How Effective Is Learning with WELE?

All WELE members (especially when they're just starting out) are always curious: how effective is the dictation listening practice method with WELE? In the past, even though we always believed in the effectiveness of the program, WELE couldn't give a complete answer due to a lack of concrete data.

Today, WELE has used a big data analytics system from more than 20,000 users of the program: for each listening lesson, the program records the number of new words each person hears correctly, as well as the amount of time they spend on dictation practice for that lesson (in hours).

Although effectiveness varies from user to user, the average numbers are surprisingly consistent: the data shows (on average)

• WELE Users need 33.5h to learn 1,250 words
• WELE Users need 82h to learn 2,500 words
• WELE Users need 160h to learn 5,000 words

Note that English only has about 3,000 common words, so you only need to spend an average of 82h to reach a level where you can listen and understand 60-70% of English conversations.

To reach the 5,000-word level (about TOEIC 700, IELTS 5.5), you'll need 160h. That means: if you spend 2h per week, you'll need 80 weeks (more than 2 years); but if you can focus for 1 day (8h) per week, you only need 20 weeks (half a year) to reach this level.

Therefore, the best strategy for students is to start joining WELE from their first year of university, and by the time they graduate they'll never have to worry about the TOEIC graduation requirement.

The unfortunate thing is that students often wait until their final year to start studying, or even after graduating. Many have shared: "I wish I'd known about WELE sooner." We really hope everyone can share WELE with their friends, and especially with students.

And below are the survey results from WELE members: