Purpose of the studyLearner engagement - active participation in class activities and academic tasks - is one of the key factors in promoting language learning. Mercer and Dörnyei (2020) proposed six principles to facilitate social and affective aspects of engagement regarding building rapport between teachers and learners: (1) Be Approachable, (2) Be Empathetic, (3) Be Responsive to Learner Individuality, (4) Believe in All Your Learners, (5) Support Learner Autonomy, and (6) Be Passionate About What You Do.     The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of building rapport between teachers and students for encouraging learner engagement in Japan, considering the six principles. MethodThe author developed a questionnaire, consisting of six questions reflecting the six principles. Respondents were asked to answer each question on a five-point Likert scale, with 1=“I disagree.” and 5=“I agree.”     A total of 115 participants responded to the questionnaire survey, consisting of junior high school students (n=55), high school students (n=43), and university students (n=17). All of them were students in the author’s classes and were asked to answer anonymously and voluntarily.     The data from the survey was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The means, standard deviations, and medians were calculated for each group of participants, as well as those of the total participants. The results were interpreted by the author, considering the mean differences among the questionnaire items. Before the main analysis, Cronbach’s alpha was calculated to investigate the reliability of the questionnaire, and it showed acceptable reliability (α = .839).Results and Discussion The overall results of the survey are summarized in Table 1. Table 1 Junior high school (n=55) High school (n=43) University (n=17) Total (N=115) 　 Mean ( SD ) Median 　 Mean ( SD ) Median 　 Mean ( SD ) Median 　 Mean ( SD ) Median Q1. Approachable 4.29 ( 0.89 ) 5 3.81 ( 1.02 ) 4 4.29 ( 1.07 ) 5 4.11 ( 0.99 ) 4 Q2. Empathetic 4.33 ( 0.74 ) 4 3.93 ( 1.13 ) 4 4.41 ( 0.97 ) 5 4.19 ( 0.96 ) 4 Q3. Individuality 4.16 ( 0.78 ) 4 3.56 ( 1.08 ) 4 4.41 ( 0.97 ) 5 3.97 ( 0.99 ) 4 Q4. Belief 3.75 ( 0.86 ) 4 3.07 ( 1.32 ) 3 4.24 ( 1.16 ) 5 3.57 ( 1.17 ) 4 Q5. Autonomy 3.65 ( 0.98 ) 4 3.26 ( 1.10 ) 3 4.41 ( 0.97 ) 5 3.62 ( 1.09 ) 4 Q6. Passionate 4.33 ( 0.71 ) 4 　 3.51 ( 1.09 ) 4 　 4.35 ( 1.03 ) 5 　 4.03 ( 1.00 ) 4 Mean 4.09 ( 0.83 ) 4.17 　 3.52 ( 1.12 ) 3.67 　 4.35 ( 1.03 ) 5.00 　 3.92 ( 1.03 ) 4.00     There were notable differences among principles. First, the Total mean values of “Approachable” and “Empathetic” stand out as being over 4.1, and the mean of “Empathetic” shows the highest value in each of the three groups. Second, the Total mean value for “Passionate” is higher than 4.0.     From these results, “Approachable”, “Empathetic” and “Passionate” teachers may have a positive effect on encouraging learner engagement. Although differences were found among the values of the six questions, all the questions from Q1 to Q6 were answered with a total of 3.0 or higher, indicating the participants felt that all six principles had some positive impacts on engagement.ConclusionThe results of this survey indicated all six principles for building rapport were perceived as effective. In addition, teachers are more likely to have a positive effect on learner engagement if they are approachable, empathetic, and passionate. 

This study tried to examine whether Japanese speakers' distinction between countable and uncountable nouns is influenced by attaining proficiency in English.     An experiment replicating the Imai & Gentner (1997) and the Cook et al. (2006) designs was carried out.  Subjects were presented with three types of items: target items (e.g., hand cream in reverse C-shape), same shape items (e.g., hair gel in reverse C-shape) and same material items (e.g., a pile of hand cream).  They were then asked which of the two alternatives would be the same.     The subjects were native adult speakers of Japanese with both high English proficiency (e.g., TOEIC 785 or above) and experience of living in English-speaking countries for less than three years.  Due to such restraints, it was difficult to find qualified participants.  Only five participated.  Their responses were random.  Two participants showed material preference, two showed shape preference, and the other showed no preference.  Since the number of the participants was small, arriving at a conclusion was difficult.  Yet it can be meaningful in the future to examine other factors such as higher proficiency levels or how recently participants came back from English-speaking countries to investigate categorization by Japanese L2 users of English.