TOEFL対策コラム

5分でわかる! Integrated 時間節約 テンプレート


| TOEFL ライティング Integrated   時間節約 テンプレート


TOEFLというテストを最も難易度の高い英語力判定テストとしていえる

要因の大きな一つが、このライティングセクションにあるIntegrated Taskです。


Integrated Taskはその名の通り複合問題であり、そこには非常に高度な速読力

英語のレクチャーの1回で聴き取るリスニング力を必要とします。


リスニングの後、150~225語のエッセイを20分で書くため、相当慣れていない受験者は、

時間との戦いになります。


そこで、エッセイの構成時間を節約するために、テンプレートを使った解答法を

練習しておくことをお勧めします。 


以下の4パラグラフ構成 でリスニングとリーディングの主張と3つの理由が

自然にまとめられるようになっています。


The article and the professor are both talking about ( AB ).    However, the professor claims that ( B ), and he refutes the main points made in the reading passage.  The three points of view between the two parties are presented as follows.

First of all, the professor argues that ( B ). This idea questions the article’s point of view that ( A ). In addition, she states that ( B ). She also mentions that ( B ).

Second, the professor takes the position that ( B ). This standpoint is also opposed to the claim in the passage that ( A ). In his opinion, he tells that ( B ). Furthermore, he notes that ( B ).

Finally, the speaker  goes further to make a point that ( B ). This viewpoint also refutes the writer’s view that ( A ). In the lecture, she says ( B ). According to the lecture, the professor points out that ( B ). Therefore, the main points made by the professor cast doubt on the main points made in the reading passage.


( A )は、 レクチャーの主張   ( B )は、リーデングパッセージの主張

5分でわかる! Integrated  正しいTrasitions(転換語)の使い方


| TOEFL ライティング Integrated   正しい Trasitions (転換語)の使い方


ETSのオフィシャルサイトでは、最高得点(5)の採点基準(TASK DESCRIPTION)として以下のように紹介しています

A response at this level successfully selects the important information from the lecture and coherently and accurately presents this information in relation to the relevant information presented in the reading. The response is well organized, and occasional language errors that are present do not result in inaccurate or imprecise presentation of content or connections.


簡潔にまとめると、下記の四つが判断基準となります。


1. リスニングから重要な情報を入れ込むことができているのか。

2. リスニングにあるポイントとリーディングのポイントをうまく繋げているのか?

3. エッセイの全体構成と一貫性。

4. 文法、語彙やライティングの基本ルール(正しいスペリング、文法、大文字・小文字等)の運用を含め、英語の表現力があるかどうか。


上記採点基準 2、3 では、リスニングとリーディングのポイントを繋ぐ為の、

Transitions(転換語)が重要になります。    


Transitionsの役割(対比、結果、追加、順序、例証)を誤るとエッセイの一貫性

がなくなり、減点対象になりますので、転換語の正しい使い方を覚えてください。


Integrated ライティングでは、リスニング パッセージの内容をレクチャーで否定する

形が多いので、 対比で使うTransitionsを上手に使うことが求められます。


それでは、Transitionsの使い方を以下の例文から解説してきます。


例文1では、対比ではなく、追加のTsansitionsが使われており、これでは、レクチャーがパッセージの主張に異議を唱えているエッセイになっていません。


例文 1


The reading argues that zoos are a bad investment.

In addition, the lecturer claims that zoos have value.


First, the reading says that zoos are a waste of money. They use money that could help poor neighborhoods.

Moreover, the lecturer argues against this.


Next, the reading claims that zoos are not good for animals. The reading uses many clear examples, such as small cages.

Also, the professor in the lecture argues that the reading is totally wrong about that.


Finally, the reading contends that zoos take up valuable land.

In addition, the lecturer gets really angry about that.


In sum, the reading argues that zoos are a waste of money.

In conclusion, the lecturer disagrees. 


一方、例文2では、対比の適切なTransitionが使われており、レクチャーがパッセージの主張を否定していることが明確に伝わっています。


例文2


The reading argues that zoos are a bad investment.

However, the lecturer claims that zoos have value


First, the reading says that zoos are a waste of money. They use money that could help poor neighborhoods.

Conversely, the lecture argues against this.


