One of the major issues that I have with the majority of TOEIC materials on the market

我對市面上大多數TOEIC教材的一個主要問題是

is that they’re based upon the idea that you learn to do something by doing it.

是他們基於這樣一個理念，即你通過做某事來學習做某事。

For example, if you want to learn to play tennis, the idea is that you get out on the tennis court

例如，如果你想學習打網球，你的想法是在網球場上得到

and you hit ball after ball after ball and eventually you do it.

你打了一個又一個球，最終你做到了。

The idea by extension with the TOEIC is that most textbooks seem to have the idea that

延伸到TOEIC的想法是，大多數教科書似乎都有這樣的想法。

if you want to learn to do the TOEIC you just do hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of questions.

如果你想學做託業，你只要做幾百幾千道題就可以了。

And basically how this translates into the classroom, is that they do 30 or 40 questions

而這個基本上是如何轉化到課堂上的，就是他們做30或40道題

and then the teacher goes through and analyzes their mistakes – specifically mainly in most cases they are grammar mistakes.

然後老師再去分析他們的錯誤--具體來說主要是在大多數情況下都是語法錯誤。

Now the problem with this is that it misses out on a huge part of what I think is being tested on the TOEIC.

現在的問題是，它忽略了我認為託業考試中的很大一部分內容。

It doesn’t focus on things like the listening and reading skills that are essential.

它並不注重像聽力和閱讀能力這樣的東西，這是必不可少的。

Basically it’s a listening and reading test, so you need to work on these skills.

基本上是考聽力和閱讀，所以你需要鍛鍊這些技能。

You need to work on things like skimming and scanning so they can read through the passages quickly.

你需要在略讀和掃描等方面下功夫，讓他們能快速讀完段落。

You need to work on underlying listening skills like prediction and basically being able to understand

你需要鍛鍊潛在的聽力能力，比如預測，基本能聽懂。

paraphrasing and things like that.

釋義之類的東西。

Just doing lots and lots of practice, you may be able to pick out some of these things somehow by osmosis,

只要做大量大量的練習，你也許就能在潛移默化中挑出其中的一些東西。

but without these key elements of the listening skills and the reading skills and especially test taking strategies

但如果沒有這些關鍵的聽力技巧和閱讀技巧，特別是應試策略的要素。

which are dealt with in most materials on the market but in a fairly perfunctory way.

市場上大多數材料都有涉及，但都是敷衍了事。

I think there’s a lot of underlying stuff that needs to be addressed that most current course books don’t address…

我覺得有很多基礎性的東西需要解決，而目前大多數課程書都沒有涉及到...

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Basically for low level students, it would seem to almost be a no brainer that those would be an obvious choice.

基本上對於低水平的學生來說，這些幾乎是不需要考慮的，會是一個很明顯的選擇。

The main reason being is that the TOEIC, even though its aimed to be accessible from very low level ability to very high,

主要原因是，託業考試，儘管它的目的是為了從很低的能力到很高的能力。

unless you are about a good pre-intermediate, the majority of the test is going to be very, very difficult.

除非你是約好的中級前輩，否則大部分的考試都會非常非常難。

So for low level students, ideally we’d like to use practice materials that are at the level of the test.

所以對於低水平的學生來說，理想的情況下，我們希望使用符合考試水準的練習材料。

But for lower level students they just find it too difficult, especially if you’re doing nothing but practice activities.

但是對於低年級的學生來說，他們就是覺得太難了，尤其是當你什麼都不做，只做練習活動的時候。

Because what you find is that you do thirty questions and the students can’t understand more than half of them.

因為你發現的是，你做三十道題，學生聽不懂一半以上。

It’s very demotivating, very frustrating, and basically doesn’t get very good results either.

很喪氣，很沮喪，基本上也得不到很好的結果。

So basically all those, ‘Target 550’, ‘450 for the TOEIC’, what those materials do is

所以基本上所有這些，"目標550"，"託業450"，這些材料的作用就是

they simplify the actual materials they present the students with.

他們簡化了向學生展示的實際材料。

They use simplified vocabulary. They use shorter reading and listening passages.

他們使用簡化詞彙。他們使用較短的閱讀和聽力段落。

They limit the amount of grammatical structures the students see.

他們限制了學生看到的語法結構的數量。

And this makes it much easier for the students to actually approach these kinds of tests.

而這樣一來，學生真正接觸這類考試就容易多了。

And so basically for many years, I used these types of materials and in fact, the students have a much easier time going with it.

