TOEFL Blog » speaking

TOEFL Speaking tips

GoodLuckTOEFL — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:55:21 +0000

TOEFL iBT scores for Chinese students go up

GoodLuckTOEFL — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 00:24:29 +0000

ETS has reported that TOEFL scores for Chinese students have gone up to match the worldwide average. In case you were wondering, the worldwide average for the TOEFL iBT is 78. The average score in Taiwan is 72, in comparison. I think especially in the Speaking section of the TOEFL, Chinese students have suffered when compared to many others (though this applies to Japanese students as well). One thing to remember is that if you have an accent, you should try to work on any part of your accent which might cause your words to be misunderstood. But what you SHOULD NOT do is mumble in an attempt to hide your accent. It doesn’t work, and just causes more problems.

Free TOEFL Speaking Examples

GoodLuckTOEFL — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 18:23:36 +0000

Here are some good, long TOEFL iBT Speaking examples. Just keep doing these until you are ready to take the exam.

TOEFL Grammar -ING & -ED Adjectives

GoodLuckTOEFL — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 22:44:04 +0000

This is a two-part lesson about participal adjectives. It’ll be very useful to you for the speaking section especially, where mistakes in grammar will hurt your score.

How to CHEAT on the TOEFL!

GoodLuckTOEFL — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 23:12:37 +0000

Okay friends, here is a trick you can use on the TOEFL iBT to improve your score in the section that everyone dreads the most — the TOEFL Speaking section.

Now, I would only advise that you read the following information if you are willing to do something devious and dishonest in order to get a better score…

Okay, here it is: When you’re done the section BEFORE speaking, don’t go forward to the speaking straight. Still your mind and and listen to what your fellow TOEFLers are speaking about around you. At least a few of them have probably already started their Speaking sections and will thus reveal something about the topic in what they are saying. If you do this, you’ll be able to think about the topic for longer and thus get a better score than your friends!

Remember — this is a TOEFL secret!! Don’t tell anyone ;)

Learn English with Flash Cards

GoodLuckTOEFL — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 21:29:48 +0000

This is a simple, useful site for lower-level learners. It is just made up of vocabulary flash cards that you can click on to hear pronunciation. Simple, but effective if you don’t have access to native speakers who can pronounce words for you.

TOEFL Speaking – real examples

GoodLuckTOEFL — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:05:48 +0000

These students are practicing for the TOEFL iBT Speaking section. These are Vietnamese students. They were given a personal choice topic question. No strict time for preparation was given. How would you say these students did? Pay attention to their use of transitions and sentence structure. What about the accents? Why does the first fellow look like he’s about to cry? ;)

Debatepedia

GoodLuckTOEFL — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 00:05:21 +0000

Debatepedia defines itself as “the Wikipedia of debate and deliberation”. It’s a useful as a source of arguments for classroom debates on everything from Advertising to Zoos. I think you guys might find this site useful in learning the ways to construct an argument. You’ll quickly learn that there are some standard strategies for doing this.

What about your accent?

GoodLuckTOEFL — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 04:17:01 +0000

A lot of students worry about whether their accent will affect their score in the Speaking section of the TOEFL. Well, it’s like this. Everyone who speaks English has an accent. So, having an accent is not a problem.

What matters more than accent is clarity. Now clarity itself is composed of two elements.

The first element is that you must overcome any obvious mispronunciation. This means learning to say “yellow” and not “jello” if you’re a Spanish speaker. Or learning to say “rice” and not “lice” if you’re Japanese, for example. These are examples where the mistake actually produces a different word, and can cause confusion.

An example where a mistake due to accent does not produce another word is when Eastern Europeans say “Vas iz thiz?” instead of “What is this?” The meaning is still understandable, though there are errors due to the accent. This is less of a problem.

The second point is that you must speak as clearly and confidently as possible. Sometimes when students are nervous or forget the word they want to say, they try to mumble their way through. This is not a good idea, and doing so repeatedly could cause you to lose points because you are not communicating effectively. Better to find another word or explain what you mean as clearly as you can, in whatever accent you do have.