in English writing; (b) the ESL students overseas experiences were helpful for improving their writing strategy use and motivation to write better compositions; and (c) neither group's abilities or skills became like those of the EFL experts studied in Sasaki (2002).

Investigates how schemata activated by culturally familiar words might have influenced students' cloze test-taking processes. Subjects were Japanese English-as-a-foreign-language students. Results demonstrate that students who read culturally familiar cloze texts tried to solve more items and generally understood the text better, which resulted in better performances, than those of students who read the original text. (Author/VWL)

Developed an analytic rating scale for Japanese university students' first-language (L1) expository writing. Devised a questionnaire to investigate Japanese L1 teachers' criteria for evaluating expository writing, and, based on questionnaire results, eliminated or reorganized the descriptions under six analytic criteria. (Author/VWL)

There has long been interest in the effect of stay abroad on pragmatic development in second language (L2) pragmatics research. However, few testing instruments exist to assess pragmatics learning in stay abroad and provide information about learners' development to help institutions evaluate the success of stay abroad programs. In this study, we describe the adaptation and validation of Roever's (2005) test of second language routine formulae to be used large-scale with Japanese stay-abroad learners. We follow Kane's (2006) argument-based approach to validation, evaluating the first four inferences: Domain description, Evaluation, Generalization, and Explanation. We also investigate the test's practicality within the institutional setting of intended use. We find evidence supporting the use of the test for providing information on pragmatics learning during stay abroad. The test can differentiate between low- and high-ability learners, shows adequate reliability, and reflects the roles of proficiency and exposure in pragmatics learning in stay abroad contexts. The test is also practical and requires few resources. Further steps, such as the investigation of the Extrapolation and Decision inference, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigations of Japanese speakers' interlanguage constructions of English existential sentences with a locative sentential topic found a general shift from topic-comment to subject-predicate structures as proficiency increased. (24 references) (Author/CB)

Sphingomonas paucimobilis SYK-6 degrades syringate to 3-O-methylgallate (3MGA), which is finally converted to pyruvate and oxaloacetate via multiple pathways in which protocatechuate 4,5-dioxygenase, 3MGA dioxygenase, and gallate dioxygenase are involved. Here we isolated the syringate O-demethylase gene (desA), which complemented the growth deficiency on syringate of a Tn5 mutant of the SYK-6 derivative strain. The desA gene is located 929 bp downstream of ferA, encoding feruloyl-coenzyme A synthetase, and consists of a 1,386-bp open reading frame encoding a polypeptide with a molecular mass of 50,721 Da. The deduced amino acid sequence of desA showed 26% identity in a 325-amino-acid overlap with that of gcvT of Escherichia coli, which encodes the tetrahydrofolate ([H.sub.4]folate)-dependent aminomethyltransferase involved in glycine cleavage. The cell extract of E. coli carrying desA converted syringate to 3MGA only when [H.sub.4]folate was added to the reaction mixture. DesA catalyzes the transfer of the methyl moiety of syringate to [H.sub.4]folate, forming 5-methyl-[H.sub.4]folate. Vanillate and 3MGA were also used as substrates for DesA; however, the relative activities toward them were 3 and 0.4% of that toward syringate, respectively. Disruption of desA in SYK-6 resulted in a growth defect on syringate but did not affect growth on vanillate, indicating that desA is essential to syringate degradation. In a previous study the ligH gene, which complements the growth deficiency on vanillate and syringate of a chemical-induced mutant of SYK-6, DC-49, was isolated (S. Nishikawa, T. Sonoki, T. Kasahara, T. Obi, S. Kubota, S. Kawai, N. Morohoshi, and Y. Katayama, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 64:836-842, 1998). Disruption of ligH resulted in the same phenotype as DC-49; its cell extract, however, was found to be able to convert vanillate and syringate in the presence of [H.sub.4]folate. The possible role of ligH is discussed.