(Luận văn thạc sĩ) an investigation into TOEIC listening comprehension problems of non english major students

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES
*****************

PHẠM HỒNG NHUNG

AN INVESTIGATION INTO TOEIC LISTENING
COMPREHENSION PROBLEMS OF NON-ENGLISH MAJOR
STUDENTS
ĐIỀU TRA VỀ CÁC VẤN ĐỀ NGHE HIỂU TOEIC CỦA SINH
VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH

M.A. Minor Programme Thesis

Field:

English Teaching Methodology

Code:

60140111

Hanoi – 2014


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES
*****************

PHẠM HỒNG NHUNG

AN INVESTIGATION INTO TOEIC LISTENING
COMPREHENSION PROBLEMS OF NON-ENGLISH MAJOR
STUDENTS
ĐIỀU TRA VỀ CÁC VẤN ĐỀ NGHE HIỂU TOEIC CỦA SINH
VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH

M.A. Minor Programme Thesis

Field:

English Teaching Methodology

Code:

60140111

Supervisor: Dr. Tô Thi Thu
Hương
̣

Hanoi - 2014


DECLARATION
I hereby certify that the thesis entitled
“An investigation into TOEIC listening comprehension problems of non English
major students at University of Economic and Technical Industries”
is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts at University of

Economic and Technical Industries, and that this thesis has not been submitted for
any degree at any other university or tertiary institution.
Hanoi, 2014
Phạm Hồng Nhung

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In the process of doing my research paper, I have received a lot of help,
encouragement and experience from teachers and friends. Especially, my graduation
subject now is completed successfully thanks to all teachers‟ support at University
of Economic and Technical Industries (UNETI) who did their best to help me gather
data from students‟ and teachers‟ questionnaires.
First of all, I would like to express my sincere thank to my supervisor Dr. To
Thi Thu Huong who has generously given me invaluable assistance and guidance.
Without her help, this paper will not be successfully done.
Besides, my sincere thank is also extended to all the students who help me
fulfill the survey questions. Finally, I am grateful to my family and friends who
have given me much encouragement during the time I carried out this paper.

ii


ABSTRACT
Listening skills are important for face-to-face communication, meetings,
conferences, telephone conversations, etc. Being able to listen well is an important
part of communication for everyone, especially for students. A student with good
listening comprehension skills will be able to participate more effectively in
communicative situations. Out of all the different tests offering to certify the level

of English, the TOEIC is the simplest and most practical in terms of its contents, its
format, and the rapidity of results receipt. Therefore, to standardize the output
quality of students, in most universities including University of Economic and
Technical Industries (UNETI), TOEIC is considered as a common standard of
measurement for evaluation of students‟ fluency in English in the professional
context. However, when taking the TOEIC test, especially the TOEIC listening
comprehension section, many students usually complain that instead of listening
carefully they usually guess and circle the answers randomly in the end. They said
that they lacked knowledge, skills and strategies about listening comprehension.
Understanding

these

problems,

the

study

investigates

TOEIC

listening

comprehension problems encountered by a group of non English major students of
UNETI. 120 non English major students at UNETI who were studying in the
seventh term and ten teachers of English were selected and voluntarily joined the
study. Data was gathered by means of questionnaires. The results of the study
showed that test-taking strategies, general background knowledge, linguistic ability

and teaching methods were the major TOEIC listening comprehension problems
encountered by non English major students at UNETI. Some suggestions are made
for addressing problems regarding how teachers can help their students overcome
TOEIC listening comprehension problems. The results of this study may also be
useful for those who are interested in this field.

iii


LIST OF ABBREVIATION

UNETI: University of Economic and Technical Industries
TOEIC: Test of English for International Communication
ETS:

Educational Testing Service

ESL:

English as a Second Language

EFL:

English as a Foreign Language

L2 learners: Second Language learners

iv

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1:

Students‟ opinion about the role of TOEIC listening test

Table 2:

Students‟ opinion about the difficult level of TOEIC
listening test

Table 3:

Students‟ opinion about the difficulty of each part in TOEIC
22

Students‟ opinions of strategies of listening
comprehension

Table 5:

25

Students‟ opinions of TOEIC listening problems
related to background knowledge and linguistic ability

Table 6:

