IELTS, TOEIC, TOEFL or a different course?

English as a Second Language Preparation forum for the TOEIC® Test
1

Hello everyone,

I’ve checked in the past 3 days for the best way to improve my English.
All questions I found in the internet and in this website were asked by people who are looking just to pass the test and get to a university.

My goal is to be able to do public speaking effectively, hence I need knowledge of what I will talk about, public speaking course and A VERY GOOD ENGLISH

I’m targeting my English language at this point. In addition to what I have mentioned above, I want to:

  • read quickly enough to cope with an academic course
  • understand complex opinions
  • produce clear, well structured and detailed pieces of writing
  • express myself well with a good degree of fluency
  • use English flexibly for social, professional and academic purposes.
  • improve my vocabulary.

I would appreciate if some of you share with me their experience and give me some advices as to which course to take etc…

Kind regards,
Zak

2

Hi Zak,

Welcome to english-test.net and many thanks for your interesting question. I’d recommend you take a look at the 30/30 Challenge which contains some information on how to improve your English language skills. In addition, you might want to read What does it take to learn English successfully?

Please let me know what you think.
Regards,
Torsten
PS: The noun ‘advice’ is uncountable.[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC listening, photographs: Motorboats[YSaerTTEW443543]

3

BikerBoy, you need to take a course for general academic English, rather than a test preparation course. After that, you need to take a speech course, and if necessary a pronunciation course. Beyond that, you need to do a lot of general reading and watch and listen to various electronic media.

4

Hi Torsten,

It’s a pleasure and thank you for your welcoming response.
I’ve had a look at the 30/30 challenge previously and I like the idea. I do listen to English more than 30 minutes a day.
I don’t use any other language at work except English and most day-to-day communication are in English too.

The only problem with the 30/30 is that I can’t write a report. It’s either that I’m busy or lazy!!

But is there any course that fulfill my needs?

With regards to your PS, please refer to below link and advise.
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/advices

Hi Jamie and thank you for your suggestion.
I spoke to the marketing manager of an institute here and they are offering IELTS and they have more or less what you have mentioned.
Newspaper reading and writing reports.
Listening and writing reports
etc…

But is there any course that fulfill my needs?

5

Hi Zak,

Thanks a lot for your response. Maybe you don’t need a course that requires you to write reports if you don’t have time for that? How many reports do you have to write at work? It might be more effective to have somebody revise and improve your current reports so you would be doing a “training on the job course” instead of traveling to an institute several times a week. What can an institute offer you that you can’t get through the Internet? As for that Wikipedia entry, I wouldn’t trust it. Wikipedia is a great resource but not every page can be trusted, especially if it consists of nothing but a few words. I’m pretty sure that it will be removed soon.

Regards,
Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC listening, photographs: At the dentist[YSaerTTEW443543]

6

Hi Torsten,

The course is not to write reports and I don’t write any at the moment, however, I write assignments for my Management diploma (just started).

Let me put it this way. I’m looking for a way to improve my vocabulary and use more words than layman English. So it’s more about speaking that writing.

I’m not sure about what will the institute offer me but I will pay them a visit this week and attend a class of IELTS as well.

Here is another source for advices
answers.com/topic/advice