2010 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

The impact of short-term study abroad on Japanese university EFL learners' communicative competence

Research Project

Project/Area Number	21820044
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Foreign language education
Research Institution	Hosei University
Principal Investigator	SATO Yoko Hosei University, 経営学部, 准教授 (80523125)
Project Period (FY)	2009 – 2010
Keywords	英語教育 / 第二言語習得 / 留学(スタディ・アブロード) / オーラル・コミュニケーション / 異文化コミュニケーション
Research Abstract	This study investigated the impact of short-term study abroad experiences on the communicative competence of Japanese university learners of English. Pre- and post-test data were elicited through one-to-one, face-to-face oral proficiency interviews, each between a learner and a qualified native speaker assessor. The findings suggest that the communicative pressure and social context in the target-language environment have facilitated the development of relevant competency, such as fluency and consistency of utterances, vocabulary, and appropriacy of verbal and non-verbal messages.