TOEFL TV: Reading Tip

Ok basically when you are taking your TOEFL test, generally in the reading part you take a long time trying to read from top to bottom of the reading. What you need to do is read the last paragraph of the reading and then read the first one. Then read the whole reading and you will see that it is very easy to complete all of the questions. This is anticipation. When you anticipate every single thing that you do in reading, you are creating schema in your brain and you can process the reading faster. This is my experiential learning process. Thank you.


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TOEFL TV: Practicing for the Speaking Test

The activities she suggests are almost exactly what I created on the voice thread. You can see it here. The scoring system that she mentions can be seen here. It's kind of hard to understand, but here is basically what you should be trying to do:

1. Your speech should flow (continue without stopping). Short pauses are ok. Pronunciation errors are ok if we can still understand you.
2. Vocabulary and grammar errors are ok if we can still understand what you are talking about. You should use a variety of sentence patterns. For example, instead of saying, "I like cats. I like dogs. I like fish." You should say, "I like cats, but I also like dogs. I kind of like fish because they are easy to take care of. However, they aren't so fun to touch."
3. You should stay on topic. In other words, if they ask you about your hobbies, don't talk about your work.

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TOEFL TV: "5 Tips for Learning English"

English is my second language and I went through that process. I definitely understand the struggles and the challenges our students face, because I am a teacher/educator. I am also a classroom teacher, teaching students how to learn English so I think the tips that I would like to give to students are...

First, be confident. Really be confident and believe in yourself and practice English trying to use the opportunities to communicate with native speakers, with your classmates, and with people you don't know. In that way, you can really build confidence and have more opportunities to practice.

The second strategy I would tell my students is trying to use the medias - listen to radios, watch TV programs - try to listen to those and train you ears. Once you have a good ear, you are a good listener, you can become a good speaker.

In terms of writing, I would say, start with a writing list - a shopping list and do memos and then go on to academic writings. And also don't be shy to ask your teachers, your instructors to give you feedback and then trying to revisions and then learning from others. And then you will be much, much better in your English skills.

For writing (that I talked about) and for reading, I think, in addition to reading the text books or materials that your instructors give you in the classroom, try to read newspapers. Don't be afraid of newspapers, actually they are fun to read. USA Today is a good one to start with and then maybe start with the weather report and then similar things and then you will enjoy reading. Because we all learn to read by reading.

And also English is the same thing. You are learning English by using English everyday.

Ok, I hope that helps. Thank you.

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TOEFLtv: How to Learn a Language (in 2 Minutes)

Learn a language in two minutes? You can't! What do you think this is? The Matrix??? I can't just upload it into your brain!

But in the next two minutes, I can upload into your brain the four applications you'll need to upload the rest when you are practicing.

Hi this is Joel from elllo.org and I'm going to talk to you about complete language training. When I talk about lesson plans there are four aspects I keep in mind. The first is input, the second is output, third is language focus, and the fourth is fluency.

INPUT
A couple of them are pretty obvious. Input is just reading and listening. You need to get tons of reading practice, tons of listening practice and you need to understand everything that you are reading and listening so you need to use a dictionary or be working online so you can look things up.

OUTPUT
The second one is output. So as much as you listen and read you need to be talking with people. You also need to be writing, giving presentations--so, output.

LANGUAGE FOCUS
The third one is language focus. So this is basically your grammar skills; so you are studying specific grammar points. Also, pronunciation points. And even, social aspects: how to get into a conversation, how to get out of a conversation...

FLUENCY
The fourth one --that a lot of people miss-- is fluency. This is basically taking what you already know, so you are not doing anything new, and just making it faster. This might be in some sort of a presentation situation. The first time you do it, it takes you 5 minutes. Then you speed it up a little bit to where you can get it down to 4 minutes...maybe down to 3 minutes. So the things you already know and just making them faster.

I should also mention that this model comes from Paul Nation. I think that he's at the University of Wellington in New Zealand. This is a model that he came up with based on all the latest research.

So input, output, language focus, and fluency. If you do about 25% of each of them, you'll have a very balanced training, and you'll be able to do everything you need to do in English.

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