Effects of Short-term English Study Abroad Programs on the Development of Japanese College Students'Academic Communication Skills

摘要本研究旨在探讨为期三周的海外英语学习计划对日本大学生英语能力发展的贡献。静冈县夏季英语项目（SSEP）是为静冈县大学本科生量身定制的海外留学项目，在美国一所大型大学举办。这个项目的重点是通过学习美国文化来提高他们的口头表达能力。在2005-2007年的夏季，35名学生参加了这个项目，他们在每个项目的开始和结束时都参加了密歇根大学英语水平测试（MTELP）和密歇根大学书面英语测试（ITWE）。因为这个项目不是为了提高考试成绩而设计的，而且因为项目持续时间很短，我们没有期望在考试成绩上发现任何显著的提高。虽然我们没有发现MTELP得分有显著提高，但我们确实发现ITWE得分有显著提高。这是值得注意的，因为课程没有提供任何具体的写作课程。简而言之，口头陈述训练可以作为一种实践，以形成思想，使连贯和逻辑的论点。因为当一个人在有限的时间内写一篇文章时，这些技能也是必要的，所以我们可以合理地假设，尽管课程没有教授写作，他们的写作水平还是提高了。基于这些结果，我们得出结论，口头陈述练习对日本大学生在短期留学项目中是有效的。

This study was conducted to investigate what contribution a three-week English study abroad program would bring to the development of Japanese college students' English proficiency. Shizuoka Summer English Program (SSEP), the study abroad program specifically tailored for University of Shizuoka undergraduate students, was held at a large American university. The program focused on improving their oral presentation skills through learning American culture.During the summers of 2005-2007, thirty five students participated in the program, and they all took the Institutional Michigan Test of English Proficiency (MTELP) and the Institutional Michigan Test of Written English (ITWE) at both the beginning and the end of each program. Because the program was not designed to improve test scores and because the program duration was short, we did not expect to find any significant improvement in the test scores. Although we did not find significant improvements in the MTELP scores, we did find significant improvements in the ITWE scores. This is noteworthy because the curriculum did not offer any specific curricula for writing. In short, the oral presentation training could serve as a practice for formulating ideas and making a coherent and logical argument. Because these skills are also necessary when one writes an essay in a limited time, it is plausible to assume that their writing improved despite the fact that the curriculum did not teach writing.Based on these results, we conclude that oral presentation exercises are effective for Japanese college students in such short-term study abroad programs.