Do you ever feel uneasy about whether you speak English that you could communicate with others? If you have spoken with a foreign friend or studied abroad, you may be able to speak English with confidence, but if you do not have such experience, you may feel uneasy.
However, TOEFL Speaking is not a conversation, you can summarize what you hear and talk to the microphone, so if you can do that, you will get a relatively high score. There are also many templates, so it’s not hard to prepare. Now, I will introduce ways to prepare for speaking specifically.
Preparing for TOEFL Speaking
Know what TOEFL Listening requires
As mentioned in Preparing for TOEFL Listening, it is important to know about the TOEFL test itself if you want to increase your TOEFL score. There is a video explaining this accurately, so I will share.
This person is Josh MacPherson and is the head of instructor of an online TOEFL school called TST Prep. In TST Prep site, there is not only about Reading, but also about Listening, Speaking, and Writing, as well as a lot of useful free materials, so please use it for TOEFL study!
Also, there is speaking templates in the explanation section of the video below, so please utilize it too!
The summary of this video is as follows.
Tips for Speaking
- Stop watching so many Youtube videos – Practice speaking is more important than watching
- Record your voice – Self-feedback allows you to understand how you are speaking
- Use grading rubrics – find your weaknesses and make improvements
- Finding study buddies – Using media such as Facebook and online, finding friends will help you improve your speaking abilities
- Move your hands – American English expresses not only with your mouth but with your body. Also, by using your body when you speak, you can relax on the day of the exam
- Decide when and where to study – find a time zone where you can concentrate and learn effectively
- Start the same way for each question – the difficult part of speaking is the introductory part, so creating a template in advance will help
- Use a timer – be aware of the time on the day of the exam and get used to it beforehand to avoid nervousness
- Take advantage of technology to provide feedback – for example, speak to a voice translator. If the translator translates what he or she has said correctly, he or she can judge his or her pronunciation is correct.
- Looking for a teacher who has good ability for English – Getting feedback facilitates learning English
If you want to understand this in more detail, I recommend that you watch the video above to learn.
Learning the background of the academias
TOEFL asks many questions related to education and knowledge that college students need to know.
For example, anthropology, archaeology, world civilization, American history and law, ecology, biology, botany, environmental issues, meteorology, astronomy, geology, human body, chemistry, art, economics, architecture, psychology, advanced technology, etc.
On the day of the exam, there will be questions such as the history, the technology, the research, etc. So, it’s a good idea to keep these simple knowledge in mind beforehand. This is because when you take a test, the speed of information processing in your head is completely different when you don’t know anything. If you want to have some spare time during the exam, I recommend you to learn these in advance.
Think like a Western way
As for language tests in general, TOPIK has also come to take a more logical evaluation due to Western influence. So, if you can think in a Western way, you will get a higher score. In the West, logic and rationality are emphasized, and the examination evaluates the quality of the way of thinking. Therefore, if you go outside the framework, your score will naturally be deducted. Specifically, the following are the arguments that should not be used for Western thinking. If these are not the case, you will naturally be able to think logically.
- Hasty Generalization
- Post Hoe Ergo proper Hoe
- Slippery Slope
- Red Herring
- Appeal to Tradition
- False Dilemma
- Bandwagon
- Ad Hominem
① is a fallacy that makes claim based on insufficient or unrepresentative examples. it is not logical to assume that all politicians are taking bribes when news circulates that two or three politicians are taking bribes, because not all are taking bribes.
② is a chronological fallacy that says a. prior event caused a subsequent event. For example, because when you win, or get a lot of money, you’re wearing a red jacket, you may have a hard time gambling. because logically speaking, there’s no correlation between gambling wins and red jackets.
③ is a fallacy of causation that says one action inevitably sets a chain of events in motion. For example, the idea that if the consumption tax reaches 5%, it will reach 7%, and then 10%, is not logical. That’s because it’s based on the possibilities that might happen in the future, and not on the credibility of the numbers going up.
