Mastering the TOEFL iBT listening test

January 8th, 2012 | Posted by glenn in English Exams - (0 Comments)

Improving your listening skills will help your ability to have a fun and effective conversation but it is especially important if you plan to undertake the challenge of a listening test like the TOEFL iBT listening test. The secret to improving your listening skills is active listening and comprehension.

Comprehension

Communication is the sharing of ideas between two people and this goes through three steps. The first is identifying the sounds into units that you understand. When you listen, you are hearing sounds and connecting these sounds with words that are already in your vocabulary. This means that if a word is not in your vocabulary, it is much harder to identify.

The second step is being able to catch the rhythm of the speech and, in English, the rhythm is created not only by the breaks in between words and parts of sentences but also by the stress that we put on words. This tells us which parts of the sentence are really important and which parts are just there to satisfy grammatical rules.

The breaks help us to create blocks of language that are easier to understand than a lot of individual words. When you do a jigsaw puzzle, it is easier to imagine where the pieces go if you focus on one area (a corner for example) rather than just finding the piece that goes next to this one.

The third part of comprehension is attaching the connotations and context to the words. When we hear a group of words we bring to our interpretation of those words our thoughts, opinions, feelings and culture. The same group of words can mean different things to different people.

Also we need to apply the words that we hear to the situation in order to completely understand it. The words “it’s your shot” have a completely different meaning if you are standing in front of a pool table than if you are standing in front of a gun.

How this helps with TOEFL iBT listening

If you are studying well already, this should all confirm what you are already doing. If you are listening to different accents and listening for new vocabulary when you practice, you are helping to build your comprehension.

If you listen and imitate the rhythm that people use when they speak including the breaks and the stresses, this will help you think in blocks rather than words.

If you understand that words can mean different things and that we need to understand the situation (and sometimes detect what that situation is when there are no visual clues), this will help you to avoid costly misunderstandings that lead to confusion.

Remember, in the TOEFL iBT listening test, you will be listening to identify the situation as well as get the meaning of the words and if you can do this in blocks, it will be much easier for you. For tips on listening sections for IELTS and TOEIC, click these links.

exam, iBT, intonation, listening, tips, TOEFL

Top 3 tips for the TOEFL iBT speaking section

December 4th, 2011 | Posted by glenn in English Exams - (0 Comments)

To get the best score possible in the test, you should know a bit about how it will be evaluated. So, here are the top three tips from ETS.

Know how the TOEFL iBT speaking section works

The speaking section of the TOEFL iBT includes six tasks. You will wear headphones and speak into a microphone. Your responses will be recorded and sent to examiners who will mark them using Rubrics (see below).

To ensure that your test is marked objectively, ETS will get three to six certified ETS raters to evaluate your responses. They will give you a rating on a scale of 0 to 4. Your average rating will then be converted to a scaled score of 0 to 30.

Become familiar with parts of the iBT test (check out the TOEFL iBT website for more information). This will help you to know what to expect and to face the test calmly.

Look at the TOEFL iBT speaking rubrics

A rubric is a scoring sheet that examiners use to grade a piece of writing or a speaking performance. Knowing how they grade your performance will help you keep realistic goals and help you achieve the score that you want. You can see the rubrics here (page 44).

Speak naturally

During the test, try to focus on speaking loudly and clearly. Ensure that you use intonation to sound natural. Imagine a mind-map in your head with the different points and each point has sub-points. This will help you to gather your thoughts and speak in “thought groups”.

Take a pause in between thoughts. Try to show your emotions in the way that you speak.

speaking, tips, TOEFL

Improve your English conversation, be a HIG!

November 19th, 2011 | Posted by glenn in Improving your English - (0 Comments)

How good are you at chatting? Not in English, just in general.

Are you a chatty person who always becomes the life of the party or are you a quiet person who prefers to think than speak?

