An Experimental Study on the Development of Listening and Speaking Ability in English by Japanese College Students

抄録

This observational experiment aims at discovering the degree of improvement in learning English as a foreign language by Japanese college students within a sphere of curriculum, applying a certain linguistic theory and devising pedagogical methods. A total of 300 first year students have been examined for the past six years. It was cofirmed that, in order of importance : (1) 45 hours are required in order to correct their ill-trained pronunciation and develop the skill of their aural comprehension, and approximately 120h. required to develop the skill of aural comprehension and oral production to reach the cited goal ; (2) the degree of correlation between oral production, aural comprehension and reading was very low regardless of prior learning reading for six years at middle school ; (3) at the beginning stage of learning some of the illtrained English phonemes, which they are lacking in L1, appear while they are speaking without conscious effort and in a relaxed state of mind after 120h. of practice ; (4) the degree of difficulty and exercise variations, in class and out, as well as preparation of self-learning tapes, will be dependent to a large degree on the students initial learning attitude and proficiency in English.