A study on impromptu speaking proficiency of Japanese learners of English

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26370666
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Foreign language education
• Research Institution: University of Niigata Prefecture
• Principal Investigator: Junichiro Chino 新潟県立大学, 国際地域学部, 准教授 (50413753)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 大湊 佳宏 長岡工業高等専門学校, 一般教育科, 准教授 (70413755) ; 峯島 道夫 新潟医療福祉大学, 社会福祉学部, 准教授 (10512981)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: やり取り / 即興的発話 / スピーキング不安 / 即興性 / 英語教育 / 口頭英語 / つなぎ言葉 / 話すこと

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study mainly investigated the linguistic characteristics and psychological states of Japanese students when they were speaking English. The results of the corpus-based analysis showed that Japanese university students did not completely utilize time-gaining discourse markers and that their speech exhibited longer and more frequent silent pauses than did overseas students’ speech. Moreover, the qualitative study revealed that the participants, who were university students with relatively high overall English proficiency, had some degree of anxiety regarding impromptu speaking.

Free Research Field

外国語教育