Next, the reading claims that zoos are not good for animals. The reading uses many clear examples, such as small cages.

On the contrary, the professor in the lecture argues that the reading is totally wrong about that.


Finally, the reading contends that zoos take up valuable land.

In contrast, the lecturer gets really angry about that.


In sum, the reading argues that zoos are a waste of money.

Countering that, the lecturer disagrees. 

5分でわかる! Integrated  パッセージ・レクチャー 関連付け(2)


| TOEFL ライティング Integrated   パッセージ・レクチャー 関連付け(2)

Integrated Writingの問題は、「レクチャーの内容を要約することと、それがどのように

リーディングの内容と関連しているかを述べること」です。


あくまでもレクチャーで主張されていたポイントを中心にエッセイを展開することが重要です。

そしてそれらがどのようにリーディング(パッセージ)と矛盾するかを

示すことができれば、問題が要求している点について明確に答えることができ高評価となります。


それでは、前回とは問題を変えた解答例の中でどのようにレクチャーの要点とリーディングの要点からエッセイを構成しているかを色分けして検証してみます。 


レクチャー及びリーディングの要点を引用する際は、そのまま写すのではなく、パラフレーズすることも高評価につながりますので、注意して解答例をご覧ください。


| リーディング (パッセージ)

) : 解答例の構成に使われている要点。


Jane Austen (1775-1817) is one of the most famous of all English novelists, and today her novels are more popular than ever, with several recently adapted as Hollywood movies. But we do not have many records of what she looked like. For a long time, the only accepted image of Austen was an amateur sketch of an adult Austen made by her sister Cassandra. However, recently a profession­ally painted, full-length portrait of a teenage girl owned by a member of the Austen family has come up for sale. Although the professional painting is not titled Jane Austen, there are good reasons to believe she is the subject.

First, in 1882, several decades after Austen’s death, Austen’s family gave permission to use the portrait as an illustration in an edition of her letters. Austen’s family clearly recognized it as a portrait of the author. So, for over a century now, the Austen family itself has endorsed the claim that the girl in the portrait is Jane Austen.

Second, the face in the portrait clearly resembles the one in Cassandra’s sketch, which we know depicts Austen. Though somewhat amateurish, the sketch communicates definite details about Austen’s face. Even though the Cassandra sketch is of an adult Jane Austen, the features are still similar to those of the teen­age girl in the painting. The eyebrows, nose, mouth, and overall shape of the face are very much like those in the full-length portrait.

Third, although the painting is unsigned and undated, there is evidence that it was painted when Austen was a teenager. The style links it to Ozias Humphrey, a society portrait painter who was the kind of professional the wealthy Austen fam­ily would hire. Humphrey was active in the late 1780s and early 1790s, exactly the period when Jane Austen was the age of the girl in the painting. 


| リスニング レクチャー


レクチャー (スクリプト)

) :  解答例の構成に使われている要点。


The evidence linking this portrait to Jane Austen is not at all convincing. Sure, the paint­ing has long been somewhat loosely connected to Austen’s extended family and their descendants, but this hardly proves it’s a portrait of Jane Austen as a teenager. The read­ing’s arguments that the portrait is of Austen are questionable at best.

First, when the portrait was authorized for use in the 1882 publication of her letters, Jane Austen had been dead for almost 70 years. So the family members who asserted that the painting was Jane had never actually seen her themselves. They couldn’t have known for certain if the portrait was of Austen or not.

Second, the portrait could very well be that of a relative of Austen’s, a fact that would explain the resemblance between its subject and that of Cassandra’s sketch. The extended Austen family was very large, and many of Jane Austen’s female cousins were teenagers in the relevant period, or had children who were teenagers. And some of these teenage girls could have resembled Jane Austen. In fact, many experts believe that the true subject of the portrait was one of those relatives, Mary Ann Campion, who was a distant niece of Austen’s.

Third, the painting has been attributed to Humphrey only because of the style, but other evidence points to a later date. A stamp on the back of the picture indicates that the blank canvas, you know, the actual piece of cloth on which the picture was painted, was sold by a man named William Legg. Records show that William Legg did not sell can­vasses in London when Jane Austen was a teenager. He only started selling canvasses when she was 27 years old. So, it looks like the canvas was used for the painting at a time when Austen was clearly older than the girl in the portrait.


