Teaching Sarcasm to Japanese University Students: Pilot Workshop and Plans for Future Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-14
Author(s):  
Marisa Lucian
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
University Students ◽  
Future Study ◽  
Explicit Instruction ◽  
Japanese University ◽  
L2 Pragmatics ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
American Media ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Over Time

In the field of L2 pragmatics, the use of humor is researched far less than other areas, with sarcasm taking up an even smaller percentage of those studies. Despite this, the ubiquity of sarcasm in American media and casual conversation leads many L2 learners of English to struggle to fit in and be in on the jokes, which in turn points to the importance of teaching sarcasm to EFL students. In a pilot workshop, this researcher looked into the potential effects of using explicit instruction, paired with samples of American media and gifs, to teach sarcastic play frames endemic to North America. Participant interviews showed promising effects, which has led the researcher to design a study to examine the effects more concisely over time. 第二言語の語用論の分野のうち、ユーモアに関しての研究は他の分野より比較的少ないです。特に皮肉に関しての研究が割合として非常に少ないです。それにもかかわらず、アメリカのメディアや日常会話的な英語では皮肉がよく使われるため、多くの第二言語の学習者は溶け込もうとして冗談を理解しようとするため、英語学習者に皮肉を教えるのは重要だと思われます。筆者は北米のユーモアの枠組みを生徒に教えるため、パイロットワークショップで明示的な指導法と共に、アメリカのメディアや画像を使った指導の影響について調べました。インタビューの結果により、上記の指導法は参加者に良い影響を与えたことが明らかになり、筆者はその影響をより詳細に調べるために研究を行う予定です。

scholarly journals The Role of Teacher-Student Conferencing in Improving Grammatical Accuracy in University EFL Students’ Composition Writing

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arab World English Journal ◽  
Naima Hamlaoui ◽  
Sarra Fellahi
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Writing Classes ◽  
Oral Feedback ◽  
Teacher Student ◽  
Grammatical Accuracy ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Second Year ◽  
Written Compositions ◽  
Over Time

Based on the value of teacher-student conferencing practice in writing classes, the study investigates the role of this practice in improving grammatical accuracy in EFL university students’ writing. One particular aim of this study is to help second-year students at Sétif 2 University (Algeria) reduce subject-verb (S-V) disagreement and run-ons in their writing. Ten students took part in this study; they wrote 120 drafts, and were provided with teacher’s oral feedback on their written compositions at the editing stage. Corpora of students’ compositions were examined and instances of errors were counted before each conferencing session for four weeks. The findings reveal that the participants successfully show progress in grammatical accuracy over time to reach elimination for Subject-Verb disagreements and a significant reduction for run-ons.

Developing a New Shadowing Procedure for Japanese EFL Learners

RELC Journal ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 003368822093762
Author(s):  
Yo Hamada
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Explicit Instruction ◽  
Corrective Feedback ◽  
Primary Study ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Japanese University ◽  
Speakers Of Other Languages ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Preliminary Study

Shadowing, a practice of repeating what one hears as simultaneously and accurately as possible, has been researched in the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) field for years. The research findings have shown that shadowing contributes to English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ bottom-up listening skills, which leads to their overall listening comprehension skills. However, the accumulated research findings have not uncovered what aspects of bottom-up skills shadowing precisely contributes to. Thus, this study attempts to examine the aspects of bottom-up skills to which shadowing contributes and proposes a new shadowing procedure to compensate for the limitation of the current shadowing procedure. To this end, a preliminary study and a primary study were conducted. In the preliminary study, the bottom-up skill development through shadowing practice was precisely examined, using a 112-item bottom-up listening test. Thirty-six Japanese university students participated in the experiment and engaged in shadowing practice in eight lessons for a month. The result showed that shadowing practice was effective for developing the skill of identifying prominence in a speech, and word recognition skills but not effective for enhancing phonemic discrimination skills. In the primary study, to overcome the limitation of the shadowing procedure, a new shadowing procedure including three components of attention to output, corrective feedback, and explicit instruction was proposed. Twelve Japanese university students participated and engaged in the new shadowing procedure for three months. Their progress was assessed by a 32-item phonemic discrimination test, and the result showed that the new output-based shadowing procedure with explicit instruction and corrective feedback improved phonemic discrimination skills for intermediate level Japanese EFL learners.

scholarly journals An Exploratory Study: How Vocabulary Instruction Influences Writing Fluency

2020 ◽  
Vol 2019 (1) ◽  
pp. 482
Author(s):  
Wakako Takinami
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Vocabulary Instruction ◽  
Writing Fluency ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Japanese University ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Target Words ◽  
Explicit Vocabulary

In this research I investigated how vocabulary presentation in explicit vocabulary instruction influenced EFL students’ writing fluency and controlled productive ability. Vocabulary instruction, 10-minute freewriting, and vocabulary pre- and post-tests were given to Japanese university students. ANOVA and Pearson’s product-moment correlation coefficient were used to analyze test scores as well as the number of words, including the number of target words in the students’ compositions. I found students wrote more fluently when target words were presented in sentences than when presented alone. I also found explicit vocabulary instruction helped students improve their controlled productive ability no matter whether the vocabulary was presented as words alone, in collocations, or in sentences. This paper concludes with suggestions concerning vocabulary instruction and possible future studies. 本研究では、明示的な語彙指導における語彙の提示方法がEFL学習者のライティングの流暢さとcontrolled productive ability（統制的発表語彙力）に与える影響について調査を行った。日本人大学生を対象に、授業で明示的な語彙指導、１０分間のフリーライティング、単語テストを行い、作文中の総語数、異なり語数、ターゲット語彙、そして単語テストの点数を分析した。その結果、語彙指導を行う際、単語のみを教えたときよりも例文を用いターゲット語彙を教えたときのほうが学習者の英語ライティングの流暢さが向上することが明らかになった。また、どのようにターゲット語彙を提示しても、明示的に指導をすることで学習者のcontrolled productive abilityは増えることも分かった。本研究の研究結果に基づき、語彙指導、そして次の研究テーマに関する示唆が提示されている。

scholarly journals Is there an imbalance in the supply and demand for universal accessibility knowledge? Twenty years of UAIS papers viewed through the lens of WCAG

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frode Eika Sandnes
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
North America ◽  
Supply And Demand ◽  
Research Focus ◽  
Universal Accessibility ◽  
Geographical Regions ◽  
Research Profile ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Over Time

AbstractPurpose: Some universal accessibility practitioners have voiced that they experience a mismatch in the research focus and the need for knowledge within specialized problem domains. This study thus set out to identify the balance of research into the main areas of accessibility, the impact of this research, and how the research profile varies over time and across geographical regions. Method: All UAIS papers indexed in Scopus were analysed using bibliometric methods. The WCAG taxonomy of accessibility was used for the analysis, namely perceivable, operable, and understandable. Results: The results confirm the expectation that research into visual impairment has received more attention than papers addressing operable and understandable. Although papers focussing on understandable made up the smallest group, papers in this group attracted more citations. Funded research attracted fewer citations than research without funding. The breakdown of research efforts appears consistent over time and across different geographical regions. Researchers in Europe and North America have been active throughout the last two decades, while Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Middle East became active in during the last five years. There is also seemingly a growing trend of out-of-scope papers. Conclusions: Based on the findings, several recommendations are proposed to the UAIS editorial board.

scholarly journals Longitudinal association between autistic traits and affinity for hikikomori in Japanese university students

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuuki Shimono ◽  
Akira Hasegawa ◽  
Kohei Tsuchihara ◽  
Keisuke Tanaka ◽  
Yuko Matsuda ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
University Students ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Autistic Traits ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Autism Spectrum Quotient ◽  
Japanese University ◽  
Longitudinal Association ◽  
Academic Failures

AbstractThe affinity for hikikomori represents the desire to be withdrawn, as well as to entertain an empathetic attitude towards withdrawn individuals. It is composed of two subdimensions, the maladaptive desire for hikikomori, and empathy for others with hikikomori. This longitudinal study examined whether autistic traits predicted the affinity for hikikomori. At the baseline assessment, undergraduate and graduate students in Japan (N = 272) completed the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ), the Affinity for Hikikomori Scale in University Students, and measures assessing academic failures and interpersonal conflicts. They also completed all measures excluding the AQ eight weeks later. Structural equation modeling indicated that difficulties in social interaction aspects of autistic traits were positively associated with academic failures at Time 2 even after controlling for academic failures at Time 1. In addition, difficulties in social interaction were positively related to the desire for hikikomori at Time 2 indirectly via academic failures at Time 2 after controlling for the desire for hikikomori at Time 1. Difficulties in social interaction were also directly associated with the increased desire for hikikomori at Time 2. These findings suggest that autistic traits, and especially difficulties in social interaction, are predictors of the maladaptive aspect of the affinity for hikikomori.

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