2020-03-26 TOEFL: speaking 1

Greg Malivuk
gmalivuk@staffordhouse.com
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk - notes from all classes
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https://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-dust-bunnies-that-built-our-planet-lorin-swint-matthews
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Homework: Cengage exercises 11.1 and 11.2 (pages 5-13 of the “purpose 2” pdf)
11.1
1 D
2 A
3 B
4 A
5 C
6 A
11.2
1 C
2 C
3 D
4 A
5 D
6 B
7 C
8 A
9 C
10 A
11 B
12 D
13 B
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Speaking Section: third section, after the break, 17 minutes, 4 tasks, 3m45s
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
(The test changed in August, and the old speaking questions 1 and 5 were dropped from the section.)
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Speaking Task 1 - Choose between two or three options.

It’s easy to find examples of choice questions online, as they’re common for conversation-starter activities.
https://conversationstartersworld.com/would-you-rather-questions/
You can practice for independent speaking by randomly choosing some of those questions and coming up with at least two reasons to support your answer.
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“Would you rather find your true love or a suitcase with five million dollars inside?” Why?
money
- love doesn’t pay the bills
- you can find happiness with money
love
- you can work or look for money together with your love
- money can’t buy happiness
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Don’t worry if one of your reasons feels a bit cliche or unoriginal. The point is to show that you know how to support an opinion, not to actually convince the listener. (However, remember that there is a human being listening, so don’t be awful.)
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During your preparation time, you can write a mini-outline like above, but your full response should be organized like a small presentation:
1 Introduction: state your answer
2 Lead-in (optional): “I have two reasons for my opinion.”
3 First reason: “First, love doesn’t pay the bills.”
4 Detail/example: “It doesn’t matter how much you love someone, you need money to pay rent and electricity. If you find the suitcase you’ll be set for life.”
5 Second reason:
6 Detail/example:
(7 Conclusion - if you have time)
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- One or both of your reasons could be disadvantages of the options you didn’t choose.
- On the new version of the TOEFL, you might have three options to choose among.
- If you have a longer or more complex question, make sure you understand it completely before responding.
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For agree/disagree prompts, make sure you understand fully what the statement says, and that there can be more than one way to disagree.
“Always telling the truth is the most important consideration in any relationship.”
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ETS 2 test 5 - Where to do research?
Listen to the two responses. What’s good and bad about each one?
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BREAK
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Record your responses to the ETS guide practice tests. (Task 2 only.)
Use https://www.online-stopwatch.com/countdown/ or a Google timer to time your response.
(The 15 seconds of preparation time are included in the audio.)
- Unmute yourself when you’re finished recording your responses.
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Listen to your classmates’ responses. What’s good and bad about each one?
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*You always have someone to talk. = *You can always talk someone.
-> You always have someone to talk to/with.

*I have experience to live with someone.
-> I have experience living with someone.
- A common pattern with gerunds vs. infinitives is that gerunds refer to real/past actions and infintives refer to potential/future actions.
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Remember that “listener effort” is a common part of how pronunciation is judged in speaking tasks.
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“Speak for yourself.” = What you’re saying might be true for you, but it’s definitely not true for everyone.
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If you give reasons for both sides, there are two ways to organize it well:
- Your main thesis is “it depends”, and you explain the circumstances in which each side would be the better choice.
	e.g. a good group is better than alone, but alone is better than a bad group
- You present reasons for one side as a concession (e.g. with “even though”) and still clearly prefer the other side in your own opinion.
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If the independent (speaking or writing) prompt is about which “lifestyle choice” is better, start by thinking through a few typical situations where one action can be better or worse than another:
    Does one option cost more than the other?
    Does it help or hurt in different areas of life?
        education
        career
        relationships (friends or family)
        liesure activities
        necessary activities (chores, taxes, etc.)
        budget
        responsibilities
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Writing Section: fourth and final section, 2 tasks
1 integrated: read an academic text, listen to a lecture about the same topic, 20 minutes to write about how the lecture relates to the points from the reading (normally the lecture disagrees with the text)
2 independent: choice question, 30 minutes to write a short essay to support your response
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Homework (optional): look again at the integrated writing task about smart cars