22
22

listening test
Table 4:

Page

28

Students‟ opinions of listening problems related
to listener

31

Table 7:

Students‟ opinions of teacher‟s teaching methods

32

Table 8:

The expectations of the students towards teachers of
TOEIC listening skill

34

Table 9:

Teachers‟ opinions of teaching methods

35

Table 10:

Teachers‟ opinions of students‟ strategy uses

37

v


TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

Declaration .............................................................................................................. i
Acknowledgements ................................................................................................ ii
Abstract ................................................................................................................. iii
List of abbreviations ............................................................................................. iv
List of tables ............................................................................................................v
Table of contents .................................................................................................... vi
PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study............................................................................................1
2. Aims of the study ..................................................................................................1
3. Research questions ................................................................................................2
4. Scope of the study .................................................................................................2
5. Method of the study ..............................................................................................2
6. Significance of the study .......................................................................................3
7. Design of the study................................................................................................3
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1- LITERATURE REVIEW

1. Theoretical background to listening comprehension ............................................4
1.1. Definitions of listening and listening comprehension........................................4
1.1.1. Definitions of listening .........................................................................4
1.1.2. Definitions of listening comprehension ................................................5
1.2. Models of listening process ................................................................................5
1.3. Potential problems and strategies in listening comprehension ..........................6
1.3.1. Potential Problems in listening comprehension ..................................7
1.3.2. Listening Comprehension Strategies ....................................................8
2. Overview of the TOEIC test ...............................................................................10
2.1. The TOEIC test ......................................................................................10
2.2. TOEIC Test Area ...................................................................................10
2.3. Test structure ......................................................................................... 11
vi


2.4. Test Scoring ...........................................................................................12
2.5. Who takes the test? ................................................................................14
2.6. TOEIC Listening Comprehension Section ............................................15
3. Related studies on TOEIC test–taking and listening comprehension. ................16
CHAPTER 2- METHODOLOGY
2.1. The setting of the study ....................................................................................19
2.2. Participants .......................................................................................................19
2.2.1. Teachers .............................................................................................19
2.2. 2. Students .............................................................................................20
2.3. Data Collection Instruments .............................................................................20
2.4. Data collection procedures ...............................................................................21
2.5. Data analysis ....................................................................................................21
CHAPTER THREE – FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
3.1. Students‟ attitude towards TOEIC listening test at UNETI. ............................22
3.2. TOEIC listening comprehension problems experienced by students at UNETI

.................................................................................................................................23
3.2.1. Students’ opinions of strategies of TOEIC listening comprehension 23
3.2.2. Students’ opinions of TOEIC listening problems related to background
knowledge and linguistic ability ..................................................................27
3.2.3. Students’ opinions of listening problems related to listeners .............30
3.2.4. Students’ opinions of teacher’s teaching methods ..............................32
3.3. The expectations of the students towards teachers of TOEIC listening skill
.................................................................................................................................33
3.4. Listening comprehension problems reflected by teachers ..............................34
3.4.1 Teachers’ opinions of teaching methods .............................................35
3.4.2 Teachers’ opinions of students’ strategy uses ......................................36
3.5. Recommendations for improvement of the efficiency of teaching and learning
of non English major students at UNETI ................................................................38
3.5.1 Recommendations for teachers of English .........................................38
vii


3.5.1.1 Adapting and improving listening materials ........................38
3.5.1.2. Improving teachers’ classroom techniques .........................38
3.5.2. Recommendations for students .........................................................40
3.5.2.1 Improving English proficiency .............................................40
3.5.2.2 Improving listening strategies ..............................................40
3.6. Summary .........................................................................................................41
PART C – CONCLUSION
1. Conclusion...........................................................................................................42
2. Limitations and suggestions for further study.....................................................43
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................44
Appendixes............................................................................................................I

