🔥 Warm-Up (5 minutes)
- In your experience, what practices make a workplace feel genuinely inclusive rather than merely compliant with policy?
- How might unconscious bias affect hiring or promotion decisions, even when managers have good intentions?
📖 Key Vocabulary
| English | Type | Example Sentence |
|---|---|---|
| equitable | adj. | The committee was tasked with designing a more equitable compensation structure across all departments. |
| underrepresented | adj. | The mentorship program specifically targets employees from underrepresented backgrounds in senior leadership. |
| mitigate | v. | Structured interview rubrics were introduced to mitigate the effects of unconscious bias. |
| accommodate | v. | Facilities were redesigned to accommodate employees with mobility impairments. |
| proponent | n. | She has long been a vocal proponent of pay transparency within the industry. |
| entrenched | adj. | Breaking down entrenched attitudes toward gender roles in leadership requires sustained effort. |
| cultivate | v. | The new leadership training aims to cultivate a genuinely inclusive workplace culture. |
| disparity | n. | The audit revealed a troubling disparity in promotion rates between demographic groups. |
| spearhead | v. | The Chief Diversity Officer was appointed to spearhead the company's equity initiative. |
| permeate | v. | Leadership hopes that inclusive values will eventually permeate every level of the organization. |
🧠 Grammar / Strategy Focus
When a sentence opens with a negative or restrictive adverbial such as Not only, Rarely, Seldom, No sooner, or Under no circumstances, the subject and auxiliary verb invert, just as in a question, and the clause typically requires a paired connector (but also, than, when). For example: 'Not only did the company revise its hiring policy, but it also launched an unconscious bias training program for all managers.' Another pattern pairs No sooner with than: 'No sooner had the accommodations been implemented than productivity improved.' This structure is common in formal business writing and appears frequently at the TOEIC 800+ level.
✏️ Part 5 Practice
Incomplete Sentences
📝 Part 6 Practice
Text Completion (Subject: Rollout of Company-Wide Unconscious Bias Training)
To: All Department Heads From: Linh Tran, Chief Diversity Officer Subject: Rollout of Company-Wide Unconscious Bias Training
Following the recommendations put forward by the Diversity and Inclusion Task Force, the executive committee has approved a mandatory unconscious bias training program (1) for all employees holding supervisory responsibilities.
Not only will this initiative help managers recognize the subtle biases (2) hiring and promotion decisions, but it will also equip them with practical strategies for fostering a more equitable workplace.
It is essential that every supervisor (3) the two-part module before the end of the third quarter, as attendance will be factored into annual performance reviews.
Should you have any questions regarding scheduling or require accommodations to participate, please do not hesitate to contact the Human Resources department, (4) can arrange alternative session times.
📰 Part 7 Practice
Reading Comprehension
HanoiTech Solutions, a mid-sized software firm headquartered in Hanoi, has drawn industry attention this quarter for an inclusion strategy that goes considerably further than the compliance-driven measures typical of the sector. Rather than confining diversity efforts to recruitment quotas, the company has restructured its leadership development pipeline so that promotion committees are required to document the specific criteria used to evaluate each candidate, a change intended to curb the influence of unconscious bias in decisions that had, for years, disproportionately favored a narrow demographic. Employees credit much of this shift to the four employee resource groups established since 2023, which now serve not merely as social networks but as advisory bodies consulted on policy revisions ranging from parental leave to accessibility accommodations.
Not everyone within the organization has welcomed the changes without reservation. Some middle managers, accustomed to more discretionary hiring practices, have privately voiced concern that the added documentation requirements slow down an already lengthy promotion cycle. The Chief People Officer, Pham Thi Lan, has acknowledged the trade-off but maintains that the delay is a reasonable cost given the disparities the new system is designed to correct. 'It would be disingenuous,' she noted in an internal memo, 'to claim that equitable outcomes come without friction. What matters is that the friction is directed at dismantling entrenched patterns rather than reinforcing them.' Analysts tracking the company's retention figures suggest the approach may be paying off: attrition among employees from underrepresented backgrounds has fallen by nearly a third since the initiative began, even as overall hiring volume has held steady.
🎧 Listening Practice
Conversation (Part 3 style)
Teacher: read the script aloud twice (or record it) at natural speed, then ask students the questions below.
Woman: Have you had a chance to look over the proposal from the D&I task force? I have to say, I wasn't expecting them to recommend restructuring the entire interview panel process.
Man: I skimmed it this morning. Honestly, my first reaction was that it's going to slow down our hiring timeline considerably, especially for the engineering roles we're trying to fill by September.
Woman: That's fair, but I think that's kind of the point—slower doesn't necessarily mean worse. Rarely have I seen a hiring cycle where a diverse panel didn't end up surfacing candidates we'd otherwise have overlooked.
Man: Sure, I'm not against the intent. What I'm less sold on is mandating a minimum of three panelists from underrepresented groups for every senior-level interview. We barely have the headcount to pull that off without burning people out.
Woman: There's actually a workaround for that buried in section four—they're proposing a shared pool of trained panelists across departments, so no single team gets overloaded.
Man: Ah, that changes things. If it's cross-departmental, I could get behind piloting it with the next round of director-level hires.
Woman: I'll set up a call with the task force lead so we can iron out the logistics before the pilot kicks off.