▮ Question

Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they respond to the specific arguments made in the reading passage.


| 解答例

): リーディングの要点。

): レクチャーの要点。

★ レクチャーの要点が中心に構成されているのがわかります


The lecture casts doubt and questions the evidence presented in the reading passage regarding a painting allegedly of Jane Austen.

First, about the family’s recognition of the painting as that of Jane’s as a teenager. The lec­turer points out that in 1882, when the Austen family authorized the use of the painting as a portrait of Jane in the publication of her let­ters, Jane had been dead for 70 years. Hence, the family members who claimed this portrait to be of Jane’s probably have never seen her, and don’t necessarily know how she looked.

While the reading passage presents the resemblance of the face features to prove that the teenager in the portrait is indeed Jane, the lecturer sees otherwise: the teenager in the portrait could have been any cousin or niece of Jane. The lecturer claims that there was much to the date of the portrait based on the stamp on the canvas itself. According to the stamp it was sold by William Legg, who didn’t sell canvas in London when Jane was a teenager. He only began selling canvas in London when Jane was 27 years old.

5分でわかる! Integrated  パッセージ・レクチャー 関連付け(1)


| TOEFL ライティング Integrated   パッセージ・レクチャー 関連付け

Integrated Writingの問題は、「レクチャーの内容を要約することと、それがどのように

リーディングの内容と関連しているかを述べること」です。


あくまでもレクチャーで主張されていたポイントを中心にエッセイを展開することが重要です。

そしてそれらがどのようにリーディング(パッセージ)と矛盾するかを

示すことができれば、問題が要求している点について明確に答えることができ高評価となります。


それでは、実際の解答例の中でどのようにレクチャーの要点とリーディングの要点からエッセイを構成しているかを色分けして検証してみます。 


レクチャー及びリーディングの要点を引用する際は、そのまま写すのではなく、パラフレーズすることも高評価につながりますので、注意して解答例をご覧ください。


| リーディング (パッセージ)

) : 解答例の構成に使われている要点。


The sea otter is a small mammal that lives in waters along the western coast of North America from California to Alaska. When some sea otter populations off the Alaskan coast started rapidly declining a few years ago, it caused much concern because sea otters play an important ecological role in the coastal ecosystem. Experts started investigating the cause of the decline and quickly realized that there were two possible explanations: environmental pollution or attacks by pred­ators. Initially, the pollution hypothesis seemed the more likely of the two.

The first reason why pollution seemed the more likely cause was that there were known sources of it along the Alaskan coast, such as oil rigs and other sources of industrial chemical pollution. Water samples from the area revealed increased levels of chemicals that could decrease the otters’ resistance to life ­threatening infections and thus could indirectly cause their deaths.

Second, other sea mammals such as seals and sea lions along the Alaskan coast were also declining, indicating that whatever had endangered the otters was affecting other sea mammals as well. This fact again pointed to environmental pol­lution, since it usually affects the entire ecosystem rather than a single species. Only widely occurring predators, such as the orca (a large predatory whale), could have the same effect, but orcas prefer to hunt much larger prey, such as other whales.

Third, scientists believed that the pollution hypothesis could also explain the uneven pattern of otter decline: at some Alaskan locations the otter populations declined greatly, while at others they remained stable. Some experts explained these observations by suggesting that ocean currents or other environmental fac­tors may have created uneven concentrations of pollutants along the coast. 


| リスニング レクチャー


レクチャー (スクリプト)

) :  解答例の構成に使われている要点。


Well, ongoing investigations have revealed that predation is the most likely cause of sea otter decline after all.

First, the pollution theory is weakened by the fact no one can really find any dead sea otters washing up on Alaskan beaches. That’s not what you would expect if infections caused by pollution started killing a lot of otters. On the other hand, the fact that it’s so hard to find dead otters is consistent with the predator hypothesis: if an otter is killed by a predator, it’s eaten immediately so it can’t wash up on shore.

Second, although areas may prefer to hunt whales, whales have essentially disappeared from the area because of human hunters. That means that areas have had to change their diet to survive, and since only smaller sea mammals are now available, orcas have probably started hunting those. So it probably is the areas that are causing the decline of all the smaller sea mammals mentioned in the passage, the seals, the sea lions, and the sea otters.

