3 posts tagged “toeic”

Some thoughts on how to get a better TOEIC score. To improve in TOEIC, especially the reading section, but in fact all of TOEIC, you need to improve your reading skills. Here are some suggestions on how to do that.

Extensive reading. (to increase your reading speed)

A) Read a lot of easy content where the number of new words is not greater than 10 % of the total number of  unique words. (Note that this information is provided when you click on the title of new items in the Linguist Library).

1)      Read a new item quickly once. Then try to summarize out loud to yourself what the item was about.

2)      Listen to the item and read along at the same time. Make sure that you can read faster than the audio file you are listening to. If you cannot, read the item again and continue practicing to try to increase your reading speed. Note that most articles, including news reports are read at about 140 words per minute, whereas conversations are around 160 words per minute and Dr. Laura is closer to 200 words per minute. You will need to get your speed up to 200 words per minute or faster to really do well on TOEIC.

3)      Select a new item and do the same again. You can use imported content if (as in the case of VOA) there is a sound file provided. If there is no sound, do as in B) below.

Note that you should read these easy items at first without listening, and then read along while listening. The objective is to increase your reading speed.

B) Read newspaper articles, magazine articles, or other handy material, including web sites, on subjects of interest to you.

1)      Make sure you are interested in the content.

2)      Do not look up any words. Just read, scan and try to figure out the meaning.

3)      Do this daily and try to enjoy it. Do not look up any words in a dictionary!!

4)      Try to summarize the meaning to yourself.

The goal is to develop the ability to scan, and to guess at meaning.

Intensive reading. (to increase your vocabulary and ability to use phrases)

A)    Choose content items with more than 10% new words and up to 20% new words as a percentage of unique words. (See the Linguist Library information on each new content item.) 

1)      Read through once, saving new words.

2)      Listen and read. Save additional words and phrases that cause trouble.

3)      Listen to the text 3-5 times.

4)      Read the text 2-3 times.

5)      Review the saved words and phrases.

6)      Continue listening and reading to the item 3-5 more times.

Practice a mixture of extensive reading and intensive reading. Your reading will improve and so will your TOEIC score. But remember to stick to articles that you find interesting, as much as possible.

Here I address the role of TOEIC in the efforts of people to learn English.

Everyone has a role at this community blog. We have artistic members. We have poetic members. We have members who excel at photography. We have members who bring enthusiasm. We have members who are a little ironic or cynical. We have members who are serious and we have members who are playful. We have a good mixture.

I am one of the serious ones. My area is language learning, not cats, dogs, poetry, nature, food, nor babies. That does not mean that I am not interested in those subjects. It is just not what I focus on in my posts.

My subject today is TOEIC. I have long criticized the tendency of certain language learners to concentrate their efforts on preparing for tests like TOEIC and TOEFL rather than on learning English.

I am changing my mind. I think TOEIC is a good thing. It encourages people to study a second language, in this case English. I have been investigating TOEIC and have reached certain conclusions. I would be interested in hearing your views.

Some of my conclusions so far are as follows.

1)      To be able to communicate meaningfully in English you should try to achieve a level of 600 or better in TOEIC. To work in English in a non-English speaking environment you need 750. To work in English in an English speaking environment you need 900.

2)      TOEIC really only measures your ability to read and listen. But that is fair. If you are not involved in speaking daily, most of your English exposure is to listening and reading. So it is fair to measure those skills. If you have a good base in listening and reading, once you have to speak you will quickly be able to reach the level you need.

3)      To do well in TOEIC you need to

a.       Increase your reading speed of words that you already know.

b.      Learn new words, although the vocabulary requirements are only two thirds of the level required for TOEFL.

c.       Become familiar with how English words are used in phrases.

d.      Improve your listening skills.

4)      Practicing doing simulated TOEIC tests is an activity that has a limited usefulness. Once you are familiar with the test you are better off to spend your time on activities in point 3) above.

5)      The Linguist is an ideal tool for preparing for TOEIC since you can

a.       Choose items of interest to read and listen to on a variety of subjects.

b.      Save key words to see how they work with prepositions, how the tenses work etc. in order to become familiar with the basic structure of the language.

c.       Learn new vocabulary from a variety of contexts, and review these contexts.

d.      Do a lot of listening and reading and vocabulary review.

e.       Measure your progress.

I would be interested to hear from Linguist members who have taken the TOEIC test. I would like to find out the correlation between your “known words” number and your TOEIC score, or any other comments you may have.