Test your knowledge of the TOEIC Listening (for Students and Teachers)

Mark the following true or false as you read and then check your answers below:

1. Even a native speaker would find some parts of the TOEIC listening difficult.
2. Students mainly need American English for the exam.
3. There is no point in speaking in class if you aren't taking the TOEIC speaking exam.
4. The language you learn in the TOEIC listening is no use in real life
5. TOEIC listening is more a test of grammar than of listening
6. There are some TOEIC listening questions that are difficult to answer even when you read them
7. You can guess the answer to some of the listening questions just by reading the options.
8. Students should listen to all the instructions in the test very carefully
9. The best preparation for the listening test is just doing lots of practice listening tests
10. The best preparation for the listening test is just to watch CNN

Here are the answers to the above statements:

1. Even a native speaker would find some parts of the TOEIC listening difficult. This is partly true. Native speakers who take the test find concentrating all the way through it and remembering everything that was said until they hear the questions to be quite challenging. This shows that it can help anyone to work to improve their concentration skills and short term memory in preparation for the test. There are also trick questions that can catch even native speakers out if they are not paying attention, so learning what these tricks are can also help.
2. Students mainly need American English for the exam. This is mostly true. Although the new TOEIC has some British and Australian accents, most of the voices are still American and Canadian. What's more, the British and Australian speakers will not use any language that is not also spoken in America, so there is no need to spend time studying grammar and vocabulary differences between British and American English. However, students who have mainly studied American English usually lose confidence in the exam the first time they can't understand people with other ways of speaking, so people taking the new exam should spend some time listening to other accents, for example by watching Australian films or British comedy programmes.
3. There is no point in speaking in class if you aren't taking the TOEIC speaking exam. This is false. Focused speaking activities that practice the same language as there is in the listening test can help with knowledge of natural linked speech, with prediction skills to anticipate what will be said and how it will be said, as a warmer to keep concentration levels and motivation high in class, and as a way of making sure you remember the language.
4. The language you learn in the TOEIC listening is no use in real life. This is mainly false. Especially if you are going to interact with native speakers in their country in a business setting, the generally natural English spoken at natural speed that you hear in the exam is exactly what you will need to be able to understand. However, students who are at a lower level, who mainly speak to other non-native speakers in English or who are taking a longer course aimed at building up their general English level shouldn't focus too much on exam listening and should also use a General English or Business English textbook and/ or self-study book. 5. TOEIC listening is more a test of grammar than of listeningThis is false. Knowledge of grammar can help students chose which of the answers are correct, but knowledge of functional language (requests, offers etc.), vocabulary and sound changes in speech at natural speed are much more important.
5. There are some TOEIC listening questions that are difficult to answer even when you read them. This is partly true. Again, a native speaker who is not paying attention could sometimes choose the wrong answer even when reading a listening question through very quickly. However, for most of the questions this is not true.
6. You can guess the answer to some of the listening questions just by reading the options. This is partly true. The questions are designed so you can never guess the right answer just by reading the question, but students should be able to guess at least one of the options that is wrong. This is especially true in Part Three in the new TOEIC exam, where the fact that there are 3 questions for one listening text means you can guess quite a lot about the listening just by reading the questions.
7. Students should listen to all the instructions in the test very carefully. It depends. If a student has never done a practice test or studied for the exam before, they should listen carefully to make sure they don't make a mistake just by answering the question in the wrong way. Reading and listening to the instructions at the same time can also help "tune" your ears to English so that you are ready for action when the task starts. However, for students who know the exam well there is no real need to listen to the instructions as the tasks are always exactly the same. Therefore, the time can usually better be used by looking at the questions and thinking about your answers, especially in Parts 3 and 4 of the listening test.
8. The best preparation for the listening test is just doing lots of practice listening tests. This is generally true in a short course, but generally false in a longer course. In any kind of study in preparation for the TOEIC exam, there is no point in doing a practice test, checking your answers and doing another straight after. Once you have taken the listening test and checked your answers you should try to work out why each answer is the right one, why the other ones are wrong and what language you will need to learn before the exam in order to understand a similar question the next time. You are then ready to move onto the next section of the exam or the next practice test. You will also need to make sure you go back and revise the things you learnt, rather than just moving onto another test and forgetting the last one.
9. The best preparation for the listening test is just to watch CNN. This is false. Any kind of listening practice can help, but the listening test has very few actual business news reports in it. It is much more a test of understanding English that you hear in your daily life than English you hear through the media. Listening to and repeating the sentences on a CD of travel English phrases, for example, is likely to be more useful than CNN.