Listen to National Public Radio! 

One of the very best ways to improve multiple English skills at one time is to go National Public Radio! Students tell me that this activity is a great way to build their [...]]]>  Want to improve you English Listening, Pronunciation & Vocabulary all at once?

Listen to National Public Radio! 

One of the very best ways to improve multiple English skills at one time is to go National Public Radio! Students tell me that this activity is a great way to build their English Listening skills over time, and also a good way to learn new vocabulary words by seeing and hearing them used in a “real world” context.

It usually takes about 1 month of listening every day for you to see improvement in your listening skills, and about 2-3 months to see improvement in pronunciation and vocabulary skills.

1. Go to www.npr.org.
2. Click on Programs.
3. Click on Morning Edition or All Things Considered.
4. Click on Rundown.
5. Find a news report about Business, Politics, or Economy.
6. Listen to the news report, taking notes on Main Ideas, Major Details and Numbers.
7. Click on Transcript and study the transcript for new words.
8. Listen to and read the news report at the same time for pronunciation practice.
9. Listen to the news report one more time to reinforce what you have learned.
10. Find 5 more news reports on the same topic and listen to one each day for the next 5 days.

I recommend you only do 1 or 2 news reports each day. Most students find it takes from 30-minutes to 1 hour for each report, depending on their English skill level.

“Actively listen to TOEIC-like English every day”

It may sound obvious, but actively listening to English every day for at least 15 minutes is one of the most powerful ways to improve you listening skills. “Actively listening” means you are not watching TV or a movie (a very passive activity)—it means you are listening to English radio or online audio files, focusing on hearing details and thinking about the important, main ideas the speaker is trying to tell.

READ BELOW FOR MORE DETAILS ON HOW TO LISTEN:

 1. Go to www.npr.org.

2. Click on Programs.

3. Click on Morning Edition or All Things Considered. National Public Radio (NPR, www.npr.org) has two news programs you want to listen to: Morning Edition & All Things Considered:

4. Click on Rundown.

5. Find a news report about Business, Politics, or Economy. You will see a list of different news reports. Next to each Headline, you will see what Topic the news is about, and the how long the news report runs.

You will want to look for news reports for Topics such as Business, Politics, or Economy. These reports often use words you will find in the TOEIC.

6. Listen to the news report, taking notes on Main Ideas, Major Details and Numbers.Once you have picked a news report, click on the Audio Button and listen to the news report. Listen to news report once and take notes on what you think are the Main Ideas and Major Details. Also take notes of any numbers that are being used. Numbers are often tested in the Short Talks section of the TOEIC.

Even though you can’t take notes on the TOEIC, note taking helps you develop memory skills.

7. Click on Transcript and study the transcript for new words.Now click on Transcript and read the report. Check to see if you misunderstood anything or missed a major idea or detail. You can also look for Vocabulary Words you don’t know. You will want to also look for any Phrasal Verbs which you didn’t understand.

8. Listen to and read the news report at the same time for pronunciation practice.Next, with the Transcript on your computer screen, listen to and read the news report again, following the speaker as they talk. This will help you with Pronunciation of English words, too.

9. Listen to the news report one more time to reinforce what you have learned.Finally, now that you understand the report better, close the Transcript and listen to the news report one more time. This will help reinforce the new English you learned.

10. Find 5 more news reports on the same topic and listen to one each day for the next 5 days.For the next 5 days, listen to different news reports about the same topic (you can do a news search at the NPR website on any page at their website).

Happy Listening!

Run by the knowledgeable Kenneth Beare, ESL.About.com seems to have a limitless amount of pages devoted to all aspects of English learning.

At some point this year I want to add one more complete TOEIC test to the workbook, to make it even more useful for students and teachers!

Teachers: if you [...]]]>

Tomorrow is the last day of my first month using my new Master the TOEIC Student Workbook…I think it is doing pretty well  

At some point this year I want to add one more complete TOEIC test to the workbook, to make it even more useful for students and teachers!

Teachers: if you want a sneak peak of my Student Workbook, let me know–I will send you some sample chapters!

It’s 8:30 in the morning, and my students and I are working our way through a section of the TOEIC test, trying to understand some of the questions they got wrong. From time to time we will come across a word which my students have never [...]]]> “Ointment? Ointment? What in the world does ointment mean?”

It’s 8:30 in the morning, and my students and I are working our way through a section of the TOEIC test, trying to understand some of the questions they got wrong. From time to time we will come across a word which my students have never seen—I let them know if each new word might be useful to know for the TOEIC or if it’s just a word they may never see again.

