Developing the Speaking Proficiency of Non-Native English Teachers

This paper reports on a speaking proficiency development program for non-native（ NNS） Englishteachers given in Osaka, Japan, in March 2018 and discusses some important factors in developing thespeaking proficiency of NNS English teachers, which is a major issue in countries where English is mainlytaught by non-native English teachers as a foreign language. In Japan, the Ministry of Education, Culture,Sports, Science, and Technology（ MEXT） has announced that English should be taught in English in highschools（ MEXT, 2009）, but few teachers are confident or willing to do so because of their lack ofcommunicative ability in English. The program gave the participants opportunities to use English in animpromptu manner by involving them in a variety of activities whose final goal was to present a dramaonly with a rough storyline. The program was small scale and a one-shot event, but it enabled us toconsider some implications for developing the speaking proficiency of non-native English teachers