This mixed-method study aimed to evaluate the story retelling performance of 23 Japanese university students in relation to English proficiency, as indicated by their TOEIC scores. Story retelling performance was first evaluated using Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency (CAF) indices. Correlation analysis of TOEIC scores and each of the CAF results indicated moderate correlations between TOEIC reading and listening scores and complexity. Then, students’ retelling performance was further evaluated qualitatively. Those who have higher proficiency seemed to have constructed a mental representation with the gist after reading the text and tried to retell the original story using their own words, while students with lower proficiency seemed to have constructed a mental representation lacking one or more key points and tended to reproduce the original text. The current study revealed the potential of the story retelling activity: As an integrated task, it can develop both reading skills to capture the main points and speaking skills to express them in one’s own words.