And third, the uneven pattern of otter decline is better explained by the orca predation theory than by the pollution theory. What happens to otters seems to depend on whether the location where they live is accessible to areas or not. In those locations that areas can access easily, the number of sea otters has declined greatly. However, because areas are so large, they can’t access shallow or rocky locations. And shallow and rocky locations are precisely the types of locations where sea otter populations have not declined. 


▮ Question

Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they respond to the specific points made in the reading passage


| 解答例

): リーディングの要点。

): レクチャーの要点。

★ レクチャーの要点が中心に構成されているのがわかります


The topic discussed here is the investiga­tion of the causes of the disappearance of the sea otter, which is a small mammal that lives in waters along the western coast of North America from California to Alaska. The woman in the lecture argues that the cause of their disappearance is the presence of the predators, especially areas, and not pollution as the reading says.

Firstly, she argues that one of the proofs of their being attacked by the predators is the fact that no one can find any dead sea otters. If the cause was the pollution, many dead sea otters would be found along the shores. In addition, a predator will immediately eat its prey so this is why no dead sea otters were found.

Secondly, the woman in the lecture argues there is another explanation than pollution why smaller sea mammals are all disappearing.She says that, since the whales tend to disap­pear because of the humans hunting them, the areas had to adapt their food habits to the sea conditions and as a result they have started eating the smaller sea animals available among them sea otters being included.

Thirdly, she argues that the areas can­not access the shallow locations. This is why there are some areas where the sea otters are numerous. It’s not because of uneven concen­trations of pollutants. 

5分でわかる! Integrated  パッセージを述べるフレーズ

| TOEFL ライティング Integrated   パッセージを述べるフレーズ


TOEFL integrated ライティングでは、Introductionの中で、リーディング

passageの論点を述べたうえでレクチャーの立場を明確にすることが大切です。


そこで今回は、パッセージの内容を伝えるときに使えるフォーマルなフレーズを学びます。


Introduction でパッセージの内容を述べる 使える表現


赤字で示した単語は、フォーマルな単語です。これらを用いて、読者や採点者に、アカデミックなエッセイだという「印象」を与えてください。


パッセージは、汚染がラッコの死の原因だったと述べている·示している·推測している·主張している。


The passage mentions that pollution could cause the deaths of sea otters.

The passage suggests that pollution could cause the deaths of sea otters.

The passage indicates  that pollution could cause the deaths of sea otters.

The passage assumes that pollution could cause the deaths of sea otters.

The passage investigates that pollution could cause the deaths of sea otters.

The passage claims that pollution could cause the deaths of sea otters.

The passage states that pollution could cause the deaths of sea otters.

The passage argues that pollution could cause the deaths of sea otters.


パッセージは、汚染がラッコの死の原因だった証拠を扱っている。


The passage addresses the evidence that pollution could cause the deaths of sea otters.

The passage deal with the evidence that pollution could cause the deaths of sea otters.


教授は、パッセージに述べられている意見を否定している・疑っている・反論している。


the professor disagrees with the idea mentioned in the passage. 

the professor casts doubt on the idea mentioned in the passage. 

the professor disputes the idea mentioned in the passage. 

the professor challenges  the idea mentioned in the passage. 

the professor denies  the idea mentioned in the passage. 

the professor refutes the idea mentioned in the passage. 

the professor describes the opposing view. 

5分でわかる!Integrated   =  読みやすいエッセイ =


| TOEFL ライティング Integrated   = 読みやすいエッセイ =

Integrated ライティングでは、パッセージの内容に対し、レクチャーでの反論点を把握し、

それらを関連付けてエッセイを書くことが求められます。


さらに評価を上げるには、読みやすさ ”展開を予想しながら読めること” です。

正しい情報を詰め込んでも、それが読み手の頭に入りやすい順序で

書かれていなければ、「読みにくいエッセイ」と思われてしまい、

評価が下がってしまいます。


「読みやすいエッセイ」の秘訣は、「Introductionの中で、Reading passageの論点を

書いたしたうえでレクチャーの立場を明確にすること」と、「BodyでLectureの論点を論じる

ことです。


設計図としては、以下のようになります。

それでは実際に、解答例でエッセイの構成を確認します。

| Introduction

The topic discussed here is the investiga­tion of the causes of the disappearance of the sea otter, which is a small mammal that lives in waters along the western coast of North America from California to Alaska. The woman in the lecture argues that the cause of their disappearance is the presence of the predators, especially areas, and not pollution as the reading says.

