A Case Study on How to Teach English at University Adopting TOEIC (2) -Evaluation after three years-

Three years ago, we wrote an essay about our new English-teaching program that adopted TOEIC. We gave out questionnaires to the students with questions ranging from what they thought of English in general to what they thought of our new program. In the essay, we discussed some of the results. Even though students' response was relatively positive in this initial survey, we wrote in our conclusion that we would like to renew and reform our classes. Receiving feedback from students periodically would help us improve their English ability. In order to see the change of students' attitude toward English and also toward our program, we conducted the same research last February. This time the results were not as favorable. For example, the number of students who thought their English ability was poor increased and those who showed a positive attitude toward our program decreased. We discussed and wrote what we learned from those results. We raised the question whether there was a gap between what we tried to teach to the students and what they wanted from us. Possible reasons were discussed on why we could not succeed in stimulating the students into studying English further. In April 2003 Okayama University started a new English curriculum, in which the classes for proficiency tests including TOEIC were opened. Similar classes have been set at many other universities. This survey will be a help to the further development of English education adopting TOEIC