How to Develop English Speaking Ability in the University Level

摘要

As a result of a needs analysis, it is found that almost half of the students of the Faculty of Environmental Studies in Nagasaki University hope to study speaking in English more often compared with other three activities; listening, reading, and writing. In response to their need, the Reading Aloud Approach (RAA) based on the Kakyo-style Learning Method was proposed, and experiments using this approach were done twice in the first and second terms of 2008. For four weeks participants would choose 3 days in a week and on each day they should (1) read aloud certain sentences 3 times, (2) record them in a mini-tape recorder, (3) and write them down in a notebook after reciting them 3 times. In the beginning and at the end of each experiment, two interviews in English were made, recorded and transcribed. Also, participants were asked to answer a set of questionnaires. After comparing the transcriptions in terms of vocabulary, fluency, and sentence complexity, it can be concluded that RAA is effective as a method to develop students’ English speaking abilities. Especially, participants felt confident about their pronunciation when they made a presentation in English on environmental problems at the end of the term.