Improving the Effectiveness of Language Laboratory Classes : How can we make language laboratory classes more efficient in learning English as an International Language?

抄録

This paper suggests that we Japanese are required to really study English as an international language due to the circumstances facing Japan at present. We teachers are responsible for improving the students' ability to use English language as a "weapon" for international communication. During listening comprehension classes 1 have come to conclude that the application of simultaneous interpretation methods is quite effective to improve students' overall listening ability and to enhance their ability to cope with many various kinds of Englishes. Experiments are conducted to test which one of the following three teaching methods: A) Integrative, B) Interactive, C) Conventional will be the most effective in teaching listening in the language laboratory. The TOEFL listening comprehension test is used as a pre - test and a post - test to see how much students could improve their scores in the fifty listening test questions. The results of their statistical analysis are as follows: A Method > B Method > C Method, especially in terms of "gains". The supremacy of A Method over the other two is interpreted in such a way that the teaching Method A, requiring the students to use all five senses, stimulates the brain to be more active. The test results seem to indicate that we can make better use of the language laboratory if we activate the students by giving more engaging tasks.