| Body 1   パッセージ理由1への反論

Firstly, she argues that one of the proofs of their being attacked by the predators is the fact that no one can find any dead sea otters. If the cause was the pollution, many dead sea otters would be found along the shores. In addition, a predator will immediately eat its prey so this is why no dead sea otters were found.

|  Body 2   パッセージ理由2への反論 Body

Secondly, the woman in the lecture argues there is another explanation than pollution why smaller sea mammals are all disappearing.She says that, since the whales tend to disap­pear because of the humans hunting them, the areas had to adapt their food habits to the sea conditions and as a result they have started eating the smaller sea animals available among them sea otters being included.

|  Body 3   パッセージ理由3への反論 Body

Thirdly, she argues that the areas can­not access the shallow locations. This is why there are some areas where the sea otters are numerous. It’s not because of uneven concen­trations of pollutants. 

| Conclusion   省略

5分でわかる! Integrated  = 反論するフレーズ =


| TOEFL ライティング Integrated   = 反論するフレーズ =

Integrated Writingの問題は、「レクチャーの内容を要約することと、

それがどのようにリーディングの内容と関連しているかを述べること」です。


レクチャーの内容がパッセージの内容に対して疑問を投げかける視点で展開されます。


レクチャーで反論していることがわかる フレーズ 例


□ The lecturer takes issue with the main point of the reading that [パッセージの主張]


□ According to the lecture, [レクチャーの内容]. On the other hand, this contradicts what is stated in the reading passage that [パッセージの内容]


□ For these reasons, the lecturer disagrees the argument in the reading.


解答のテクニック


パッセージの内容に対し、レクチャーでの反論点を把握し、それらを

関連付けてエッセイを書くテクニックを身につけつことが大切です。


それでは、パッセージに対するレクチャーでの反論点を示すフレーズが解答文の中で

どのように使われているかをご覧ください。


パッセージレクチャーはこちらをご覧ください。


The lecturer discusses the points made in the text but reaches a different conclusion in each case. For one thing, she states that yes, people are reading less literature then they were in earlier times but this does not equal an immediate decline of culture. On the contrary, in her opinion our culture is simply evolving and changing. Although literature is one of the most obvious elements of culture, there are also lots of other forms of artistic expres­sion in our ever-changing culture, e.g. music. And those elements are not less valuable and less creative than literature and they appeal to more modern concerns than literature.

Also the lecturer disputes the text that says we are going to lose interesting writers of literature. She says that today literature is not interesting enough for the reader! In the lecturers opinion this is mainly due to the fact that mod­ern literature is often written with the intention of being difficult to understand, which does not make it very attractive for the modern reader. 

And finally just because people are not reading literature anymore this does not mean they are not reading at all and losing their imagination and empathy; instead there are many other valuable types of books which people are reading, e.g. science textbooks and political analysis. These books can stimulate readers and provide satisfaction and learning.

5分でわかる! Integrated レクチャーの聞き方  = Note-Taking =

| TOEFL ライティング Task 1   レクチャーの聞き方

Integrated Writingの問題は、「レクチャーの内容を要約することと、それがどのように

リーディングの内容と関連しているかを述べること」です。


実際はこのように英文で出題されます。

Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they cast doubt specific points made in the reading passage.

和訳

「聞いた講義のポイントを、それがリーディングの内容に対し、どのように異議を唱えたかを説明しながらまとめなさい」


パッセージを読んだ後で聞くレクチャーは、基本的に、「パッセージの裏付け理由に

異議を唱え、矛盾点を提示する」という形式なので以下のような展開になります。

それでは実際のレクチャーを聞いてポイント(反論点)をまとめてみましょう 

パッセージとパッセージのポイントはこちらをご覧ください。

レクチャーのポイント(反論点)

ポイント(反論)1

The lecturer points out that there are other forms of writing that are of high quality and just as intellectually stimulating as literature. 


