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This paper documents the design, implementation and evaluation of a content-based language teaching (CBLT) curriculum for an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programme at a Japanese university. The aim of the programme is to prepare students for study abroad in Anglophone universities in a two-year time frame. This curriculum redesign project integrated second language learning theory with backward design curriculum development theory in an institutional setting where administration mandates and changing student and faculty populations impacted the process. The curriculum team conducted a needs analysis with multiple data sources, implemented the curriculum, and then, conducted an evaluation utilising various sources. The needs analysis revealed several surprises, countering faculty and curriculum designers' intuition. Likewise, conflicting student and faculty feedback in the evaluation of the curriculum posed difficulties for drawing conclusions about the curriculum's effectiveness. The university context, with its emphasis on academic freedom and research, requires adjusting theoretically based processes used in compulsory education levels, such as adopting an adaptable approach to curriculum design. As more universities require faculty to write and revise curricula, the authors call for more tertiary-level curriculum design case studies that illustrate successes or shortcomings for curriculum design theory in the face of real-world challenges.

Most research on women's sexualities focuses on a single event or developmental period, often failing to document romantic and sexual trajectories over time. Moreover, life course studies of sexuality have not exclusively examined single women, including major life events that may alter their sexual attitudes and behaviors. Using life story interview data with 60 single, heterosexual women between the ages of 18 and 91, I document five common pathways through romantic and sexual life, including opting out of marital relationships, the development of sexual subjectivity, sexual exploration and maintaining independence, sex positivity and increases in sexual communication, and a maintenance of sexual conservatism. The findings also reveal the role of domestic violence, sexual abuse, relationship dissolution, sexually transmitted illnesses, and menopause in altering sexual attitudes and behaviors. This study has several implications for life course studies of intimate relationships and sexuality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do people attribute emotions differently to members of various social groups? If so, do these differences have any bearing on formal and informal forms of social recognition? Using data from a nationally representative survey experiment, we examine whether American heterosexuals differentially attribute love to lesbian, gay, and heterosexual couples. We also examine the relationship between how in love lesbian, gay, and heterosexual couples are perceived to be and attitudes toward (1) granting them partnership benefits (formal rights); (2) the acceptability of their public displays of affection (informal privileges); and (3) marriage. Three main findings suggest that heterosexuals differentially attribute love to different types of romantic couples and that these differences are related to willingness to grant social recognition. First, gay couples are viewed as less loving than both heterosexual and lesbian couples; lesbian couples are seen as equally loving as heterosexual couples. Second, perceptions of love are related to willingness to grant social recognition. Third, perceptions of love matter more for gay and, to a lesser extent, lesbian couples than for heterosexual couples regarding informal privileges and marriage. In contrast, love matters equally for same-sex and heterosexual couples regarding formal rights. The results show that gay couples are penalized most in terms of perceptions of love and social recognition, whereas lesbians occupy a liminal space between heterosexual and gay couples. Collectively, these findings suggest that sexual identity and gender shape emotional attributions, which in turn play a key role in explaining inequalities that same-sex couples face. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]