④ is a fallacy that introduces irrelevant issues to deflect attention from the subject under discussion. For example, politicians often try to divert themselves from questions by introducing irrelevant topics, but this is not a reasonable factor because they have not answered that question. It is recommended to be especially aware of the frequent occurrence of essays and discussions.
⑤ is a fallacy that opposes change by arguing that old ways are superior to new ways. For example, people living now may be happier than they used to be. it does not make sense from the standpoint of logic, and what makes them happy depends on the individual.
⑥ is a fallacy that confronts listeners with two choices when in reality, more option exists. For example, if you offered to have to work at the company and to get results without having to work overtime within two weeks, it is not logical. Because you may be able to come up with innovative ideas.
⑦ is a fallacy that determines truth, goodness or wisdom by popular opinion. In this restaurant, for example, it is common sense to tip $5 in advance. This doesn’t make sense. Because Common sense may apply to individuals and societies,
⑧ is a fallacy that urges listeners to reject as idea because of the allegedly poor character of the person voicing it.For example, if you were said that you are too early to be a boss, this would’t make sense because if you show your ability and achieve results, you may be a boss right now.
Below is an article related to the above. Please use it as a reference.
Memorizing (creating) templates
Remembering the template in advance and challenging the test is a great way to do it, but there are a few things to keep in mind.
- The template is just an example
- Don’t rely too much on templates
- Create your own template if possible
- In the end, you should be flexible enough to answer all questions without templates
There are many useful templates on the Internet. Keep in mind that templates are just an example, though it’s a great thing to learn from them. Also, when you try to talk about the template you learned on the day of the exam, if the content of the topics or questions doesn’t match the template you learned, there are many cases where it didn’t work.
Therefore, it is better to create your own templates to deal with these problems. Make one template that fits you well at first so that you can answer the questions immediately. Once you’ve done that, let’s make up to two extra templates.
If you make a template or memorize words or expressions, you will get the hang of it. In the end, you will be able to speak smoothly without templates.
Utilizing friends and other mediums to make regular outputs
You can’t say that you’ve mastered words, expressions and templates just by memorizing them. Make sure to output what you memorize. Be sure to talk to your English speaking friends and teachers at an English conversation school and output what you have learned. The reason is as follows.
- Conversation is the best way to improve your speaking ability to input and output.
- Be able to have confidence in speaking English because conversation gives feedback
- Be able to learn to speak proper and natural English
- You can ask questions
Needless to say, if you want to improve speaking, you have to speak. And the most efficient way is to have conversations. In the conversation, you can judge whether your English is correct or not, and there are many words that have the same meaning but a slight difference in nuance, so you will be able to understand them by asking questions.
Also, during the TOEFL test, you may get nervous and speak faster or in a higher tone. Everyone gets nervous on the day of the exam. The important thing is whether you can speak English with confidence, because if you can speak English, the tension will naturally melt away. If you were accustomed to English on a daily basis, you would be able to do it better than you think.
So why don’t you make friends on Facebook or Twitter in order to get used to English even a little? If you target people who are studying your native language and can speak English, you’ll make friends in general. If you are not good at making friends, try writing essays or diaries and outputting them.
Solving past questions (not recommended)
If you want to improve your speaking ability, I don’t recommend past questions. The reason is that there is no feedback required to improve speaking ability.
It’s good to solve past questions to learn what kind of TOEFL Speaking questions will be coming up, to practice speaking, or to get used to the exam format, but it’s not very helpful to improve speaking.
Below is a Youtube account called Learn Toefl With Daniel with a lot of past questions on Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing. Please use it for learning English (^◇^)
In the end
The above content can be applied not only to English study but also to other languages, so please make use of it! I would appreciate it if you could leave a comment if this article was helpful for TOEFL study or if you thought your language learning method was like this (о´∀`о)
References – YouTube.com
thumbnail – wiki-study.com
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