Even though changes are necessary for all organizations over time, nationwide innovation in Japan... more Even though changes are necessary for all organizations over time, nationwide innovation in Japanese higher education in 1991 is still undergoing uncertainty, while making its impact. It can be considered a kind of revolution, because it aims at the decentralization of educational administration in a culture where centralization is generally common. In 1991 the Education Ministry made a change in their policy, allowing colleges to liberalize, diversify, and individualize themselves, and as a result, the requirements for chartering and accredi tation were changed into guidelines. Although one of the characteristics of Japanese education has been the Ministry's strong degree of control and supervision, each college or university was endowed with a certain level of freedom in designing their own curriculum according to their individual educational policies. However, there is somewhat of a contradiction in this change because it was a topdown innovation, which encouraged a bottomup decision making system. In response to this, each s~hool sought to improve their system, and began to carry out internal inspections and evaluations. Among others, ameliorating general education (abbreviated as GE) for the first two years in college became the biggest issue of the reform, that is, combining GE and specialized subjects in the third and the fourth years instead of concentrating on general subjects only for the first two years. Nevertheless, even after ten years the integration still does not work well. Some colleges are seeking more changes in their organization and curriculum, which means therẽ fjJi1fJ=l B 2001C-W-~13)1f 8 J=I 2 B 1Iif:J=I B 2001(SV-~13)if:llJ=1 2 8
Using highly advanced media technology, Asian cultural exchanges became very active since the lat... more Using highly advanced media technology, Asian cultural exchanges became very active since the latter half of the 1990s. Firstly, Japanese "trendy dramas" were favorably welcomed in Asia because they could show young people's problems in an Asian context against the background of a modernized city. These dramas have projected an image of Japan as an idealistically westernized country. Due to the popularity of Japanese culture such as manga, TV dramas, and movies, there seems to have risen a fear that it might be too influential in Asia. However, Japan is based on Western-style modernization, and originally Japanese media companies had the intention of exporting program-making formats to Asian countries rather than the cultural products themselves. A Taiwanese TV drama, Meteor Garden, based on a Japanese manga story was imported back to Japan and soon created a boom here. Also, Korean dramas have been received with enthusiasm in Japan as well as in other Asian countries. Because of "familiarity with Confucianism and ethnicity" in this area, cultural products go beyond the borders of nations and genres, contributing toward Asians seeking for identity in the "diasporic public sphere," which media has been creating worldwide.
The purpose of Language Communication AI and AII in the Faculty of Environmental Studies is to de... more The purpose of Language Communication AI and AII in the Faculty of Environmental Studies is to develop students' speaking ability in English to discuss environmental problems with people from other countries. Therefore, at the end of each semester students are to make a presentation about environmental topics. In order to cultivate speaking skills as a basis of communication and presentation in English, an experiment was done that students recorded their reading of a pattern-practice textbook on an IC recorder for 40 minutes in a week, that is, 600 minutes in total in a semester. Before and after the experiment, an oral test was given to both the class for the experiment and that of the control group which did not have any recording assignments. The oral test was consisted of 10 basic questions, and students answered each question in one minute. As a result, students in the experiment class spoke 4.03 sentences per minute (SPM) in average, and the control group spoke 2.91 SPM. From the questionnaire, students who did recording gave favorable feedback about effectiveness of assignments. This paper is to report about this experiment using IC recorders.
Even though changes are necessary for all organizations over time, nationwide innovation in Japan... more Even though changes are necessary for all organizations over time, nationwide innovation in Japanese higher education in 1991 is still undergoing uncertainty, while making its impact. It can be considered a kind of revolution, because it aims at the decentralization of educational administration in a culture where centralization is generally common. In 1991 the Education Ministry made a change in their policy, allowing colleges to liberalize, diversify, and individualize themselves, and as a result, the requirements for chartering and accredi tation were changed into guidelines. Although one of the characteristics of Japanese education has been the Ministry's strong degree of control and supervision, each college or university was endowed with a certain level of freedom in designing their own curriculum according to their individual educational policies. However, there is somewhat of a contradiction in this change because it was a topdown innovation, which encouraged a bottomup decision making system. In response to this, each s~hool sought to improve their system, and began to carry out internal inspections and evaluations. Among others, ameliorating general education (abbreviated as GE) for the first two years in college became the biggest issue of the reform, that is, combining GE and specialized subjects in the third and the fourth years instead of concentrating on general subjects only for the first two years. Nevertheless, even after ten years the integration still does not work well. Some colleges are seeking more changes in their organization and curriculum, which means therẽ fjJi1fJ=l B 2001C-W-~13)1f 8 J=I 2 B 1Iif:J=I B 2001(SV-~13)if:llJ=1 2 8
Using highly advanced media technology, Asian cultural exchanges became very active since the lat... more Using highly advanced media technology, Asian cultural exchanges became very active since the latter half of the 1990s. Firstly, Japanese "trendy dramas" were favorably welcomed in Asia because they could show young people's problems in an Asian context against the background of a modernized city. These dramas have projected an image of Japan as an idealistically westernized country. Due to the popularity of Japanese culture such as manga, TV dramas, and movies, there seems to have risen a fear that it might be too influential in Asia. However, Japan is based on Western-style modernization, and originally Japanese media companies had the intention of exporting program-making formats to Asian countries rather than the cultural products themselves. A Taiwanese TV drama, Meteor Garden, based on a Japanese manga story was imported back to Japan and soon created a boom here. Also, Korean dramas have been received with enthusiasm in Japan as well as in other Asian countries. Because of "familiarity with Confucianism and ethnicity" in this area, cultural products go beyond the borders of nations and genres, contributing toward Asians seeking for identity in the "diasporic public sphere," which media has been creating worldwide.
The purpose of Language Communication AI and AII in the Faculty of Environmental Studies is to de... more The purpose of Language Communication AI and AII in the Faculty of Environmental Studies is to develop students' speaking ability in English to discuss environmental problems with people from other countries. Therefore, at the end of each semester students are to make a presentation about environmental topics. In order to cultivate speaking skills as a basis of communication and presentation in English, an experiment was done that students recorded their reading of a pattern-practice textbook on an IC recorder for 40 minutes in a week, that is, 600 minutes in total in a semester. Before and after the experiment, an oral test was given to both the class for the experiment and that of the control group which did not have any recording assignments. The oral test was consisted of 10 basic questions, and students answered each question in one minute. As a result, students in the experiment class spoke 4.03 sentences per minute (SPM) in average, and the control group spoke 2.91 SPM. From the questionnaire, students who did recording gave favorable feedback about effectiveness of assignments. This paper is to report about this experiment using IC recorders.
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