It is generally recognized in Japan today that having high -level English skills is certainly a big advantage for college students to open up their future career. Japanese colleges are facing increasing societal demand for a better English curriculum that fosters both communicative and academic English skills. The project-based English course, which is practiced at the College of Sport and Health Science of Ritsumeikan University, focuses on development of academic communication skills. In this course students practice the communicative academic skills of English such as, 1: how to deliver a group-based oral English presentation including a debate and panel discussion, 2: how to write an academic paper in English, 3: how to develop research skills based on their own interest. Although it is shown by the distribution of their TOEIC IP scores that there are English proficiency gaps among the students, the questionnaire survey reveals that most of them regard themselves as contributors to the accomplishment of the course because it is designed to require them to be a part of the group research. This study proposes that project-based English course should be student-interest-oriented and build on a series of academic tasks that need all the students to take part in.