viii

PART A – INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study
Listening ability is one of the important skills in foreign language learning and no
one can deny its importance. However, in Vietnam, the education system still faces
many challenges. Although students are taught English from kindergarten level to
the university level, they are unable to acquire adequate communicative English
proficiency. One of the most common factors causing this phenomenon is the
difficulty they face in English listening comprehension. In general, the process of
studying English in Vietnamese system still places less emphasis on listening and
speaking skills and more emphasis on the use of grammar, writing and reading
skills. English is taught by having students memorize new words and sentence
structures and then responding to the teacher only when called upon. Therefore,
students have very little exposure to spoken English, both inside and outside their
classrooms. As a result, students seem to have poor listening and speaking skills.
Being an English teacher at University of Economic and technical Industries
(UNETI), I find that students have a big gap in listening comprehension so when
approaching TOEIC syllabus, they tends to be boring and discouraged. Therefore,
my study attempts to investigate the TOEIC listening problems encountered by a
group of non English major students at UNETI. Data was gathered by means of
questionnaires. I hope that the results of the study will help their students overcome
their TOEIC listening comprehension problems and also help teachers to work out
possible solutions to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning TOEIC
listening comprehension at UNETI.
2. Aims of the study
The purpose of the study is to investigate the TOEIC listening comprehension
problems of non English major students at UNETI so that teachers can help their
students to enhance their English listening comprehension. Therefore, the
specific aims are to find out factors causing their difficulties in TOEIC listening

1


comprehension and suggest some solutions to help students overcome these
problems.
The thesis is conducted at UNETI in order to perceive difficulties in learning
TOEIC listening comprehension of non English major students. The study
focuses on describing the problems causing difficulties related to strategies,
knowledge and linguistic ability of TOEIC listening comprehension, listener as
well as teaching methods. Then, some suggestions are made for addressing
problems regarding how teachers can help their students overcome the TOEIC
listening comprehension problems.
3. Research questions
The study aimed to find out the problems causing difficulties related to test-taking
strategies, general background knowledge and linguistic ability of TOEIC listening
comprehension, listener as well as teaching methods.
This research was carried out to find proper answers to the questions:
1. What difficulties do non English students at UNETI face in TOEIC
listening comprehension?
2. What could be done to help students overcome these problems?
4. Scope of the study
The thesis is conducted at UNETI in order to perceive difficulties in learning
TOEIC listening comprehension of non English major students. The study
focuses on describing the problems and factors causing the given difficulties
related to test-taking strategies, general background knowledge and linguistic
ability of TOEIC listening comprehension, listener as well as teaching methods.
5. Method of the study
In order to fulfill the aims of the study as presented, the study has carried out with
the quantitative method by collecting data from questionnaires on 10 teachers and

120 non English major students at the UNETI. After being fulfilled and collected,
all the questionnaires were analyzed carefully. Then, those data were presented in
tables which are shown clearly in chapter three.
2


6. Significance of Study
This study points out TOEIC listening comprehension problems encountered by
non English major students at UNETI. More importantly, it is a further
contribution to the investigation of foreign language listening comprehension
problems in actual language classroom practice.
Hopefully, the findings and recommendations of this study will be of some help
to the improvement of the teaching and learning TOEIC listening comprehension
of Vietnamese students in general and of UNETI students in particular. The study
also gives some guidelines for teachers to help their students overcome their
TOEIC listening comprehension problems. The results of this study may also be
useful for those who are interested in this field.
7. Design of the study
This study consists of three parts:
Part A: Introduction. This part supplies an overview of the study with specific
reference to the rationale, the aims, the methodology and the design.
Part B: Development. In this part, four chapters are presented.
Chapter 1 – Literature Review deals with an exploration of the theoretical
background of the research. It is concerned with the issues relevant to the topic of
the research: listening and listening comprehension, and an overview of TOEIC
listening comprehension tests.
Chapter 2 – Methodology presents the background information of the subjects of
the study, the instrument used to collect the data, the procedure of data collection.
Chapter 3 – Findings and Discussion is aimed at describing data analysis in detail
and a thorough discussion of the findings of the study. Some explanations and

interpretations of the findings are also presented in this chapter.
Part C: Conclusion. In this part, the limitations and some recommendations for
further research are also explored.
The Appendices lie on the last part of the study, following the References.

