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[Intro music]
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The big one of course is vocabulary.
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The main issue which causes problems for low level students
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on the TOEIC is that they just don’t know enough words.
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The listening skills, reading skills, all that stuff is important of course,
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but if they can’t understand key words in the question,
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if they can’t understand the meaning then
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they’re just not getting anywhere from the get-go.
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So that’s the single biggest problem for sure.
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The other one is that the nature of the test
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– the fact that it’s timed –
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that’s a very calculated part of the challenge in the test design.
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If they’re not familiar with the ways that the test is designed,
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then they’re likely to approach the test in ways
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that are not very helpful in getting a good score.
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For example, a lot of Japanese students especially,
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their practice in the past has been, in terms of reading
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has been quite slow, word by word, sentence by sentence,
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and on a timed test like the TOEIC what we often see
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is that they’re running out of time.
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So basically in terms of what I try to do to help
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low level students do well on the TOEIC,
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number one is I want to improve their vocabulary.
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And actually practicing for the test,
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vocabulary building has got to be an essential part
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of any TOEIC preparation course.
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If they don’t have that, they are not getting anywhere
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and that’s that. That’s the bottom line.
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The second thing is, we have to look at ways to help
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them both understand and overcome the non-English based challenges,
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for example, by having them read the questions first
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in the listening section, and understand those, before they actually listen to the actual text.
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That gives them two things.
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Number one it gives them background information on what they’re listening for,
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what we call in ELT terms, schema or schemata.
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This background knowledge allows them to have
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a better understanding of the information they take in.
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The second thing is, not all the information on the actual TOEIC is essential to answer the questions.
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By reading the questions first they have a focus on what they’re listening for.
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So it means that if they know what they’re listening for,
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it means that during the introductory statement, for example,
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in the talks or the conversations, the important information they can say
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‘ok that’s not what I’m listening for, that’s not what I’m listening for’,
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they don’t have to expend a lot of brain power on listening to certain elements.
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But as soon as they hear certain key words or related concepts,
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that’s when their brains should click on and that’s when they should start to focus.
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If we can get them in the habit of doing this, of making predictions about what they are going to hear
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based on what they read in the questions, and having a clear focus,
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it actually makes the listening task an awful lot easier.
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It gives them a real leg up on actually understanding what’s going on and answering the questions.
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[Background music]
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You know what a lot of people would say, it’s a listening and reading test
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so speaking has no place, but I’ll tell you one of the main things that I’ve said over and over again
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is that vocabulary and understanding natural phrases and expressions and stuff like that
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is an essential component for doing well on the TOEIC.
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These sorts of things are explicitly tested.
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Now we could teach these things in a number of ways.
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We can give them match up exercise and have them memorize word lists and stuff like that,
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but I’m a firm believer that if you want to internalize language,
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the most efficient and effective way to do it is to use it.
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A lot of TOEIC is understanding functions like for example making requests,
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making apologies, giving directions, making complaints, and the common responses for those
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– understanding is the guy exceeding to the request or is he denying the request.
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Basically all these natural expressions, you can teach them,
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but if you want to internalize it, the best way to do it is to have them use it.
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If they can use these key core language chunks themselves, then their chance of remembering it on test day,
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where they don’t have time to think, it’s got to be instant recall,
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the only way to get that I’m convinced is through active productive use.
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You know a lot of my classes, I’d say probably about a third to a quarter of any class that I teach
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basically has an interactive component – students in pairs speaking together,
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doing role plays of the different situations they may encounter,
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doing speeches and things like that, discussing their ideas and their predictions.
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The main reason for this is not to develop speaking skills, that’s a side benefit
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– it’s a big one but that’s a side benefit – the main reason why I do this is to
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internalize these key chunks of language that I’ve taught them, these key lexical units,
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this key vocabulary of individual words and multi-word phrases.
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Because I figure if they can use it in the same sort of context as they’re going to see on the TOEIC,
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their chance of being able to understand it when they hear it
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or when they see it in a written form is much, much higher…
