TheTOEFL iBT® Test: Improving Your
Speaking Skills
Advice for Speaking
Skill: Speaking about Familiar Topics
Performance Level: Fair
Score Range: 18–25
1. Look for opportunities to speak to
native speakers of English. Interaction with others will help improve your
speaking ability.
§ Find a speaking partner. Set aside
time each week to practice speaking to each other in English.
§ If you can't find a native English
speaker, find a friend who wants to practice speaking English and promise to
speak only English for a certain period of time.
2. Practice speaking for a limited time
on different topics without a lot of preparation. Time your responses to
questions.
§ Make a list of some general speaking
topics
o people persons you admire
o places you enjoy visiting
o things you enjoy doing
§ Select one of the topics above and
write down three verbs and three adjectives relevant to the topic. Try to use
the words as you speak.
3. Concentrate on speaking clearly with
good pronunciation and intonation. Speak with confidence and open your mouth
more widely than you normally do.
§ It is difficult to understand you if
you speak word by word. Try to speak in "thought groups."
§ Take a reading passage and mark the
thought groups first. Then read it aloud paying close attention to these groups
of words and ideas.
§ Get an audiobook or get a transcript
from a news report, interview or play.
o Listen to the performance and mark
the pauses, stress and intonation on the transcript.
o Then read the transcript and try to
imitate the pauses, stress and intonation patterns.
4. Use books that come with audio
recordings to study pronunciation, stress and intonation in English.
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar