2020-04-02 TOEFL: speaking 2

Greg Malivuk
gmalivuk@staffordhouse.com
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk - notes from all classes
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https://ed.ted.com/lessons/why-isn-t-the-netherlands-underwater-stefan-al
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Homework: L16 and L17 (start in class, but we won’t have time to check the answers before 12:10)
L16
1 yes yes no yes no
2 no yes yes yes no
3 no no yes yes yes
L17
1 prisms plates stars (http://snowcrystals.com/)
2 antiviral antibacterial antibacterial
3 refrigerator icehouse icebox
4 drops drops drops flow flow (You should have written “speleothems” in your notes.)
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You should especially take notes on spellings that don’t match the pronunciation
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https://www.smithsonianmag.com/ - Similar range of topics you might find on the TOEFL, and the audience is intelligent non-experts, which is similar to the intended “audience” for TOEFL materials.
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Speaking Section: third section (after the break), four tasks, 17m total, 3m45s speaking time
1 (old 2) independent, choice question - 15 seconds to prepare / 45 seconds to speak
2 (old 3) integrated reading/listening/speaking, campus announcement and conversation - 30/60
3 (old 4) integrated R/L/S, academic text and lecture - 30/60
4 (old 6) integrated L/S, academic lecture - 20/60
(In the writing section, you do integrated before independent.)
- When the TOEFL changed in August, they eliminated speaking tasks 1 and 5.
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ETS 1.1 example:

Reading (45-50 seconds)
- what is the change? adding evening computer classes
- why?
	rooms are crowded and not enough computers
	most cost-effective solution is to add evening courses

	(The change might be proposed, planned, announced, or already happened. The reasons might be the university’s or an individual’s.)

Listen to the conversation on your own computer.
- who has the opinion? the man
- what is his opinion? bad idea
- why?
	students are busy at night (e.g. the girl has swim classes)
	it will be more expensive (to pay more professors) than buying more computers for existing classes
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Often the speaker gives one reason that is related to money, and the text will mention money even if it’s not specifically as a reason for the announced change.
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BREAK
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You can organize your response like this:
1 Introduction: summarize the text (what is the change and why?)
2 Thesis statement: state the speaker’s opinion (“The man thinks that this is a bad idea.”)
3 Lead-in (optional): (“He gives two reasons for his opinion.”)
4 First reason: (“First, he says many students are busy at night.”)
5 Detail/example: (“For example, the woman takes swim classes, so she probably wouldn’t be able to take a computer course in the evening.”)
6 Second reason: (“Second, he says it’s not a cost-effective solution.”)
7 Detail/example: (“It would be cheaper to simply buy more computers for the daytime classes, instead of keeping the building open longer and hiring more professors to teach evning courses.”)
(8 Conclusion - if you have extra time)
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45 seconds to read
(listen to the whole audio track)
30 seconds to prepare
60 seconds to record your response
https://www.online-stopwatch.com/full-screen-stopwatch/ - You can use Google or this site for setting your timers.
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On your phones, record your responses to task 3 on ETS 2 tests 1, 2, and 3.
- Required Work Experience
- Student Art Display
- Housing Rennovations Planned
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Listen to classmates’ responses. What’s good and bad about each one?
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Imagine that the person listening (or reading your writing responses) has not done the reading or listening that you did before responding. Would your answer make sense?
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If we pay attention to them, we look at paintings.
(If we don’t pay attention, we might only see them.)
We can watch someone painting, but we wouldn’t watch the picture itself.

We look at appearances and we watch actions.
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“The woman thinks that the proposal to require one semester of work experience in a local corporation or small business is not a good idea.”
- There is nothing wrong with this sentence, but it’s easier to make mistakes, especially in speaking, when you use long, complex sentences like this.
“The proposal is to require one semester of work experience in a local corporation or small business. The woman thinks this proposal is not a good idea.”
“The text announces that students will be required to do one semester of work experience. This will build important skills and improve their chances of getting permanent jobs in those companies. The woman thinks this change is a bad idea and she gives two reasons for her opinion.”
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Make sure your second main point is as clear and well-organized as your first one.
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Listen to sample responses. What did they do better or worse than you did?
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https://www.ets.org/s/toefl/pdf/toefl_speaking_rubrics.pdf - The graders give you a score from 0 to 4 points on each speaking task, and then ETS uses a formula to convert the total of those scores into a final speaking score from 0 to 30. I’m not certain, but I believe it might be a simple conversion, so 4 points on all your speaking tasks gives you 30, 2 points gives you 15, 3 gives you 22.5 (rounded up to 23), and so on.