Abstract
This paper analyzes the progress of Active English (AE) students’ speaking at Saga
University over a five week period in Fall 2007. The researcher was interested in both
quantity (speech rate, lexical density, etc.) and quality (lexical and grammatical accuracy) of
speech, as well as the implementation of communication strategies. He, also, looked at
speech differences between apparent planned and unplanned speech acts. He concludes that
further studies be conducted to look at the roles of teacher and student feedback and
motivation on speaking fluency and accuracy, challenging current assumptions, as well as
the extent to which individual task questions impact on students’ speaking performance. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, he calls for further research to analyze the roles of
planned and unplanned speech on EFL language development, especially in regards to
functional planning which has been under investigated to date.