The purposes of the present study were: (1) to investigate the brain activation associated with coordination exercises done by one person and those by two persons and (2) to examine the interrelationships between the brain activation and social abilities. We were interested in testing the hypothesis that viewing two-person coordination exercises evokes more sophisticated brain activation than viewing one-person coordination exercises. Thirty Japanese college students served as subjects. There were two sessions in this study: the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) session and the social ability session. In the fMRI session, the subjects were instructed to imagine they were performing coordination exercises. Also, we examined the social abilities from the viewpoint of empathising. Empathising was measured by self-reports on the Systemising, Empathy and Autism Spectrum Quotients (SQ, EQ and AQ). Regarding brain activation, blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) activation was significant in specific areas such as the left cuneus (Brodmann area: BA 17) when the subjects imagined they were performing exercises involving two persons, as compared with the cases when they imagined they were performing exercises involving only one person. The fMRI results showed that exercises done by two persons require more sophisticated communication than those done by one person. Furthermore, the results of this study suggested that those with more autistic traits may undergo difficulties in the exercises done by two persons, especially in the case of playing a role as a follower.

This study investigated the relationships between the TOEIC scores and the two factors of the reading rates and vocabulary abilities of Japanese learners of English. Also studied are the relationships between the scores of the two TOEIC sections and the learners’ speaking proficiencies. Applying the Rauding theory, which reported the same comprehension processes underlying reading and listening, to second language acquisition, this study tested the hypothesis that the processing time for reading had an effect on that for listening. The Japanese subjects in this study took TOEIC and standardized tests of reading rates and vocabulary abilities, and also participated in a production experiment. The results showed high correlations between the TOEIC scores and the two factors of reading rates and vocabulary abilities. They also showed the tendency that the improvement of reading rates and vocabulary abilities contributed to the improvement of not only the scores of the TOEIC Reading Section, but also those of the TOEIC Listening Section. In addition, this study clarified the degree to which the speaking proficiency measured by naturalness judgments of native speakers of English corresponded to the proficiency indirectly measured by the TOEIC Listening Section.

No abstract

The purpose of this study was to observe the differences between first and second language acquisition in English durational patterns with respect to interstress intervals (ISIs). Production experiments were carried out to investigate the durational patterns used by three groups of speakers: adult native speakers of American English, American third graders, and Japanese learners of English. Two sets of English sentences were devised as the linguistic material, and the sentences in each set differed in the number of nominally unstressed syllables that intervened between a target stressed syllable and the next stressed syllable. These sets of sentences contained two different target stressed vowels, and the ISIs within and between words. The shortest ISIs were produced by adult American speakers regardless of the number of unstressd syllables in the target ISIs. The Japanese learners produced shorter ISIs than the American children in one set of sentences, while in the other set, the American children produced shorter ISIs than the Japanese. Regarding the durations of target stressed vowels, foot-level shortening was observed in the three subject groups, the American children exhibiting the highest percentage of shortening followed by the American adults and then the Japanese.