Prior Information Provided to the Students
The students were informed both in the course catalog and in their first class that a basic purpose of the course (regardless of treatment) was to achieve a high score on the TOEIC examination. Students were told that 20% of their final mark for the course would be based on the improvement in their team
Preparation for Pre-test
A shortened, demonstration version of the TOEIC (Form MT-93) was administered to all sections as a class activity one to two weeks prior to the actual pre-test. A list of ‘hints’ and test-taking strategies was also provided to all students in Japanese.
This preparation was considered important as a way to partially offset the “practice effect”, mentioned previously, whereby students generally score higher on second and successive administrations of a test merely due to greater familiarity with the test itself.