Fluency--Degrees of Relationships between Fluency in TOEIC scores and Syntactic Complexity

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24520626
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Foreign language education
• Research Institution: Kyushu Institute of Technology
• Principal Investigator: LONG Robert 九州工業大学, 大学院工学研究院, 准教授 (00284589)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): TABUKI Masatoshi 九州工業大学, 大学院工学研究院, 教授 (60268795)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: fluency / dysfluency / lexical complexity / syntactical complexity / acoustic complexity / vocabulary use

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The data indicate that TOEIC scores provide some means of measuring proficiency and fluency. Fluency increased as TOEIC scores improved, but the gains in fluency were marginal up to scores of 700 or more. Only at the higher ranges did fluency show marked improvement. What is apparent from this data is that these participants with relatively high TOEIC scores (which would allow many a chance at international jobs or jobs in which English is used) are not really ready to engage in rapid and complicated interactions and negotiations. While there are confounding variables such as personality, motivation, and study abroad experience that could impact one's fluency, it is clear that TOEIC test scores can often provide unreliable and misleading information concerning the student's productive skills in speaking and in writing.

Free Research Field

英語教育