Then we come to ‘ointment’.

Now this is a word with limited usefulness—unless you work in a pharmacy or have a rash, in which case it can be incredibly useful! But odds are my students will not really need this word—there are other words which are more common and which they could use instead.

But it’s 8:30 a.m., I had forgotten to each breakfast, and I can be a little loopy from just drinking a half a liter of coffee.

I write the word ‘ointment’ on the board, and then stand next to it, a smile growing on my face.

“This is ‘ointment’”.

I look down at my arm, then begin to scratch it heavily, moaning and wincing in pain. At this point, my TOEIC students are looking at me as if I’ve lost my mind.

Reaching out into the empty air next to me I grab an invisible bottle and hold it over the arm I was scratching. I squeeze the imaginary bottle and make a ‘squishing’ noise; it sounds like shampoo coming out of a plastic bottle. I then begin to rub my arm and make soothing, contented noises and close my eyes in relief.

Opening my eyes, I look at my students. They are smiling, almost laughing.
“Now,” I say, “who can tell me what ‘ointment’ means?”

What did I use to help teach this word to my students?

1. Sound
2.  Movement
3. Emotion
4. Humor

All of these things will help my students remember ‘ointment’ for a long, long time…

Three days later, I write the word ‘ointment’ on the board. “What does this word mean?” I ask. All my students are smiling, and I quickly get the definition.

A week after I first taught them ointment, I just pretend to squeeze the bottle over my arm and make the ‘squishing’ noise—everyone in class calls out, “Ointment!”

Over the years, this process has helped my students remember new words and difficult pronunciations. It sometimes doesn’t matter if the physical action is much connected to the definition of the word; merely connecting an action to a word in their mind is enough to help them recall that word–after reviewing the word here and there over a few weeks, it stays in their mind forever!

Thank you, Marcel Marceau, for helping my students learn English!

(noun) To use a gift or money to divert someone from their duty, purpose or responsibility. It is similar to a bribe and sometimes illegal.

The land developer tried to buy off the city planners by giving $5000 to each of them, but the city planners refused to [...]]]> ”buy off (someone)”

(noun) To use a gift or money to divert someone from their duty, purpose or responsibility. It is similar to a bribe and sometimes illegal.

(noun) News that is happening right now.

My favorite TV show was interrupted by breaking news regarding the crash of the space shuttle.

Our TOEIC Words of the Week are words or phrases you will often see or hear on the TOEIC, but are not easy to find [...]]]> ”breaking news”

(noun) News that is happening right now.

Stressed.

Tests are not the only time and place we feel stress, but it is one of those times where it is critical to have the skill to reduce stress–the inability to do so [...]]]> Cold sweat trickling down the back…eyes losing focus…staring at the same question for eternity and feeling no closer to an answer…stuck…stalled…

Stressed.

Tests are not the only time and place we feel stress, but it is one of those times where it is critical to have the skill to reduce stress–the inability to do so will most times sabotage a test, reducing our test score. Which means we probably have to take the test again!

How do you fight stress? How can we fight our own unconscious response?

Surprisingly, there are number of things you can do to help you. Some require a little practice to master, but others work the first time!

The link below leads to a page at www.masterthetoeic.com which talks about a simple and easy method to center oneself quickly and efficiently. But here are some others:

1) Right before the test, have a half-shot of alcohol (Bailey’s Irish Cream is best!) This helps calm pre-test nerves.

2) If you are addicted a caffeine-heavy drink (coffee or tea) in the morning, on the morning of the test drink only half as much as you normally do. Too much caffeine will likely cause you to crash somewhere right in the middle of the test, and too little caffeine will probably cause you to have a slight headache (due to your addiction!).

3) During the test, look up from the page or screen to a place in the distance, as far from you as you can. This will help with eye strain and also be a little mental “mini-break”.

4) Before beginning the test, have a plan to do something fun AFTER the test. During the test when things feel bad, remind yourself that after its all done you’re going out with your friends to sing Karaoke or dance or bungee-jump off bridges. Just knowing that there is a positive experience waiting for you at the end of the test will help you get through it a little easier.

(adjective) The sky covered with clouds or mist.

The skies were overcast this morning in the city.

Because it was really overcast last night, we couldn’t see the full moon.

(noun) The action of checking products (things that are built) to make sure they have been made well.

We had to revise our quality control procedures when we began to get reports from customers that they were buying broken products.

Last week the [...]]]> ”quality control”

(noun) The action of checking products (things that are built) to make sure they have been made well.