Job Discussion Forums

[kanjizai]

I was wondering what are some of the common problems you find with advanced students(TOIEC over 830), and what kind of exercises to you do with them?

[Mr_Monkey]

It's very difficult to comment on the problems with advanced students - every situation and every student is different.

However, I'd go for authentic materials - real reading, writing, speaking and listening activities, if at all possible - they will respond better to the challenge of such materials than they will to a textbook, IMO.

I'd suggest that they won't really have problems with the grammatical and orthographic systems of English, but they will possibly have more problems with discourse-level issues - appropriacy, signalling and signposting, discourse management and organisation. It really depends on their background, however - someone who has spent 5 years in America doing a BA/BSc is likely to have strong reading and writing skills, for example. Remember, the standard TOEIC test is a receptive skills and structure assessment - if they haven't done the TOEIC bridge, they will not have had their productive skills formall assessed, and they may have significant weaknesses in those areas that a simple TOEIC score will tell you nothing about.

I suggest that you assess their skills in content areas relevant to their purposes, then sit down and talk to them individually and draw up a learning plan for each of them. This will help you to plan lessons better and will give you a much better idea of the kinds of things they should be learning.