3


PART B - DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER ONE - LITERATURE REVIEW
Based on the rationale and the research questions raised in the previous
chapter, the relevant literature in the field will be presented in this part. This chapter
focuses on definitions and processes of listening comprehension, then point out
some potential problems and strategies of learning listening comprehension,
which are considered to be the theoretical and conceptual framework for the present
study.
1. Theoretical background to listening comprehension
1. 1. Definitions of listening and listening comprehension
1.1.1. Definitions of listening
Listening plays a significant role in daily communication and educational
process. In spite of its importance, listening has long been the neglected skill in
second language acquisition, research, teaching, and assessment. However, in recent
years there has been an increased focus on L2 listening ability because of its
perceived importance in language learning and teaching. According to Morley
(1991, p.82), listening is the most common communicative activity in daily life: "we
can expect to listen twice as much as we speak, four times more than we read, and
five times more than we write."
Understanding the importance of listening and the different situations where
listening skills are needed, there are numerous definitions of listening by many
scholars. Each one defines in a different way as seen from his own point of view.

Rost (2011, p.2) defines listening as a process of receiving what the speaker
actually says (receptive orientation), constructing and representing meaning
(constructive orientation), negotiating meaning through involvement, imagination
and empathy (transformative orientation).
Buck (2001, p.31), on the other hand, noted that listening is a complex and
active process of interpretation in which listeners match what they hear with what
4


they already know. In order to comprehend spoken messages, listeners have to be
able to apply their abilities and learning strategies involved in both linguistic
knowledge and non-linguistic knowledge to interpret and comprehend messages
from the speaker.
Sharing the same opinion, Bostrom (1997, p. 247) emphases that listening is
the “acquisition, processing, and retention of information in the interpersonal
context”. It means that listening is receiving language through the ears. Listening
involves identifying the sounds of speech and processing them into words and
sentences. When listening, we use our ears to receive individual sounds and use our
brain to convert these into messages that mean something to us.
1.1.2. Definitions of listening comprehension
With regard to the term “listening comprehension” in language learning,
scholars have proposed a number of different definitions. Saricoban (1999), for
example, noted that listening comprehension is the ability to identify and
understand what others are saying. This involves understanding a speaker‟s accent
or pronunciation, his or her grammar and vocabulary, and grasping the meaning
conveyed. Listening comprehension can also be defined broadly as human
processing which mediates between sound and the construction of meaning
(Morley, 1991).
As Hasan (2000, p.138) pointed out, “listening comprehension provides the
right conditions for language acquisition and development of other language

skills”. Listening, therefore, is essential not only as a receptive skill but also to the
development of spoken language proficiency.
A similar view is proposed by Buck (2001, p.31), who defined listening
comprehension as the result of an interaction between a number of information
sources, which include the acoustic input, different types of linguistic knowledge,
details of the context, and general world knowledge. Listeners use any information
they have available, or any information that tends to be relevant to aid them in
interpreting what a speaker is saying.
5


1.2. Models of listening process
In this section two important listening processes are examined to show their
relationship to listening comprehension and their implications for improving
listening comprehension are drawn.
Bottom-up and top-down processes are two distinct processes that many
researchers take as fundamental features of listening comprehension. According to
Brown (1994, p.246), bottom-up processing in listening “proceeds from sounds to
words to grammatical relationships to lexical meanings to a final message.”
Furthermore, Richards (1990) provides some detailed examples of bottom-up
processes, such as scanning the input to identify familiar lexical items, segmenting
the streams of speech into constituents, and using phonological cues to identify the
information focus in an utterance.
On the other hand, top-down processing is evoked from “a bank of prior
knowledge, global expectations and other background information that the listener
brings to the text” (Brown, 1994). It is “the application of the cognitive faculties”
(Kelly, 1991). It refers to “the use of background knowledge in understanding the
meaning of a message” (Richards,1990). In this process, the listeners activate their
“schema” of the world and form a set of expectations so that they may predict what
will come next in the listening text. Both of these two processes are important to

listening comprehension. Richards (1990) claims that:
“fluent listening depends on the use of both top-down and bottom-up processing.
The extent to which one or the other dominates reflects the degree of familiarity the
listener has with the topic of discourse, the kind of background knowledge he or she
can apply to the task, and the purposes for which he or she is listening.”
In this study, the purpose of the treatments is to provide both bottom-up clues
(vocabulary in visual or aural form) and top-down clues (context) for the listeners
so that listeners may reduce the load of cognitive processes and pay more attention
to the content of the utterance as well as make predictions about the next utterance.
1.3. Potential Problems and strategies in listening comprehension
6


