Improve Your TOEFL Speaking by 3 Points

hello ah TOEFL speaking how'd it improve it by three points so let me get into it how can you improve your score if you've been following our plus three points kind of serious I talked about the reading and listening today I'm going to talk about the speaking usually I talk about how to change your mindset how to change the way that you think about the questions so you think less about like how do I answer this one particular question and more like what is the structure of the TOEFL what is the structure of in this case the speaking section and what do they want me to do how do they want me to answer no matter what the question no matter what it is it doesn't matter what matters is is that you know how you're supposed to think about the question you're supposed to think like an American college student that's different than just talking to somebody on the street or you know ordering at a restaurant thinking like a academic student is different so I'm going to teach you how to think about the TOEFL speaking so you don't have to struggle pretty much you will understand what's expected of you and when you know what's expected of you it'll be easier for you to answer the questions okay so let me start by talking about how we're gonna do this is that we're gonna follow a two-step process now this is a little difficult so you might need to watch this again and again but it's very powerful okay so make sure you watch this video again if you don't understand okay and make sure you stay to the end so you can really get the kind of whole idea of how to think about questions this is how you think about questions you okay hold on it's a two-step process here okay so there's two things you need to do for each question type it's a little different you have to imagine you are something hopefully see that imagine you are something and you have to think structurally this is supposed to be a brick wall so these are the two things you have to do you have to imagine you are a certain person in a certain position and then you think about the structure that's what structurally means I had to check the spelling of that one it's kind of difficult words you have to think about this structure and I'll explain that in a minute and let me just start by getting right into it immediately because the best is just to kind of see how it works independent wanted to this is the most controversial one that I'm going to say imagine you are dumb this I get a lot of complaints from other teachers I get in arguments actually with people about this I think that the independent speaking questions in the TOEFL wants you to be dumb why is that okay so let me explain a little bit hopefully you know about the structure of the test if you don't know about the structure I'll leave a link down below for you to download the quick guide so you can get used to the structure this is for people who know about the TOEFL a little bit the independent questions are kind of general opinion questions there just ask you what do you think about something is it better to work in a group or is it better to work by yourself they could be even a little bit stranger they could be something like should historical sites be open to the public or only for scientists and researchers that's a real question both of them okay and you have to respond for forty-five seconds about about your opinion now one way that it's dumb is that you have to have an opinion about everything there's other cultures people students I have before who are from cultures where they don't have an opinion about everything Americans tend to have opinion about everything I'm a teacher but I have an opinion about environmental science I have an opinion about space travel I have an opinion about government spending I have opinions about things that I have no idea about because that's what's expected of me I'm expected to kind of have an opinion about these things I shouldn't really trust other people for the most part well on the other hand in other cultures they tend to trust experts they trust politicians they trust scientists they trust people who have a position of power that know more about something than they do okay so for if you're coming from that culture and then you come to take the TOEFL it might be hard for you to have an opinion about everything it might be pretty strange to have an opinion about everything but you have to you have to have an opinion about everything I so that's that doesn't really make the test dumb that really makes it American now what makes it dumb for this particular question is that you have to pick a side and you have to argue for your side should you work is it better to work in a group or is it better to work alone of course sometimes it's better to work in a group sometimes it's better to work alone it depends on the situation not on the TOEFL situations don't matter what matters this is your opinion and then you try to make the listener agree with you you want to say things like it's always better to work in a group because this and because of this and because of this you don't want to say sometimes it's better to work in a group like this situation other times it's better to work alone because of this situation you can do that but the structure of the test they really want you to pick a side they say do you agree or disagree that's what makes you have to kind of be dumb is that if you're an intelligent person you know that it depends in the situation you know there's certain situations where a historical site should be open to the public and there's certain situations where historical sites should not be open to a public but not for the TOEFL you pick one side and you argue for that one side like it like there's no other choice that's how you do it okay so then once you do that that's what you're thinking about the structure okay so that's how you think about structure so you imagine your dumb try and then you think about okay so I'm a dumb person so what did dumb people do they take one side and they argue for that one side even it doesn't matter what the situation what the context they're always right that's dumb okay I you can complain about me in the comments below I guess I that's for the first one okay so that's how you want to think about it for the second one for the second imagine you are this is for integrated question 3 this is the first integrated question this question you read and you listen and then you report on information and I said that you have to imagine you're a reporter so why should you imagine you're a reporter because reporters report on stories that shouldn't be about their opinion so it's the opposite