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TOEIC is big business for commercial language schools
in Japan and is becoming more and more important for university English
departments as well. TOEIC preparation materials, and therefore often
the TOEIC preparation classes as well, are uncommunicative and based on
analysis of question types and practice with discrete test items. ETS
itself and most major TOEIC preparation textbooks advise that developing
overall English skills is the only real route to TOEIC success. However,
they continue to teach the practice and strategy approach. There is a
wide spread assumption that teaching for TOEIC is just somehow
different.
This research shows that one group of technical
specialists (who on the whole tend to have the lowest mean TOEIC scores
of any professional group) does not perceive a link between their
language skill improvements and their TOEIC score. They acknowledge that
a reading activity is good for their English, specifically for their
reading speed and comprehension, but do not see its value for their
TOEIC score. It is as though they see studying for TOEIC as a separate
thing and learning to read faster and better is irrelevant to that goal.
However, using graded reading as a supplement to a TOEIC preparation
class, learner perceptions of language skill improvements and TOEIC
score improvements became more linked over the course of 6 months.
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| Click here to
view the poster presentation. |
| Click here to
read the full paper. |
| Click here to
look into further research on learner perceptions of TOEIC results. |
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