The English Blog

Pay What You Want For Online TOEIC Practice

French language software firm Edulang is now offering its four of its web-based applications on a 'pay what you want' basis, with fifty per cent of the proceeds going to charity. There is a minimum one-dollar/euro transaction charge (payable by PayPal or credit card), but this still looks like a fantastic deal. One of the applications is TOEIC Simulator, which we already have installed on our school computer system. Unfortunately, students can't use the software outside the school, so this offer should be of interest to them. You can find out more about the offer here and subscribe here.

COMMENT
The 'Pay What You Want' pricing model seems to be catching on. Radiohead famously offered their 'In Rainbows' album on a PWYW basis. You might wonder why a company like Edulang would allow people to pay virtually nothing for a product that previously cost upward of 50 euros. This is what Wikipedia has to say:

Giving buyers the freedom to pay what you want may seem to not make much sense for a seller, but in some situations it can be very successful. This is because it eliminates many disadvantages of conventional pricing. It is obviously attractive to buyers to be able to pay whatever they want, for reasons that include eliminating fear of whether a product is worthwhile at a given set price and the related risk of disappointment or “buyer's remorse.” For sellers it obviates the challenging and sometimes costly task of setting the “right” price (which may vary for different market segments). For both, it changes an adversarial conflict into a friendly exchange, and addresses the fact that value perceptions and price sensitivities can vary widely among buyers.

Of course, a successful operation from the seller's point of view depends on a percentage of the buyers paying more than the minimum price. It would be interesting to know how much, on average, cash-strapped students are prepared to pay.

ClassMarker: Online Test Creator

I've been looking for a way to create tests and quizzes and put them online for my students. The best solution I've found so far is ClassMarker, a "professional hosted online testing service with free and paid options available". To get an idea of what you can do with ClassMarker, take the tour and try the sample online test. I particularly like the fact that you can embed YouTube videos or pictures in your quizzes.

COMMENT
The basic version is free. This allows you to create and put your tests online. However, if you want to be able to collect your students' scores, you'll have to sign up for the Professional version. For educators, this costs $24.95 a year, which seems like pretty good value to me.  I'd be interested to know if anyone has used another online testing service.

Make Your Own Cloze Tests with Cloze Test Creator

Regular readers of this blog will know that I am a big fan of Newsy.com and feature a lot of their videos (five today!). I like the varied subject matter, their use of multiple sources, the different presenters, the manageable 2-3 minute length, and, above all, the fact that they provide transcripts. The only thing missing as far as English learners are concerned is exercises. However, learners (or teachers) can make their own cloze (or gap-fill) tests very easily using the wonderful Cloze Test Creator (by Lucy Georges). Here's a video tutorial showing you how to go about it.

Of course, you can use Cloze Test Creator with any text, but the Newsy.com transcripts are ideal because learners can listen to the text as well as read it. CNN Student News would be another good source. Meanwhile, teachers can use Cloze Test Creator to create tests targeting specific vocabulary.

MORE CLOZE TEST CREATION RESOURCES
• Cloze Passage Builders (more complicated than CTC, but allows you to save tests)
• New English File Cloze Maker (use texts from course or you own; allows you to give first letter of each missing word)

TOEIC: Test of English for Incompetent Communicators?

TEFLtastic has a thought-provoking guest piece on the TOEIC by Carmela Chateau of the University of Burgundy.

In France, we have moved into a parallel universe, or sixth dimension, where the ability to communicate in a language has been replaced by a certificate which attests only the ability to select correct answers to multiple choice questions. The reason could be that in France interviewers do not feel confident of their ability to speak English (perhaps because they too have a TOEIC score rather than the ability to “interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible” Level B2 Spoken Interaction CEFR). Full article >>

COMMENTS
I've mentioned before that all our students at the Ecole de Management de Normandie now have to get 750 on the TOEIC in order to graduate. I can think of 3 reasons why this condition was introduced. Firstly, other French business schools have already imposed a similar requirement (800 or 850 in some cases!) Secondly, like it or not, an increasing number of French recruiters are using the TOEIC as a means of filtering graduate job applicants. If you haven't got 750, forget it. And thirdly, setting a minimum TOEIC score is a means of forcing students with weak English, and whose English would otherwise remain weak, to improve either by intensive study or by spending a semester or year abroad. Of course, you can argue that the TOEIC does not test communicative skills, but if a student who would have previously graduated with a TOEIC score of, say, 550 now has 750, there must have been some improvement. Having said that, there could also be negative effects such as teachers teaching to the TOEIC or students only wanting to do TOEIC preparation. Rendez-vous dans un an, as they would say in France.

 

Test Your Math(s)

According to the Daily Mail, almost seven million adults have maths skills below the level of the average 11-year-old. A Government-backed survey suggests that up to 6.8million adults, or one in six, would struggle to answer even simple questions. Poor literacy is marginally less common, but 5.2million adults would still fail GCSE English. Full story >>

How does your maths compare with the average 11 year old? Try this government test:

VOCABULARY

Note that in Britain, the abbreviation of the word "mathematics" is "maths", while in the USA they say "math" (without an "s").

COMMENT

I'm going to try this test on my students. Even if they get all the answers right—and that's not a foregone conclusion—the questions contain plenty of useful vocabulary.

How txt spk is now a pain n d neck

From The Scotsman:

To the uninitiated, "2G2B4G" may look like a personalised number plate, but in fact it is text-speak for "too good to be forgotten". Millions of text messages are sent every day, but new research shows many Britons are exasperated by being bombarded with bizarre acronyms in modern slang.

A study reveals that eight out of ten people say they cannot understand some of the messages they receive. 

Even among the young, the shorthand proves indecipherable for four in ten under the age of 24. 