1.3.1. Potential Problems in listening comprehension
Underwood (1989) outlines seven potential problems that could hinder listening
comprehension.
First, the speed of delivery is beyond the control of listeners. Underwood
says, “Many language learners believe that the greatest difficulty with listening
comprehension, as opposed to reading comprehension, is that listener cannot
control how quickly a speaker speaks” (Underwood, 1989, p.16).
Second, it is not always possible for learners to have words repeated. This is
a major problem in learning situations. In the classroom, it is the teacher who
decides whether or not a recording or a section of recording needs to be replayed. It
is “hard for the teacher to judge whether or not the students have understood any
particular section of what they have heard” (Underwood, 1989, p.17).
Third, the small size of the learner vocabulary frequently impedes listening
comprehension.

The speaker does not always use words the listener knows.

Sometimes when listeners encounter a new word, they stop to figure out the
meaning of that word, and they therefore, miss the next part of the speech.
Fourth, listeners may not recognize the signals that the speaker is using to
move from one point to another, give an example, or repeat a point. Discourse
markers which are utilized in formal situations (i.e., firstly, and after that) are
relatively clear to listeners. However, in informal situations, signals such as
gestures, increased loudness, or a clear change of pitch are very ambiguous,
especially to L2 learners.
Fifth, it can be very challenging for listeners to concentrate in a foreign
language. It is generally known that in listening, even a slight break or a wander in
attention can impede comprehension. When the topic of the listening passage is
interesting, it can be easier for listeners to concentrate and follow the passage;
however, students sometimes feel that listening is very challenging even when they
are interesting in the topic because it requires a lot of effort to figure out the
meaning intended by the speaker.
7


Sixth, learning habits emphasized in the classroom such as a desire to
understand the meaning of every word.

Teachers oftentimes want students to

understand every word they encounter while listening by pronouncing and repeating
words clearly and carefully, and by speaking slowly and so forth. As a result,
students tend to feel worried when they fail to recognize what a particular word
means and may further be discouraged by the failure. Students should therefore, be
instructed to tolerate incompleteness and vagueness of understanding.
Seventh and last, comprehension problems arise when students lack
contextual knowledge. Even if students can understand the main idea of the text,

they may still find it difficult to comprehend the whole meaning of the text.
Listeners from different cultural backgrounds can also misinterpret nonverbal cues
such as facial expressions, gestures, or tone of voice.
In order to overcome these listening comprehension problems, learners need to
develop techniques known as “listening strategies. These strategies are mental
processes that enable learners comprehend the aural text despite their lack of
knowledge. Listening strategies include inferring, elaboration, and regulating and
monitoring comprehension, and they are discussed in detail in the next section.
1.3.2. Listening Comprehension Strategies
For learners, one of the methods learners can become actively involved in
controlling their own learning is by using strategies. Vandergrift (1999) showed
“Strategy development is important for listening training because strategies are
conscious means by which learners can guide and evaluate their own
comprehension and responses.”

In O'Malley, Chamot, Stewner-Manzanares,

Kupper, and Russo‟s (1985) study, high school ESL students were randomly
assigned to receive learning strategy training on vocabulary, listening, and speaking
tasks and the result indicated strategy training can be effective for integrative
language tasks. Nakata (1999) studied the influence of listening strategy training on
Japanese EFL learners‟ listening competence, and it showed that the effect of

8


listening strategy training was more discernible on perception than on
comprehension.
Among all the strategies for listening, O‟Malley and Chamot (1990) claimed three
main types of strategies: metacognitive, cognitive and social strategies.

The

metacognitive strategy was a kind of self-regulated learning. It included the attempt
to plan, check, monitor, select, revise, and evaluate, etc.

For example, for

metacognitve planning strategies, learners would clarify the objectives of an
anticipated listening task, and attend to specific aspects of language input or
situational details that assisted in understanding the task (Vandergrift, 1999).
Generally, it can be discussed through pre-listening planning strategies, whilelistening monitoring strategies, and post-listening evaluation strategies.
The cognitive strategies are related to comprehending and storing input in working
memory or long-term memory for later retrieval. They are investigated from the
aspects of bottom-up strategies, top-down strategies. For bottom-up processing, it
refers to using the incoming input as the basis for understanding the message.
Comprehension begins with the received data that is analyzed as successive levels
of organization-sounds, words, as a process of decoding. For bottom up strategies,
Henner-Stanchina (1987) engaged in a similar study and pointed out that effective
listeners were good at using their previous knowledge and experience to raise
hypotheses about a text, integrating new information into their ongoing
interpretations, making influences to bridge gaps, assessing their interpretations,
and modifying their hypotheses, if necessary.

