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A PhD Student from Cuba

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“I suddenly realized that TOEFL was my first step if I wanted to succeed. I studied biology in Cuba and my intention was to apply to a Masters. My English was very poor at that moment and arriving in Vancouver, Canada, my best aspiration was as a cleaner. I decided to began the school and was there where I met Danijela. This great professor changed my life and she did not have any idea. She was very patient with me, she gave me extra activities as soon as she noted my interest and she even helped me to make very good friends when she realized I was alone in the city. She was the best one and she did a great job with my English education. I took the TOEFL. I got 101 (more than the points I needed) and all the world’s doors were open for me.
I applied to a masters in New York, I got it! and at the same time I got a position in the City University of New York as an adjunct lecturer. Coming from a cleaner to finally being inserted in the Academia, I could not be more happy! After almost two years and having my masters done, I applied to a PhD in the University of Miami presenting the same TOEFL result and I was accepted as well!
This professor was essential in starting this chain of successes! After her classes all in my life was improving to infinitive levels. It is impossible to be more grateful as I am to her!”

Olivia Pineiro Ramirez, PhD Student, Miami, FL

 

Building your Academic Reading Skills

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Who should read this?

WARNING: there is no use reading this if you have only a couple of weeks to prepare for TOEFL and perfect your Academic Reading Skills.

I have had very few students who succeeded in getting a high Reading score with only a few weeks  of preparation, and they had all had a VERY ADVANCED level of Academic English to start with.

This article is only for those who understand (or have learned the hard way) that preparing for the TOEFL Reading section can take a lot longer than preparing for other sections. It involves lots of “baby steps” that, over time, build up to the mastery of the Academic Reading Skills and comprehension of the Academic English content.

The ‘baby steps’

If you are lucky enough to have started learning English at an early age, chances are you have already acquired a decent amount of the General English vocabulary. You can probably understand the news, simple articles, and  other everyday content. While that can be considered one of the first small steps towards the TOEFL Reading mastery, it is far from being enough.  TOEFL Reading materials are a completely different beast. They rely on the Academic vocabulary and a certain structure.

What to read

You have probably been advised to read newspapers and books, in order to practice reading and enrich your vocabulary. Although reading any content in English is helpful,  the best way to build the reading skills applicable to TOEFL and other Academic English Proficiency tests, such as IELTS and CAEL,  is to use the reading resources designed for that. This could mean textbooks, professional magazines, or, increasingly popular blog posts. Of course, not all websites and blog posts are created equal. Some are written professionally, using the appropriate, formal language and proper grammar. Others are meant to entertain more than educate; they are not very useful.

So how do you choose a credible resource?  If you are not sure, ask your TOEFL teacher.

My recommendation:

‘DREAMREADER’

I have recommended this website to many of my former students. It is a free resource which offers reading practice compiled specifically for English learners. In addition to countless articles of various lengths and difficulty levels, this site offers short quizzes that are  comprised of  many types of  reading questions found in the  TOEFL Reading section.

The articles are grouped in five categories:

  • Easy English contains short articles and pictograms, which are accompanied by comprehension and vocabulary questions/quizzes.
  • Interesting English contains articles focused on different types of vocabulary. Some examples are:  Weather Idioms, contronyms and synonyms. Other articles address grammar points, like Tag Questions.
  • Fun English  contains short articles about places, people or  events. They are followed by comprehension and fact/detail  questions.
  • Practical English contains samples of forms, letters and invitations, followed by comprehension checking questions.
  • Academic English contains Academic articles of various lengths, followed by fact/details and  academic vocabulary questions.

So, before you dive into TOEFL Reading strategies and start working with the full-length TOEFL practice materials, ease into it by checking out Dreamreader.

