Working memory training and its effects on oral proficiency in English: implications to automatically graded speaking tests
| Project/Area Number |
22520571
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Foreign language education
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| Research Institution | The University of Aizu |
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Principal Investigator |
KANEKO Emiko 会津大学, 研究センター, 上級准教授 (30533624)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2010 – 2012
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| Project Status |
Completed (Fiscal Year 2012)
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| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥900,000)
Fiscal Year 2012: ¥1,560,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥360,000)
Fiscal Year 2011: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000)
Fiscal Year 2010: ¥910,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥210,000)
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| Keywords | スピーキング指導 / スピーキングテスト / シャドウイング / 音読 / シャド－イング / シャドウウイング |
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| Research Abstract |
Utterances of about forty students in the control and experimental groups were recorded before and after the 13 working memory training sessions in the first and second semesters as planned. The utterances are transcribedand analyzed in terms of complexity, accuracy and fluency. The results of the first semester showed task effects, namely, the questions that elicited learner speech unexpectedly influenced the performance. Therefore, the effects of the working memory training could be only inferred since the expected effects could not be separated from the task effects. With the data recorded in the second semester, the changes in students’speech were analyzed more in detail. There were no significant correlations between the improvement in complexity (syntactic complexity and sentence length) and fluency, meaning that sentences became longer without sacrificing fluency. On the other hand,significant correlation was found between the changes in complexity and in number of errors, implying a tradeoff effect between complexity and accuracy.As for fluency, there was significant negative correlation between the results of the pre-test and the difference in fluency scores between pre-and post-tests (r=-.59), indicating that the more fluent the students were initially, the less effective these practices were.
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Report
(4 results)
Research Products
(8 results)
