Evidence of cultural differences between American and Japanese mainstream science and engineering contexts from analysis of classroom discourse

Figures & data

Figure 1. Learning cycle of the Kolb model, adapted from Kolb (2015, 68).

Figure 2. OnCAL display of results for the search term ‘instructor’.

Table 1. Frequencies of usage of first and second person pronouns, with their genitive and dative cases, in both corpora of lectures delivered in English (OnCAL) and Japanese (OnCAL.jp).

Pronoun	Frequency in OnCAL (430 lectures)	Total for first and second person	Average per lecture in OnCAL	Word	Frequency in OnCAL.jp (71 lectures)	Total for first and second person	Average per lecture in OnCAL.jp
I	65,000*	75,523	151.1	watashi	775	1,002	10.9
my	5,000*		11.6	watashino	188		2.6
me	5,459		12.7	watashini	39		0.5
mine	64		0.15
we	39,580	44,686	92.0	wareware	343	494	4.8
our	3,386		7.9	wawareno	128		1.8
us	1,695		3.9	warewareni	23		0.3
ours	25		0.06
you	89,876	97,554	209.0	minasan	399	464	5.6
your	7,632		17.7	minasanno	57		0.8
				minasannni	8		0.1
yours	46		0.1
Total	217,763		506.4	Total	1,960		27.6

*The actual number of hits for ‘I’ and ‘my’ were 66,462 and 5,187, respectively. However, ‘I’ are ‘i’ are used at least 1,000 times, and ‘m_y’ at least 100 times as symbols, and this inflates the frequency for pronouns. The values 65,000 and 5,000 are therefore estimated frequencies.

Table 2. Frequencies of usage of the words ‘sensei’, ‘kyoju’ and ‘kyoin’ in OnCAL.jp, and ‘teacher’, ‘professor’ and ‘instructor’ in OnCAL.

Word	Frequency in OnCAL.jp (71 lectures)	Average per lecture in OnCAL.jp	Word	Frequency in OnCAL (430 lectures)	Average per lecture in OnCAL
sensei	313	4.4	teacher(s)	25	0.06
kyoju	23	0.3	professor(s)	159	0.37
kyoin	9	0.1	instructor(s)	35	0.08
Total	345	4.8	Total	219	0.51

Kolb, D. A. 2015. Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. 2nd ed. New Jersey: Pearson.

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