Strategies proposed for listening comprehension in PBT TOEFL: Tricks that do not work

Abstract

The Longman Preparation Course for the TOEFL, written by Phillips in 2003, is the most widely used course book for TOEFL test preparation. This book provides 17 strategies for Listening Comprehension Part A. Therefore, the current study examines whether the strategies provided in the book are applicable in a real test. The data were obtained from Part A of the TOEFL listening section in nine tests designed by Educational Testing Service (ETS). Each item in the test was tested against the proposed strategies. The results reveal that many items did not successfully match with the strategies. Only 2 proposed strategies had matches of higher than 80%, while others were less than 10%. There are four strategies that did not have a match at all. All in all, very few strategies can be applied to answer the questions correctly without adequate comprehension. With comprehension, test takers can answer the questions without needing to rely on any of the proposed strategies. Therefore, the study concludes that most of the strategies proposed by Phillips (2003) are not successful in real test.