ポイント(反論)2

The lecturer argues that people spend time on culturally valuable activities such as listening to good music or watching good movies. The definition of culture is changing. 


ポイント(反論)3

The lecturer argues that maybe there is less readership of literature because the writers of literature nowadays are making their books/ works too hard to understand. 


スクリプト

It is often said that people are reading less literature today than they used to. What should we make of this?

Well, first, a book doesn’t have to be literature to be intellectually stimulating. Science writing, history, political analysis, and so forth aren’t literature, perhaps, but they’re often of high quality. And these kinds of books can be just as creative and well-written as a novel or a play-they can stimulate the imagination. So don’t assume that someone who isn’t reading literature isn’t reading a good book.

But let’s say that people aren’t just spending less time with literature, they’re also spending less time with books in general. Does that mean that the culture is in decline? No. There’s plenty of culturally valuable material that isn’t written: music and movies, for example. Are people wasting their time when they listen to a brilliant song or watch a good movie? Do these non-literary activities lower cultural standards? Of course not. Culture has changed. In today’s culture there are many forms of expression available other than novels and poems, and some of these creative forms speak more directly to contemporary concerns than literature does.

Finally, it’s probably true that there’s less support for literature today than in earlier gen­erations. But don’t be too quick to blame the readers. Sometimes it’s the author’s fault. Let’s be honest: a lot of modern literature is intended to be difficult to understand. There’s not much reason to suppose that earlier generations of readers would have read a lot of today’s literature either. 

5分でわかる!Integrated パッセージの読み方


| TOEFL ライティング Task 1 パッセージの読み方

Integrated Writingの問題は、「レクチャーの内容を要約することと、

それがどのようにリーディングの内容と関連しているかを述べること」です。


実際はこのように英語で出題されます。

Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they cast doubt specific points made in the reading passage.

和訳

「聞いた講義のポイントを、それがリーディングの内容に対し、どのように異議を唱えたかを説明しながらまとめなさい」


パッセージを読んだ後で聞くレクチャーは、基本的に、「パッセージの裏付け理由に

異議を唱え、矛盾点を提示する」という形式なので、パッセージを読む際は、

レクチャーを理解するための準備であることを強く意識して読むようにしてください。


そして、書き手の主張とその裏付け理由3つを確実に押さえてメモを取るようにしてください。


パッセージでは通常、以下のように書き手の主張とそれを裏付ける3つの理由が展開されます。


| パッセージの展開  = Note-Taking =

1. 書き手の主張

2. 裏付け理由 1

3. 裏付け理由 2

4. 裏付け理由 3

それでは実際のパッセージを3分で読んで展開をまとめてみましょう

Directions: Give yourself 3 minutes to read the passage

A recent study reveals that people, especially young people, are reading far less literature-novels, plays, and poems-than they used to. This is troubling because the trend has unfortunate effects for the reading public, for culture in general, and for the future of literature itself.While there has been a decline in book reading generally, the decline has been especially sharp for literature. This is unfortunate because nothing else pro­vides the intellectual stimulation that literature does. Literature encourages us to exercise our imaginations, empathize with others, and expand our understanding of language. So by reading less literature, the reading public is missing out on important benefits. Unfortunately, missing out on the benefits of literature is not the only problem. What are people reading instead? Consider the prevalence of self-help books on lists of best sellers. These are usually superficial, poorly written, and intellectually undemanding. Additionally, instead of sitting down with a challenging novel, many persons are now more likely to turn on the television, watch a music video, or read a Web page. Clearly, diverting time previously spent in reading literature to trivial forms of entertainment has lowered the level of culture in general. The trend of reading less literature is all the more regrettable because it is tak­ing place during a period when good literature is being written. There are many talented writers today, but they lack an audience. This fact is bound to lead pub­lishers to invest less in literature and so support fewer serious writers. Thus, the writing as well as the reading of literature is likely to decline because of the poor standards of today’s readers. 

パッセージのポイント

ポイント1 

The passage argues that reading less literature means that readers are missing out on ways to stimulate their imagination and help with their mental development. 


ポイント2

The passage argues that many of the kinds of reading that people currently spend time on instead of literature are just trivial entertainment and lead to lower cultural standards. 