On the other hand, top-down

processing went from meaning to language (Richards, 2008). Learners can try to
predict what will utter by the signal. However, Chiu (2006) claimed that listening
comprehension

was

neither

only

top-down

nor

bottom-up

processing.

Simultaneously, Lu (2008) summed up that the scholars believed the listeners not
only utilized bottom-up but also top-down processing models. In sum, Thompson
& Rubin (1996) indicated the effects of metacognitive and cognitive strategy
instruction on the listening comprehension performance of American university
9


students learning Russian. They found that the subjects who received strategy
instruction in listening to video-recorded texts improved significantly over those
who had received no instruction.
For social/ affective strategies, Vandergrift (2003) defined the strategies as the
techniques listeners used to collaborate with others, to verify understanding or to
lower anxiety. Habte-Gabr (2006) stated that socio-affective strategies were those
which were non academic in nature and involve stimulating learning through
establishing a level of empathy between the instructor and student. They included
considering factors such as emotions and attitudes (Oxford, 1990). It was essential

for listeners to know how to reduce the anxiety, feel confident in doing listening
tasks, and promote personal motivation in improving listening competence
(Vandergrift, 1997). According to O‟Malley & Chamot (2001), among the four
strategies of management strategies, social strategies, cognitive strategies, affective
strategies in listening comprehension, both social and affective strategies influenced
the learning situation immediately.
2. Overview of the TOEIC test
2.1. The TOEIC test
Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) measures the ability of
non-native English-speaking people to use English in everyday work activities. The
TOEIC was developed by ETS (Educational Testing Service) in the United States
following a request from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Trade and Industry.
There are an estimated 3 million test takers per year.
Since its administration in 1979, the TOEIC test quickly gained prominence within
the field of EFL/ESL (English as a Second Language) education. It has been lauded
as an efficient and reliable test of EFL/ESL communicative abilities. It is currently
used in over 60 countries and there are an estimated 3 million test takers per year.
2.2. TOEIC Test Area
As TOEIC measures the candidate‟s proficiency in the workplace and everyday
communication, the test questions are based on real life work setting in an
10


international environment (meeting, travel, telephone conversation, etc.). To ensure
that the test measures what it is supposed to in a fair, valid and reliable way, these
characteristics are common of the test items:
-

Vocabulary, grammar and idioms are not specifically American English

-

Culture specific and job/profession specific situations are avoided

-

Names from different countries are included.

-

Different English accents are used throughout the test – mainly American,
British, Canadian and Australian accents.

2.3. Test structure
The New TOEIC test is a two-hour, paper-and-pencil, multiple-choice assessment.
There are two separately timed sections of 100 questions each.
Section 1: Listening
Examinees listen to a variety of questions and short conversations recorded
in English, then answer questions based on what they heard.
Section 2: Reading
Examinees read a variety of materials and respond at their own pace to
questions based on the content.
Number
Section

Part

Task

of

Time

Questions
1

Photographs

10

Listening

2

Question-Response

30

Section

3

Short Conversations

30

4

Short Talks

30

Reading
Section

5
6

Incomplete

40

Sentences
Text Complete

12
11

Maximu
m Score

45 minutes

495

75 minutes

495

Reading

7
Total

48

Comprehension

7 Parts

200

120

Questions

minutes

990

2.4. Test Scoring
The total score adds up to a scale from 10 and 990 points. The following chart
(Grant Trew, 2007, p.3) indicates the approximate correlation between TOEIC
scores and levels of ability in order to measure a test-taker's English proficiency at
the time that a test is administered.
TOEIC
Score

Level

Evaluation Guidelines
Can

usually Within his/her own realm of experience,

communicate

the individual is capable of sufficient

adequately as a understanding and can typically respond
non-native

with appropriate expressions even about

speaker.

topics

outside

his/her

field

of

specialization.