of number one you shouldn't have any outside information everything you say should be something from the reading and the listening now look what a reporters do in question three there's an announcement there's some change on campus news announces information new information changes okay could be something like there's a new baseball coach or they're renovating the school hall something like that and so a news person has this information has this news they announce it this is the news it's the first thing you do you say this is what's happening and then what do they do they go and listen to people's opinions they go out they say what do you think about this what do you think about the new baseball coach what do you think about the renovations and you listen to two people have a conversation one person is going to really dominate the conversation and then you're going to say their opinion and the reasons for their opinion this is the structure part so you're gonna imagine you're a reporter and then you think structurally okay so what do I have to do when I speak first I have to say what's going on I have to say this person's opinion and then I have to say the reasons for their opinion that's what you do for that so that's what you're listening for and that's how you improve is that you know what you're trying to find okay you know what they expect you to do the question 4 & 6 you have to think like you are a teacher I talked about this a bit in the video improve your listening by three points this is about stop thinking like a student and trying to find the correct answer instead think like a teacher and what a teachers do they try to explain something to you through examples through characteristics through history so they try to introduce a new topic to you and try to make it more understandable so what you need to do is that you need to so you're going to imagine you're a teacher so you need to find the topic and then you have to figure out the two ways that I try to make the topic more understandable in the last video with the listening I talked about explaining Christmas to an alien okay so you're gonna explain Christmas to an alien aliens no idea what Christmases they know English for some reason so you're gonna talk in English but they don't know what Christmas is so how are you gonna explain Christmas you start out with a definition you say something like yeah so Christmas is a holiday that was traditionally Christians some people think it was more pagan it's celebrated on December 25th and a lot of Western cultures okay fine now what's next okay so I still don't understand what's Christmas the alien says and then you have to decide how you keep explaining it so you're gonna have to give examples so you might say something like oh well for example we give presents to each other on Christmas to show our appreciation or we eat a big dinner or we decorate a tree you know there's a lot of different examples I could say or I might compare it to another holiday Christmas is kind of like well no it's not like that but let's say Christmas is the most important holiday for Americans just like New Year's is the most important holiday for Chinese for example and then I might compare the two that's what teachers do that's how they structure these lectures okay so usually they give you the topic in the reading for question four in this question six it's only listening and they're like okay this is the topic Christmas I'm an alien I don't know what that means okay well I have to explain it a little bit so listen to me explain for three minutes I'm gonna talk about two examples two characteristics two of something let's say Christmas again just to give you an example we decorate a tree we give presents you need to listen for those things you need to listen to that's the most important stuff you need to listen for the most important stuff the most important stuff is the topic and the most important stuff is the two kind of subtopics that they use to explain the topic okay that's what you have to do for that and that's how you think structurally you think like a teacher now the last one you're my best friend oh thank you so pretend you're my friend and of course we're friends of course we are I so what do I need so question five it's two people talking again just like question three but this time there's not an announcement instead one student has a problem and the other student tries to help the students solve the problem let's say for example it's always a man and a woman so you imagine you're my friend and I have a problem when your friend has a problem what do you do well you listen to the problem and then you try to help them you try to give some solutions some ways to help them solve that problem and that's what you have to do here you have to listen and you think okay so what's the problem you're gonna say that when you speak and then the person offers two solutions to the problem you're gonna say those as well when you speak and then you're gonna offer your opinion you're gonna say this is the only integrated question where you give your opinion say so the man's problem is that his work schedule conflicts with his school schedule the woman in the conversation thinks that maybe he should quit his job or he can change his school schedule if I were the man I would change the schedule and then you start explaining your opinion okay so think like a friend and these become much easier when you know how to think about them I think a lot of students where they really get in trouble on the TOEFL is that they just look at the content of the question in front of them and they think how do I answer this instead you want to thank structurally you want to think about what does the TOEFL want why are they asking me this and then when you know why you can explain it better and you can follow the conversations follow the listening follow the questions a little bit better okay that's it if you stay to the end you're awesome thank you keep studying really hard there will be a link for the TOEFL emergency course and improve your score by three I'm sorry this is improve your score by three points but the emergency courses you can become a TOEFL master in three days okay so there is a emergency chords for you down there I'll leave a link to other stuff that I mentioned thank you for listening and [Music]

Channel: TST Prep TOEFL

Views: 151,892

Keywords: Improve your TOEFL Speaking score, TOEFL Speaking help, TOEFL Speaking teacher, TOEFL speaking 26, TOEFL Speaking guide, Josh MacPherson, Vocabulary NInja, toefl, speaking, TOEFL Josh

Id: MJkmn2yY6xM

Length: 14min 57sec (897 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 22 2017