ポイント3

The passage says that another bad effect of the decline in reading literature is that talented writers of literature are not being supported.

5分でわかる! Integrated  速読術

TOEFL  Integrated    Writing  = 速読テクニック=

TOEFL  Integrated    ライティングは高度なリスニング、リーディング力

その2つが備わっていないとハイスコアは目指せません。 


TOEFLというテストを最も難易度の高い英語力判定テストとしていえる

要因の大きな一つが、このライティングセクションにあるIntegrated Taskです。


Integrated Taskはその名の通り複合問題であり、そこには非常に高度な速読力、

英語のレクチャーの1回で聴き取るリスニング力を必要とします。


230~300語程度のパッセージを制限時間内(3分)に読み終えることが

前提条件となり、理解度を落とさずに、でいるだけ早く読むことが

求められますが、そのために必要なのが、スラッシュ・リーディングです。


英文を頭から理解できるよう、意味のかたまりごとに

スラッシュ(/)で区切って読んでいく方法です。

初めは細かく区切っても構いません。 慣れてくると

より大きなかたまりで捉えられるようになります。

決して英文を返り読みせず、大意をつかむことに慣れておきましょう。


スラッシュ挿入の例 

 The whole family gathered / around a warm stove. /  lay down / and went to sleep.// Once a day / everyone got up / to eat a piece of hard bread.//  Then they went back to sleep. // The members of the family took turns/ keeping the fire burning. //This was not “hibernating” / like what bears do in the winter.// But it was a sensible decision / by the members of the family.// Just stay in bed / for as long as possible. / and do not work.// To these French farmers / “working more to earn more”/ did not seem like a good idea. // Instead of working throughout the year,/ the people of one village on the Rhone River/ made enough money for one year / relaxing, hunting and sleeping. //Few people needed money / until the 20th century. //

読解力をつける4つの秘訣!

スラッシュ・リーディングの他にも速読を鍛える方法がありますので、併せて習得してください。


1. 読書に集中できる環境作り


まず、第一に、「読む」ことに集中してください。

TVやスマホ、iPadなどを周りに置かないでください。

そして、あなたがリラックスできて

パッセージを読むのに適した明るさの下で読むようにしましょう。

記事や本に書かれている情報を吸収しやすい脳にするためには、

脳をリラックス状態にさせ、さらに十分な酸素を送ることも大切です。


2. 読む目的を明確にする


2番目に、読む目的についてよく考えてください。

記事/本/雑誌/コラムなどの表紙を見れば、読み物の主題や

何について書かれているかはわかります。

そこで、あなたが、そこから何を学びたいのか、知りたいのかを明確にしましょう。

例えば、記事のタイトルが ”The Remedies of Migraine-片頭痛療法 ” だとします。

そこで、あなたは、 ”The Remedies of Migraine-片頭痛療法 ”

とは何かを考えなければいけません。

結局のところ、リーディング試験は、「文章の意図」や

「筆者が言おうとしていること」を中心に出題されますから、

何を読むにしても、目的意識をしっかり持って、

必要な情報を正確に読み取ることが肝心です。


3. 唇を動かさない― 「脳」と「目」のフル回転


3番目に、唇を動かしながら本を読むことはやめましょう。

唇を動かしながら読んでいると言うことは、

口で言えるほどの速さで読んでいることになります。

実際、声に出ていなくても、口を動かすと脳は

自然に口の動きに合わせて本を読んでしまします。

読む速度が遅くなると、読み進めて行く中で、前に書かれていたことを忘れてしまい、

文章の全体像を掴めなくなってしまいます。

「速読」は脳と目をフル回転させて行うものです。


4. まとまり単位で読む


最後に、読むときは、まとまりごとに読んでください。

単語一つひとつ読む必要も、文法に気を取られる必要もありません。

多少、単語の意味が分からなくても、段落で何が書かれているかが

大まかにわかる程度でも構いません。

1文章、1段落単位の文字のかたまりを広い視野に入れ、

集中力・イメージをフル回転させ、素早く読み取るようにしていくのです。

速読は、IELTSリーディングセクションの必須学習課題です。

何よりも、先に述べた「4つの秘訣」を参考に、多読を進めてください。

質の高い読書量が読解力を高めていくことは言うまでもありません。