Notes from the Business/TOEIC Class Session at 2005 Retreat
June 18, 2005
(Robert, Andy, Dave, and Greg)
Summary by Greg, with further notes from Andy M. and Robert
Overview and Evaluation
Course is new this year so in many ways it is a bit too early to evaluate. We are all finding our way through the new focus for this course. All agreed that there is a need to see how it goes and take a look at it again at the end of the school year.
It will be important to get feedback from students maybe as early as the end of Term I.
Business Focus
Most classes have shown an interest in the business focus and topics. In one class the women have shown less interest in the business topics than the men. However, some women seem very interested in product presentations and discussions vs. companypresentations and discussions.
Texts being used by group members:
Business Ventures:
Benefits:
*Includes TOEIC practice in the text.
*Works well with beginning level learners with a very limited ability to understand English.
*There is a need to bring in more supplemental activities which is actually a good thing so the class doesn’t get to text bound.
Challenges:
*The exercises are very controlled
Market Leader:
Benefits:
*Allows for more diversified activities related to business with reading and listening skill building exercises included.
*Uses the Financial Times and real life business topics.
Challenges
*Doesn’t include actual TOEIC practice exercises which add for more copying to supplement.
The question was brought up whether a small TOEIC test practice book could be purchased by students in addition to the text
*Must pick and choose the material to cover for it tries to cover too much
*Draws on experience from working in a company that most students don’t have.
*Works better with higher level learners
TOEIC Scores
*Benefit of students and teachers comparing the TOEIC score students have at the beginning of school year with the TOEIC score students get from the Chuo TOEIC test in November. It may help us see how well the texts are working to prepare students for the TOEIC test if that continues to be the main focus of the course. Although it was stated by administration that we are not to use this assessing the grade students could certainly use this for their own self-evaluation.
*Cost of the test and the assumption that this November test is free or at reduced cost.
TOEIC Test Taking Techniques
*The need for teaching “techniques” for taking the TOEIC test. It was agreed upon that this would be useful and should be included.
Speaking Activities and Pair and Group Work
*We discussed the need to provide pair and group speaking and listening activities to get the students invested in wanting to learn English. This is more aligned with the goals of the other classes in our program. It helps with breaking up the monotony of what can easily turn into a self-study class. Most students are just out of high school and some students are very comfortable with a solo written question and answer format and need encouragement to break out of that mold and work with others and begin speaking English.
Student Goals
In one class surveyed, 1/3of the class was interested in improving speaking skills. Two classes were primarily interested in improving their TOEIC score. One class was not surveyed.
TOEIC Test Speaking Component
It was mentioned that a TOEIC speaking component test is being used by some companies to screen employees. There is a need to find out more about this component of TOEIC test and how widely it is being used by companies in Japan.
Further notes from Andy M.
Robert found that his upper int. /Adv. level class indicated a strong interest in speaking activities, whereas Dave ? and Andy found that the majority of their students are primarily interested in increasing their TOEIC scores. Greg is polling his class during the last class of the term This doesn’t necessarily mean that they aren’t at all interested in speaking / discussion activities but their stated preference is for spending class time on TOEIC Test practice. This suggests a certain amount of time be spent on on activities such as practice activities strategies to build skills. Apart from possibly some TOEIC listening, this might not take up too much class time, except time spent on giving the answers for homework.
The need to constantly urge students to spend as much time as they can on self-study was mentioned, but with the reservation that the students would likely expect the class to include a fair bit time spent on TOEIC practice. Also the limited opening hours of the resource center hinder student access. Andy mentioned that while urging the students to make use of the resource center, he also had to apologize for it not being open on the day the class is held ( Saturday ) .
The hoped for outcome of the TOEIC class is that the student’s TOEIC scores improve through the speaking activities carried out in the class. The need to get student feedback even by the end of this semester was mentioned.
Further notes from Robert
Greg mentioned that although the pre-intermediate level Market Leader text was certainly NOT too easy for his class, he would prefer to use the Intermediate text as the topics are more interesting. I said I was sure that the upper intermediate text would be too hard for my high class. No conclusions were drawn from this at the time.
I would add that the number of students who said they wanted to improve their speaking or communication ability was 17 out of a class of 30. The question I asked was: “Write one or two sentences expressing what you would like to achieve during this course.” In answer to the same question there were also 17 out of 30 students who explicitly stated improving their TOEIC score as a goal.