Teaching English for Tests: My Classroom Reflections on How to Teach the TOEIC Listening Part 4

Part 1: Preparing Before the Class

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In this article, I would like to share my experiences of preparing lessons and teaching in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) class. This semester I am organizing the course titled “English for Standardized Tests.” The aim of this course is to develop English majors’ English language knowledge and skills through practicing standardized tests, especially the TOEIC. Students are introduced to each of the seven parts of the TOEIC test every week. In each class, the test part’s format is familiarized, and students are equipped with language skills and test-taking strategies needed to overcome the test. This article will describe my experiences in teaching preparation and practice in my recent 4-hour class of the TOEIC listening test part 4. Some practical teaching ideas will be shared since they might be helpful for teachers who are teaching similar courses as well as learners who are practicing this kind of test.

The TOEIC Listening Test Part 4

Considered as the most popular TOEIC test types in Thailand, the TOEIC Listening and Reading test measures listening and reading skills primarily used in workplace contexts. There are four parts (parts 1–4) in the listening section and three parts (parts 5–7) in the reading section. In Part 4, also known as Short Talks, test takers are required to listen once to less-than-one-minute talks delivered by a single speaker, then answer three following multiple-choice questions. This part includes 30 questions with 10 short listening texts of, for example, telephone messages, event announcements, and excerpts from meetings or tours. The last two talks will be accompanied with two pictures, through which test takers will facilitate their understanding of spoken texts and locate answers.

The following is the sample test items and audio scripts that I used in my class.

The test items and scripts are excerpted from this TOEIC test prep book.

Creating Materials for the TOEIC Class

Generally, my first step to create a classroom worksheet is researching teaching content from textbooks and online resources. The related topics will be finalized as an outline and then supplemented with explanations and exercises or tasks suitable for the topics. However, for this class I tried a different way which renowned materials development expert Brian Tomlinson referred to as “text-driven approach.”

Instead of searching for usage examples and exercises to serve preplanned topics, I started from selecting and taking one set of the TOEIC test part 4. I listened again and read the key and listening scripts afterwards in order to identify correct answers and jot down any knowledge, skills, and strategies that I thought needed to choose the correct answer for each item. Finally, the set of TOEIC part 4 with 30 questions was used in my class, equally divided into two main exercises. The knowledge and strategies inductively extracted from my actual test-taking experience were then put into my teaching materials and were taught accompanying with these 30 test items. The text-driven topics included “Paraphrasing Skills for Listening,” “Skimming Test Items before Listening,” and “Recognizing Word Associations.”

Using only worksheets in class can be effective enough for teachers to deliver lessons. However, I preferred using them together with presentation slides. Therefore, after finishing writing the worksheet material, I also made the PowerPoint slides to facilitate teaching and learning. These slides helped remind me about teaching steps I had planned, which were detailed and sometimes were not directly stated in the worksheet. Some instructions were added onto the slides apart from those in the worksheet, so students understood more clearly. Moreover, I found the presentation slides convenient for teaching listening since audio files could be attached onto the slides where listening scripts were shown together. This helped me in delivering content more smoothly, rather than moving back and forth between the worksheet file and the audio file being played. For learners, the slides also helped them follow the lessons more easily. They wouldn’t get lost where in the worksheet we were discussing.

The presentation slides allowed me to play the listening audio, show the text, and take notes at the same time. The slides also reminded me of ongoing teaching steps which were sometimes not included in the worksheet.

The content in these two slides is taken from this book.

In the next article will be further described the implementation of my teaching materials and teaching activities in the classroom.

Thanks for reading. You can reach me at:

Bansomdejchaopraya Rajabhat University, Thailand (BSRU): https://www.facebook.com/bsrunews or https://www.bsru.ac.th

The English Program, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, BSRU: https://www.facebook.com/EngHumanBSRU or https://bsru.net/profile/nuttapong-ru