所以基本上很多年來，我都是用這類教材，其實學生用起來更輕鬆。

For teachers of course, it’s much, much easier to run these kinds of classes.

當然，對於老師來說，開這種課要輕鬆很多很多。

Students don’t struggle.

學生不掙扎。

Basically it seems to make this kind of intuitive sense for teachers that you try to choose

基本上對於老師來說，似乎有這樣的直觀意義，你儘量選擇

the materials you’re using in the class to match the level of your students.

你在課堂上使用的材料，以配合學生的水準。

All in all, it would seem a win-win basis, except for one thing.

總而言之，這似乎是一個雙贏的基礎，除了一件事。

And that’s when the students go to take the real test, they find that the real test,

而當學生去參加真正的考試時，就會發現，真正的考試。

in no way resembles what they’ve been practicing with for the last few months.

絕不像他們過去幾個月一直在練習的東西。

And what I’ve actually come to believe is that these simplified materials do more harm than good for these students.

而我其實已經開始相信，這些簡化的教材對這些學生來說，弊大於利。

Not only do students not make any significant gains, but in terms of the frustration factor, it becomes almost a shock.

學生不僅沒有明顯的收穫，在挫折因素方面，幾乎成了一種衝擊。

I’ve had students come back to me and say

我有學生回來對我說

"Teacher I studied for three months in your course but my score went down by 15 points. You’re a bad teacher."

"老師我在你的課程中學習了三個月，但我的分數卻下降了15分。你是個壞老師."

I can understand totally. What am I supposed to say in a situation like that? It’s frustrating for them.

我完全可以理解。在這種情況下，我應該說什麼呢？這讓他們很沮喪。

It’s shocking for the teacher when you know they’ve actually learned a lot but in terms of actually preparing them

當你知道他們其實已經學到了很多東西，但從實際準備的角度來說，這對老師來說是很震撼的。

for the nature of the challenge they’re going to face, you’ve actually failed them.

對於他們將要面對的挑戰的性質，你其實已經讓他們失望了。

So I can’t do it anymore.

所以我不能再做了。

Basically what it came down to, for many years I was asked to write materials of that nature for low level students.

基本上歸結為，多年來，我被要求為低年級學生寫這種性質的材料。

And I constantly said "No I’m not doing it". Basically by using these materials you’re shooting your students in the foot.

而我不斷地說"不，我不做"。基本上，通過使用這些材料，你正在拍攝你的學生的腳。

You’re giving them this placebo effect but in fact you’re not helping them at all.

你給了他們這種安慰劑的效果，但實際上你對他們一點幫助都沒有。

All you’re doing is taking their money, wasting their time, and basically not giving them good value in return.

你所做的就是拿他們的錢，浪費他們的時間，基本沒有給他們好的價值回報。

The thing that changed my mind is that finally it came to my attention that the TOEIC

改變我的想法的是，最後我才發現，TOEIC

is broken down into roughly about three equal parts in terms of difficulty.

從難度上來說，大致可分為三等份。

One third of the test items are aimed at lower level students,

三分之一的測試項目是針對低年級學生的。

one third are aimed at the intermediate range,

三分之一是針對中等範圍的。

one third are aimed at the higher level range.

三分之一是針對較高層次的範圍。

So it occurred to me that in class rather than simplifying the materials unnaturally,

於是我想到，在課堂上與其把教材不自然地簡化。

what we could do is we could basically,

我們可以做的是我們可以基本上，

in each unit we could start off and present them with materials that could actually appear on a real TOEIC test

在每個單元中，我們可以先向他們展示可能出現在真正的TOEIC考試中的材料。

but would be on the easier end of the range in the early parts of the unit.

但在組織、部門初期會比較容易。

You have to expose them to material that’s on the actual test or else when they face it on test day they’re going to shut down.

你必須讓他們接觸到實際考試中的材料，否則當他們在考試當天面對它時，他們就會關閉。

But in order to do this, you have to take a systematic build up approach

但要做到這一點，你必須採取系統化的建立方法。

and work on those underlying skills of vocabulary, any sort of grammatical features,

並鍛鍊那些詞彙的基本功，任何一種文法特點。

test taking strategies, the listening and reading skills necessary to approach that.

應試策略、聽力和閱讀能力的必要方法。

If you build up that sound basis, then you can expose them to the level

如果你建立了這個良好的基礎，那麼你就可以讓他們接觸到的水準

they're going to face on the test and they have a decent chance of doing it.

他們'要在測試上面對，他們有相當大的機會做到這一點。

Otherwise it’s going to be meltdown on test day.

否則在測試當天就要崩潰了。