The Language Teacher
December 2001

Speaking Task Based on TOEIC Listening

Kumazawa Takaaki

Ibaraki University

<takaakikumazawa@hotmail.com>




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Key Words: Speaking, listening, TOEIC
Learner English Level: Low intermediate and above
Learner Maturity Level: College to adult
Preparation Time: 10 to 30 minutes
Activity Time: 60 to 90 minutes


It is often difficult to find motivating, fun exercises when teaching and practicing the TOEIC test. This activity turns TOEIC preparation into an interactive exercise by focusing mainly on listening and speaking using the pictures from the first section of the listening test in TOEIC. This is an information-gap exercise where each student has information that the other student does not, making both students responsible for the completion of the task. With the material used in this activity, low-intermediate-level students and above can practice in pairs for the TOEIC examination in a motivating atmosphere. The pre-teaching of vocabulary items and/or formulaic phrases that enable students to ask for repetition and clarification may also be necessary for lower-level students.

Procedure

  1. Pre-teach vocabulary items or formulaic phrases and write them on the board.
    Example:
    "Student A, Picture 1 (a list of relevant vocabulary)"
    "Student B, Picture 2 (a list of relevant vocabulary)"
    "Can you say that again?" "What?" "Excuse me?"
  2. Pair up the students. One will be Student A and one will be Student B. Hand out half of the pictures from the first section of the TOEIC listening test to Student A and the other half to Student B (ten pictures each). Inform students that they should not show their pictures to each other.
  3. Student A must clearly describe the first two pictures to Student B according to the following criteria: people (i.e., number, gender, appearance, and activities), general/specific locations, and objects. Encourage Student A to use the vocabulary and phrases written on the board, as these will quite often occur later in the listening section. Student B should be encouraged to ask for clarification and repetition where necessary.
  4. Next, students will listen to the four statements from the listening section, which match each picture. Student B must choose the statement that most The teacher should then demonstrate describing the picture using the vocabulary items on the board, and repeat the four statements once again. The answers can then be discussed and explained.
  5. After the first two pictures have been completed, Student B should describe the next two pictures to Student A. This continues until all 20 pictures have been completed. The entire activity takes 60 to 90 minutes, depending on how much pre-teaching is required.

Observations and further suggestions

It is a good idea to limit descriptions to only two pictures at a time before listening to the statements. Any more than this will make it difficult for students to remember the details.

When pre-teaching low-frequency words, direct translations are a reasonable method for quick retrieval or for teaching vocabulary for receptive purposes only. When dealing with high-frequency words, a fair amount of class time should be devoted to formally teaching the meanings, grammatical functions, and/or collocated words.

I have implemented speaking tasks based on the listening sections of TOEIC in my intensive TOEIC course, and have found that students tend to do better when they are familiar with the material. This is very motivating for them. Section II of the TOEIC test is a question-response format, where students hear a question and are asked to select the correct answer from one of four responses. As a pre-task prior to listening, students are instructed to work in pairs with one student reading a question in the script (total of 30 questions), and the other must try to respond correctly without seeing the choices available. Then, both can confirm whether the response was appropriate for the question and discuss the other responses.

Using a speaking activity based on a listening activity as a pre-task exercise has worked well in my lessons and is more motivating for students than working on their own.



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