2016-10-20 TOEFL: independent speaking

Greg Malivuk
[email protected]
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk - notes from all classes
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http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-history-of-the-cuban-missile-crisis-matthew-a-jordan
- What was the organization of this lecture? - chronological
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DELTA p. 270 - Read the question.
“What new skill would you like to learn? Why do you want to learn it?”

The response will (ideally) have several parts
1 “I would like to learn ____”
2 “I have a couple/a few/several/two/three reasons for this.” - This is annoying and not how we speak in conversations, but it’s necessary to get 4 points on an independent speaking task.
3 “The first reason is ___”
4 - example or detail supporting why this is a good reason for your choice
5 “The second reason is ___”
6 - example or detail supporting why this is a good reason for your choice
(7 - conclusion, if you have time - “These are the two reasons why I would like to learn ___”)

Transition signals are important in the response, even though we don’t normally talk like that.
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p. 271 part 3
Describe a person that you admire. Explain why you admire this person. Include details and examples to support your explanation.

1 - A person I admire a lot is my dad.
2 - There are a couple of reasons for this.
3 - The first reason I admire him is his honesty.
4 - For example, he once found a case with a million dollars in it. Instead of keeping it for himself, he found the owner and gave back the money. I think this is admirable because most people would be selfish and keep the money but he made the better choice.
5 - The second reason I admire him is that he is cool-headed and doesn’t get angry or upset in stressful situations.
6 - For example, when he was first officer on a Soviet nuclear submarine, he voted against launching a nuclear torpedo. This calm decision saved many lives and possibly avoided a third world war.
(7 - For these two reasons, I admire my dad a lot.)
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p. 278 - For question 1 - spend a couple minutes with your partner to come up with a perfect response.
Share your answer with another pair. Did you hear each of the 7 parts of a good response? Did they all relate to the main topic? Was everything easy to understand?

Read the rest of the questions on the handout and think of what answer you could give for each one.
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BREAK
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Stand up and ask the other 11 questions on your paper to different people. Make a (mental) note about whether they include the 6 required parts. (Make sure you ask all the questions and talk to all the other students. You will ask two questions to some students.)

Were the responses clear and complete? What were some problems you had?
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DELTA p. 272 exercise 3.1.A - record your responses for questions 2 and 3
p. 275 exercise 3.2.A - do the same for questions 2 and 4

Listen to your responses and choose the one you think is the best (or least bad).
Listen to the three recordings. How are the organization, content, fluency, and grammar and pronunciation?