Developing Fluency with Pair Taping

Students in their second year of a large, weekly English conversation course
in Shiga University of Medical Science were given the option of recording
their free conversations in pairs four times a week. They were to do this during
the day in the language laboratory, to log in there, and to pass in their tapes.
Those who subsequently chose to do pair taping had a significant improvement
in fluency (p<O.OOl) over the year that was more than double (p<O.O 1) that of
the control group of those using a pair work text in the regular class. The pair
taping students also had a listening comprehension improvement similar to the
regular students, but a significantly higher increase in enjoyment and ease in
speaking. The success with this technique may be due to the efficacy of
learning something often in multiple shon periods, and to students being
relaxed, confident and motivated when studying on their own. Foreign
language teachers anywhere could feasibly use pair taping to help students
improve their speaking.