Five top tips for reading on the TOEFL® iBT Speaking section
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Five top tips for reading on the TOEFL® iBT Speaking section
- 1. Five top tips for reading on the TOEFL ® iBT Speaking section Dr. Pamela J. Sharpe Author of the bestseller Barron’s TOEFL ® iBT (c) Dr. Pamela Sharpe/teflprep 2010
- 14. (c) Dr. Pamela Sharpe/teflprep 2010 Best wishes for success on the TOEFL! Visit http:// TEFLSpeaking.com for more tips and practice questions to help you get the score you want!
Editor's Notes
- You can improve your TOEFL score by using the strategies recommended by Dr. Pamela Sharpe, author of one of the most widely used books for TOEFL preparation. In this presentation, Dr. Sharpe shares some of the strategies that have helped more than one million students succeed on the TOEFL. Hello. I’m Pamela Sharpe and I have been a teacher for more than 40 years. I have been helping students prepare for the TOEFL . Today I’m here to help you. Together we are going to review five top tips for the reading on the Speaking section of the iBT TOEFL. Are you ready? Let’s begin.
- You may be surprised that reading is important to your success on the Speaking section. Here’s why.
- Task 3 and Task 4 begin with reading passages. You will have 45 seconds to read 100-120 words and take notes. So that means that you need to be able to read about 135-175 words per minute.
- So what do you think is the average reading speed for native speakers of English in the United States? Well, it’s about 250 words. And what do you think is the average reading speed for English-speaking college students in the United States? Most research indicates that it is about 350 words. But these statistics are for native speakers. So you may need to build up your reading speed in order to reach 175 words.
- The best way to read faster is to read more.
- Since the passages that you will be expected to read on the Speaking section are very short, the best practice is to read paragraphs, not long passages. 150 words is about right because you need to be able to finish 150 words in about a minute.
- Now here’s a quick trick to count the number of words in a paragraph. Count the words in the first line and then multiply by the number of lines. For example, if there are fifteen words in the first line and ten lines in the paragraph, you know that the paragraph is about 150 words. And 150 words is just about right when you are choosing paragraphs, because 150 words is your goal per minute. This trick will make it easy to time yourself, too. First set a one-minute timer. When it rings, you can use the words per line and the number of lines to estimate the words you are reading per minute. If you are choosing paragraphs that are about 150 words in length, all the better. Then, if you finish before the timer goes off, you know that you are reading at 150 words or more.
- Since you will be reading from a screen instead of from a page, it is better to practice reading short passages on the computer..
- Free encyclopedias on the web have many passages of about one paragraph in length. They are especially helpful because they contain academic content like the iBT and the reading difficulty level is about right. If the Internet connection is expensive, then buy an encyclopedia on CD-ROM. Buy one that is several years old and it should be very reasonably priced. Most of the information is the same, and besides, you are using it for reading practice, not for research.
- Although it is good to read just about any content in order to improve your reading, the Speaking section of the iBT emphasizes two types of academic content.
- The first is a textbook passage. Introductory textbooks in natural sciences, social sciences, the humanities and the arts provide the right level of academic content. Very specialized or advanced content will not be presented on the TOEFL. And we have already talked about using encyclopedias to practice. The second is an academic announcement—the kind that might appear in a campus newspaper. So a good way to improve your reading for this type of content is to read campus newspapers. If you have access to the Internet, enter the search phrase “campus newspapers” and a number of options will appear. Choose articles about policies, changes in fees, new construction on campus, and similar news. Reading about sports and entertainment may be interesting, but it won’t prepare you for the Speaking section.
- So far, we have discussed ways to increase reading speed and we have looked at content that will help you prepare for the reading passages. But now we need to work on a strategy to increase comprehension. No matter how fast you get through the passage, it won’t matter unless you understand what you have read.
- For those questions with a reading passage, the first sentence in your answer should be a summary of the passage. So that means that you should practice by summarizing each of the paragraphs that you read in preparation for the Speaking section. For example, if you read a paragraph on elephants in an encyclopedia, you should be able to summarize the content in one sentence. You can use your notes, but it is better to say the summary sentence aloud, rather than writing it. This is something that you can do alone or with a partner. If you have a friend who is preparing for the Speaking section of the TOEFL, you can read a paragraph and then take turns listening to each other’s summary sentences.
- Use these strategies and you will begin to feel more confident . Now you will be ready to practice for the Speaking section of the iBT TOEFL. You can find several practice tests at www.TEFLSpeaking.com . For more of Dr. Sharpe’s strategies for success visit www.TEFLSpeaking.com . The more you practice and use these strategies, the better you will do! And to all of the subscribers who have used our Practice Tests for the TOEFL, congratulations for joining a support group online. Best wishes to you for success!