The primary purpose of this research is to examine how to improve high school students’ speaking skills in English classes. A questionnaire about learning activities was developed and administered to 794 Japanese university students to examine their perceptions of factors which limited their ability to improve speaking skills in high school classes. The collected data was analyzed by using a decision tree. The results indicated that 1) the most influential limiting factor reported by all the students was reading activities, 2) instructional goals in English classes, listening and writing activities were also recognized as related factors, 3) grammar learning was the most influential factor as reported by freshmen who had studied in English-taught high school classes. Informed by Goh and Burns’s model (2012) of second language speaking competence, the research presents the tentative summary of effective English classes for improving high school students’ speaking skills.

抄録全体を表示

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.

抄録全体を表示

Under the new course of study being implemented, it is expected that high schools will be welcoming students with increasing language knowledge and richer language experience, so it is predicted that more advanced language activities and performance tests for advanced learners will be needed. Advanced learners are reportedly good at utilizing both discussion skills and decision-making skills. Accordingly, this study aims to investigate the followings: 1) whether facilitation skills, which contribute to the facilitation and deepening of discussions and decision-making, can be indicators that distinguish advanced learners from others; 2) whether facilitation skills have sufficient reliability as evaluation criteria; and 3) whether facilitation skills can be used for evaluation without encountering any problems. The results obtained show that although facilitation skills constitute one characteristic of advanced learners, some problems with the performance test need to be solved.

抄録全体を表示