Michael Goodine’s recommendations:

For more excellent reading recommendations, check out my colleague’s series of blog posts “You Should Read More”

 

A Permanent Resident from Brazil

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“I came to Canada five years ago, with no English, and after a few months, learning the basics, I started taking classes with Danijela. At the time, I intended to go to university and return to Brazil when I finished.  I went to university, but when I finished my studies, I did not want to go back. Today, I have a good job and I have been invited to stay in Canada as the Permanent Resident. The skills I learned in Danijela’s classes helped me to pass the TOFEL test and  get into Douglas College, to maximize my points in my PR application when I took the CELPIP exam, and to communicate efficiently at work.”
Rodrigo Laia Manentti,
Assistant Manager for RW & Co.

TOEFL Independent Speaking

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Do you dread the TOEFL Independent Speaking question?

Let us guess:

  • You think that the TOEFL Independent Speaking question is no different than any other TOEFL Speaking question, so you keep practising them all together, and yet, your Speaking section score is never as high as you need it  to be;
  • You have taken the Official TOEFL exam more times than you can remember, and you still don’t have the required Speaking score;
  • You have seen all the templates and heard all the sample answers available online and offline;
  • You have taken TOEFL preparation courses, or had a private tutor, but none of it helped;
  • You’ve been practising  Independent Speaking questions with peers,  but  their English is not much better than yours;
  • You have managed to find a native English speaker, maybe even an ESL teacher to practise with, but s/he doesn’t specialize in test preparation, or has little experience in it;
  • When you hear other people answer Independent Speaking questions, you think to yourself: ‘That seems so easy for them!”;
  • But,  when it’s your turn, you freeze, and can’t think of a single thing to say;
  • You can answer familiar TOEFL Independent Speaking questions, but, you are stunned by the unexpected ones;
  • On top of the problems with the content, the strict timing makes you even more anxious….

If any, or all of the above sounds familiar, it might be time to try something else – our

TOEFL Independent Speaking Workshop

Poster for Independent Speaking Workshop post

  • We apply proven TOEFL Speaking practice methods, developed over more than a decade of teaching TOEFL preparation courses;
  • We practice with 100+  realistic TOEFL Independent Speaking questions, which include the ones, recently introduced to the Official TOEFL exam;
  • A lot of our questions are new to you – you wouldn’t have seen them before, even if you have already covered a lot of practice materials;
  • The groups are limited to 6 participants per workshop; that way everyone gets exposed to a lot of questions;
  • Every participant has the opportunity to answer a number of questions and offer peer feedback to other participants;
  • In addition to hands-on, timed practice in answering the questions, participants also learn to analyze their own and their peers’ answers:
  • Our experienced TOEFL preparation specialist is always there to provide professional feedback, correction, evaluation and advice;
  • Most importantly, we nurture the atmosphere of mutual respect – we judge nobody and help everybody in the group.

If you would like to join one or more of our TOEFL Independent Speaking Workshops, follow the link below:

https://professionalesltestprep.vipmembervault.com/products/courses/view/1061819

Academic Vocabulary and TOEFL

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In my many years of designing and teaching TOEFL preparation courses, I found that there is one underlying skill that all my high-scoring students had in common – strong Academic Vocabulary. Every section of the TOEFL test depends on it, directly or indirectly.

Academic Vocabulary and TOEFL Reading

In the Reading section, you actually have to answer a number of questions directly related to vocabulary. You need to pick synonyms for particular words, in the given context. These questions make up more than 20% of all the questions in the Reading section.

Knowing the most common or most widely used meaning of the word is often not enough.  You need to know more than that – other possible meanings, word forms and collocations. If you have done some TOEFL Reading practice , you’ve probably already discovered that the correct answer choice (for the vocabulary questions) is rarely the one that seems most obvious or most familiar.

Academic Vocabulary and TOEFL Listening

When it comes to the Listening section, the stronger your Academic Vocabulary, the easier time you’ll have following and understanding the lectures. These academic materials make up more than 1/2 half of the section; out of  six listening materials scored for you, only two are campus related conversations; the remaining four  are actual, grade 12 level, lectures. Consequently,  it’s impossible to score more than ten out of thirty points without the knowledge of the key terms.

Academic Vocabulary and TOEFL Speaking

As for the Integrated Speaking, you will not only better understand the reading and listening prompts, but you’ll also be able to produce a higher scoring answer, if you can use the appropriate Academic Vocabulary in your speech.

