Author: Lin Lougheed
Publisher: Pearson Longman – 350 pages
Book Review by: Paiso Jamakar
This study guide and workbook of practice tests enables the student to prepare for and successfully pass the Test of English for International Communication, or TOEIC for short. It is an introductory course and its focus is on listening and reading. There are other books in this series that you may want to acquire. You can go on the Internet to source the other members of the TOEIC series.
The material in this book has been organized in a simple manner and it can be easily accessed by referring to any of its seven parts, followed at the end of the book with a Reading Review, three practice tests, a four-page Answer Sheets section, and a table for score conversion (which shows your score based on the number of correct answers).
This book provides to you a chance to develop your skills and strategies for achieving s good score on the TOEIC. With regular practice, you can hopefully learn enough to pass this test, especially if English is not your native language and you are not yet proficient in it. A note on the back cover states that this course is intended for students who achieve TOEIC test scores from 100 to 400.
The book comes with a compact disk that contains the answer key, complete audio MP3 files, and audioscript to help students practice Listening Comprehension exercises and Listening Practice Test questions on their own. Online TOEIC practice can be done at www.iTests.com
In this book are 1,000 practice items reflecting the format and content of the TOEIC test. It has language strategies and test strategies in each section to help readers acquire the necessary skills. There are highlighted test-taking tips that provide grammatical explanations and links to specific exercises, for help and reinforcement. There are also new tips on grammar and vocabulary.
This book has seven parts, providing: photos, question-response, conversations, talks, incomplete sentences, text completion, and reading comprehension.
Before going into the “meat” of the book, readers are enjoined to thoroughly read the Introduction. Here, the author Lin Lougheed provides messages to students and teachers. To students, he states that their two goals should be to become proficient in English and to acquire the skills to take the TOEIC efficiently. He also asks that they sign and date a simple contract with themselves (provided in the book) to do a number of tasks weekly relating to getting proficient in English.
These tasks are to study, listen to, write in, speak, and read English each for so ____ hours a week (you fill in the blanks).
Returning to the main section of the book, with the seven parts, here is a simple enumeration of the contents of each part, so you get a brief overview of this book. The content at he beginning of all parts is language strategies and test strategies.
Part 1 presents a number of photos of people and things, and provides you language and test strategies. At the end, it provides grammar and vocabulary tips, a strategy review and strategy practice.
Part 2 is on question-response. After providing you language and test strategies, it helps you identify time, people, opinion and choice.
Part 3 on conversations, following the same pattern of providing language and test strategies, makes you identify time, people, intent, the topic, a reason, a location, an opinion, stress and tone. Like others, it provides a grammar tip and a vocabulary tip, a strategy review and strategy practice.
In similar fashion, all the remaining parts provide you language strategies and test strategies in the beginning, and provide you the tips and strategies at the end, with each of the parts focusing on the subject we mentioned above.
Lin Lougheed presents an easy-to-learn and well-organized format for people to study for and pass the Test of English for International Communication, or TOEIC, in this valuable study guide.