A

Although speech is not equivalent to that
of a native speaker, the individual has a
strong grasp of vocabulary, grammar, and
structure and the ability to use the
language relatively fluently.
Is
860

B

capable

communicating
appropriately
most situations.

of Understands ordinary conversation well
and can respond naturally. The individual
in also has the ability to respond in some
fashion, even when the topic relates to
12


specialized fields. There are typically no
great barriers to communicating in usual
business situations.
While

grammatical

and

structural

mistakes sometimes occur and some
isolated disparities exist in terms of
correctness and fluency, they are not so
frequent that speech is misunderstood.
Has

sufficient Can understand the gist of ordinary

knowledge
daily

for conversation and has no trouble forming

activities responses. However, the individual shows

and conducting some disparities in the ability to respond
730

business within correctly and making himself/ herself
C

certain limits.

understood

in

more

complicated

situations.
The

individual

has

acquired

a

fundamental knowledge of grammar and
structure and has the vocabulary to
communicate essential information, even
when lacking expressive power.
Is capable of the Can understand simple conversations
minimal

when the other party speaks slowly and

communication

repeats or rephrases what is said. Is

in
470

D

ordinary capable of responding to familiar topics.

conversation.

Knowledge of vocabulary, grammar, and
structure

is

generally

inadequate.

However, if the other party is used to
dealing with non-native speakers, the
individual can manage to get a point
13


across.
Is not able to Even simple conversation at a slow pace
communicate

is only partially understood.

adequately.

Is able to communicate with isolated

E

phrases but not in full, grammatically
correct sentences and does not effectively
serve

220

to

make

himself/

herself

understood.

2.5. Who takes the test?
According to Grant Trew (2007), since the first TOEIC test was administrated in
1979, the numbers of test takers have increased dramatically. Nowadays, TOEIC
test is considered as one of the most effective tools to assess the English proficiency
of those whose mother tongue is not English and to test the basic skills in English,
mainly for communication purposes in the international working environment.
Business test takers – An increasing number of companies worldwide use the
TOEIC to set targets for English proficiency for the purposes of hiring new workers,

transfers to different companies, or for promotion to management positions. This is
especially true of large multinational corporations, or companies that export their
products internationally.
Academic test takers – Although originally aimed at English use within a business
context, TOEIC Listening and Reading Test is increasingly being used within
academic contexts. In Japan, a significant proportion of the universities and colleges
surveyed used the test for purposes of accreditation, course placement, and
measuring progress within a curriculum. A growing number of universities around
the world have adopted TOEIC as a way of screening candidates for their graduate
programs, especially in the fields of business or international studies. In some
institutions candidates who achieve high TOEIC scores also earn the right to be
recommended for scholarships or for special certification.
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2.6. TOEIC Listening Comprehension Section
In the TOEIC Listening section, there are 100 questions in total
In Part 1, students see ten pictures. For each, they will hear four statements
and they must select the statement that best matches the picture. Students should use
the picture to try to predict vocabulary and statements they might hear. By first
picking out the key focus of the picture and quickly brainstorming related
vocabulary and possible statements, they will be much better prepared when they
actually listen.
In part 2, students hear a question or statement followed by three possible
responses. They must choose the response that best matches the question. This part
of the test is a pure listening challenge as there are no clues students can use to
predict what they are going to hear. Students should not expect the kind of setpattern responses they may have studied in school. Responses here are authentic and
students must often listen for the implied meaning of a response to realize it is the
correct one. Exposing students to questions and answers of this sort and focusing
attention on the interrelation between the two is essential to helping them tackle this

part of the test.
In part 3, students hear a short, three or four part conversation, and then
answer three questions about it. The increase in the number of questions (from one
to three) makes the listening task more manageable, in spite of the additional
memory load and increase in text length. Therefore, students should answer
questions as quickly as you can, if possible while the listening text is still being
read. Moreover, students also need to use the time between conversations to skim
the next three questions, predict what you are likely to hear, and isolate exactly what
you should be listening for.
As in Part 3, in Part 4 students hear a listening passage, followed by three
questions. The difference is that instead of a conversation, the listening features a
single speaker giving a talk: a news report, an advertisement, an acceptance speech,
etc. Some of the passage lengths are also considerably longer than they have been in
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