Prior to August 2019, the Academic Speaking questions used to comprise one third of the Speaking Section.  A good command of the Academic Vocabulary often meant the difference between scoring in low twenties , and getting more that 24 or 26 iBT points, which is a requirement for many Professionals in the Medical, Legal and some other fields.

Now that the Academic Speaking questions make up 1/2 of the Speaking Section, it is crucial to have advanced knowledge of the Academic Vocabulary.

Academic Vocabulary and TOEFL Writing

The same goes for the Integrated Writing. Remember that, although you do have access to the reading prompt the entire time you are writing your Integrated Essay, it’s not a good idea to copy directly.  Instead, you are encouraged to paraphrase the key points from this prompt, whenever possible.

The listening prompt is likely to be an even bigger challenge – you will only hear it once, and unless you can follow and take notes efficiently,  as well as show your understanding of the key concepts in a well written Integrated Essay, it will be near impossible to score high in the Writing Section (as this essay counts for 1/2 of the section score)

Academic Vocabulary and TOEFL – how to learn

First of all, it’s important to understand that no vocabulary can be learned over night. It takes time, repetition  and application to acquire new  vocabulary. Unfortunately, this is not likely to happen  when you rely on memorizing word lists or study using resources that don’t provide in-depth understanding of the Academic vocabulary. In addition, it is  of utmost importance to have a lot of practice in applying the newly acquired vocabulary to your speaking and writing.

The good news is – a place where you can learn Academic Vocabulary efficiently, actually does exist. It’s our offline ACADEMIC  VOCABULARY  MASTERCLASS. (follow the link to find out more)

TOEFL Reading Section

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Reading section – the structure

As most of us in the world of TOEFL preparation know, the Reading section of the Official TOEFL iBT consists of 3 reading passages.  These passages typically deal with academic subjects – anything from natural and social sciences,  to  business and the arts . The materials in the Reading section are  at the first year of university level.  Each passage is 600-700 words long, and contains ALL the information needed to answer the 10 questions that follow. So, remember, you don’t need to have extra knowledge on the subject itself ; knowledge of academic subjects is not what TOEFL tests – it tests your ability to understand and use English in the academic environment.

Reading section – additional passages

Now,  you might ask , what about the 4th and maybe even the 5th passage that some test takers get on their Official TOEFL iBT?  These ‘extra’ passages are not scored for you – they are there to evaluate the new test materials. You are going to have additional 18 minutes for each extra passage, along with the usual questions.  It’s worth noting here that EVERY passage should be treated the same. You won’t know which one (or more) is the additional material (it could be ANY of the ones you get).  As your Official TOEFL  test is approaching, you might want to start building your stamina by practising with longer Reading sections.

Reading section – how to prepare

Preparing for the Reading section of the TOEFL exam shouldn’t be taken lightly.  It is NOT something that can be mastered in a short period of time. It takes time and a lot of CONSISTENT PRACTICE. In fact, if you start building your general reading skills early, when the time comes (to focus on TOEFL Reading Section strategies and practice),  you will find that part of your TOEFL preparation a lot more manageable.

If you are just starting your TOEFL preparation, it is best to refer to the official ETS website.  The website offers all the necessary information about TOEFL , including the list of useful resources (like “The Official Guide to the TOEFL iBT” series).  You can also read about the  Basic TOEFL reading techniques and strategies  here.

If you are already familiar with the basics of TOEFL Reading, the next step is to APPLY that theoretical knowledge to daily reading practice. You can start with one TOEFL Reading passage (the first few days),  but make sure you get used to the full length Reading section, as well as the ‘extended’ version, early on. This will prevent you from feeling overwhelmed on the official test day.

Finally, keep consistently practising TOEFL Reading, even if you have to focus on other sections of the test. It will help you avoid a very common mistake a lot of TOEFL takers make – they neglect the reading practice if they need to improve other TOEFL skills (like Speaking and Writing); as a result, many of them often get a lower score in Reading, when they take official test again.