The research found an overwhelming 76 per cent of Britons admit to using abbreviations and text slang, but hate receiving it. Most people (71 per cent) would prefer a properly written text message. Read full article >>

Test Yourself

These are the top 10 most hated text and e-mail phrases. But what do they stand for? Answers here. 

1) TTYL8R 

2) ROTFL 

3) CSThnknAU 

4) @TEOTD 

5) TTFN 

6) IMHO 

7) CWYL 

8) DQMOT 

9) 2G2B4G 

10) ALOL

Test yourself on the new UK primary curriculum

From TimesOnline:

Sir Jim Rose has recommended that the primary school curriculum should focus more on computer skills and be based around six general themes: English communication and languages; mathematics, science and technology; human, social and environmental understanding; physical health and wellbeing; and art and design.

So how would you do under the proposals?

• Click here to test yourself. 

• Read what The Mail has to say.

GCSE for Dummies

Last week, the Mail revealed how dumbed down many modern GCSE questions have become when it printed some staggeringly simple questions.

Now it's devised the ultimate one-stop GCSE paper to save you ever having to learn anything useful again.

You've got 60 minutes to complete the challenge (and to get you started there are five marks on offer for anyone who can write their name, even if it's spelled wrong). 

Click here to begin.

Simple English News

 

Simple English News features short news stories in simple English. The stories are organised in categories including World News, Business, Sports, Science and Technology and so on. Each story is accompanied by an audio recording of the text. There's also a Test Zone featuring 38 short multiple choice grammar and vocabulary tests. 

Simple English News was put together by Sam Margolis who worked for the U.S. Peace Corps in Hungary teaching English. 

Verdict: A useful site for lower-level students who want to improve their reading and listening skills. 

Additional resource: Voice of America has news in Special English. Special English uses a limited vocabulary, short sentences and is read slowly.

 

New Challenge to TOEFL

A number of our students at the Ecole de Management de Normandie take the TOEFL every year but they have to go to Paris to do so. So I was interested to read that Pearson are developing an alternative.

The publishing giant Pearson is entering an important and lucrative part of the educational testing field — English proficiency for foreign students — by offering an exam that will be significantly different from current models. Most significantly, the Pearson Test of English will provide institutions not only with scores of applicants, but with a digital recording that will allow institutions to determine whether they are comfortable with the proficiency of the test taker. While existing tests include speaking, the results are scored and admissions offices don’t actually hear the applicant.

For many years, the dominant test of English used by non-native speakers to gain admission to colleges in the United States has been the Test of English as a Foreign Language, which is run by the Educational Testing Service. TOEFL already has growing competition in the United States from the International English Language Testing System, known as IELTS. Both tests are administered about 1 million times annually. Although IELTS is most popular in the countries of the British Commonwealth, it is also accepted by an increasing number of American colleges and universities. Full article >>

The Language Project

The Language Project is a school based in Bristol in the UK. Their website has over 150 pages of free multiple-choice practice exercises at three levels. Unfortunately, if you get an answer wrong, the correct answer is not shown and you get no feedback to help you understand why your answer is (in)correct. You have to keep trying till you get the answer right and even then you won't know why. So for students these exercises are not very useful but teachers could find them useful for testing purposes, especially as they can be printed out.

cloZure

cloZure is a free web tool written by Peter Shanks that generates cloze tests from Wikipedia articles.

A cloze test (also cloze deletion test) is an exercise, test, or assessment consisting of a portion of text with certain words removed, where the participant is asked to replace the missing words. Cloze tests require the ability to understand context and vocabulary in order to identify the correct words or type of words that belong in the deleted passages of a text. The word cloze derives from closure in Gestalt theory. The exercise was first described by W.L. Taylor in 1953. From Wikipedia.

A search box is provided to help you find relevant cloze tests (or you can drill down through the category or index). You can choose from three different levels of difficulty and once you've produced your test, you can post a link to it on your website or send the link to your students by e-mail. You can also get a printable version.

Unlike traditional cloze tests, cloZure gives you the words you need to fill in the gaps, which makes things a whole lot easier. Still, it's a useful tool for developing vocabulary skills. 

The TOEIC Tour

The TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) is "a test of English proficiency used as a standard for establishing workplace English writing skills and spoken English proficiency for non-native speakers". More than 4.5 million people each year take the TOEIC. The standard TOEIC consists of a multiple-choice questionnaire with 100 Listening and 100 Reading questions. Some teachers dislike the TOEIC because, in its original form, it tests the passive and not the productive skills. More recently, a Speaking and Writing option has been added but most students still just take the Listening and Reading parts.

At the Normandy Business School (Ecole de Management de Normandie), where I work, all students sit the TOEIC at the end of their second year. As from September, all students will be required to obtain a score of at least 750 (out of 990) to graduate. This is the score which many French companies consider to represent an acceptable level of English. It will be interesting to see how students react to this new requirement. Of course, we are hoping that it will motivate them to improve their English. Only time will tell!

For more information about the TOEIC, follow the TOEIC tour or visit the official TOEIC site.

Test Your English Now

Test Your English Now offers four different tests in Vocabulary, Grammar, Reading and Listening. Some of the tests are quite long (120 items on the Vocabulary 2 test!) so it will probably take well over an hour to complete them all. The site itself has an attractive Flash-based design.

Test my English

Test my English is basically a promotional site for the TOEIC exam. However, it does provide a good idea of your TOEIC level since the test consists of a mini TOEIC with 44 multiple choice listening and reading questions. To get your results you have to give your e-mail address. You then receive an e-mail with a link to your online results. You can see my results here. If you're wondering how I did so badly, it's because I answered the questions at random!