Learn to mingle well to improve your English conversation

In linguistics (the study of languages) there is a term for people who are chatty and like to engage in conversation and as a result, get lots of listening and speaking practice. They are called High Input Generators (HIGs). A HIG is a person who can get people to spend time chatting with them, someone who is outgoing and sociable.

Are you a HIG?

Trying to learn how to have great conversations in English may just be more difficult than it should be if you don’t have the skill to have great conversations in your own language.

The good news is that when you learn a new language, you are actually creating a new identity for yourself, an English-speaking identity. This means that you can have conversations in English in a completely different way to your first language if you decide to be more chatty or outgoing in English, you can be.

Tips to improve your conversation in English

Actively listen. Have you ever had someone tell you a story and you suddenly realize that you are not listening and you don’t know how this story began? This means that you have entered the passive listening mode where it easy to just switch off sometimes. To avoid this, make sure you keep eye contact and expect questions on everything the other person says. Stay involved in the conversation by asking questions and don’t use passive responses like ah-huh, I see or yeah. Repeat content back to the person to show that you are listening.
Find the topics that they want to speak about. If you can engage someone in a conversation about their passions, they will enjoy talking with you.
Honestly see things from others perspective. If you are always trying to force your opinion on others, you will often find people who disagree with you. Rather than finding ways to conflict your opinions, accept that there can be two differing opinions.
Use people’s names and make them feel important. By using a person’s name, you can make them feel like they are worthy of your respect. The more details you remember about them, the more important they will feel.
Smile. Do you like to talk to grumpy people?

Being a High Input Generator will help you to improve your English conversation by giving you more listening and speaking practice.

High Input Generators was first coined by H. Selinger and M. Long in Classroom oriented research in second language acquistion. Rowley, MA: Newbury House

English conversation, tips

TOEIC speaking tips

November 16th, 2011 | Posted by glenn in English Exams - (0 Comments)

TOEIC officials are not allowed to give tips and suggestions to the public about the TOEIC exam but if they were, they may say something like this;

“I want to understand you”

This means that you need to speak clearly and at an appropriate speed. You need to know if you are difficult to understand because you speak too fast or if you speak so slowly that you have no intonation because you will lose points for that too.

This is where rehearsal and recording your voice comes in. Listen to yourself on playback and listen critically. If you have not recorded your voice at least one time, you have not prepared well enough.

“I want to hear your best English”

Don’t use slang. Don’t use informal or impolite language. There is a column on the marking sheet for intonation, pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and content but not for coolness or wit. So save the slang for impressing your friends.

“Spice it up a bit”

Imagine your job is to listen to all of those recordings. If all of the candidates speak in boring monotonous voices, this is your opportunity to stand out with just a little intonation and varied pitch and volume. Try it out, changing the pitch, volume and ensuring that you use intonation in your speech will make your voice instantly more attractive to listeners.

“No more vanilla!”

Many students are taught to respond to how are you? with I’m fine. Little known secret here: if a native-English speaker gave me that response, I would think that they don’t want to speak with me. I would think that they are giving me the vanilla response because they have no interest in conversation with me.

Vanilla words are plain. They have no flavor. Words like good and fine and OK when we could be using terrific, fantastic or giving more detail. A good teacher could be a dedicated teacher, a good day could be a memorable day, and a good dessert could be mind-bending.

Markers want to hear the vocabulary that you have so no vanilla when you are recording your answer in TOEIC, break out the double chocolate delight and the passion fruit swirl.

“Practice like you mean it”

When you practice at home or with your English tutor, simulate real conditions which means that you should practice with the distraction of background noise. Turn on the TV and face the other direction to achieve this. Also, when you practice, do all of the things above. Don’t practice just the content, practice your voice, speed, intonation, vocabulary etc.

exam, speaking, tips, TOEIC

The top 3 tips for the TOEIC listening section

October 9th, 2011 | Posted by glenn in English Exams - (0 Comments)

Don’t spend your time studying what you know

Isolate your weak points. When you are practicing, find the parts that you do not understand and focus on these. You may not understand them because of the grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation or contractions used. Maybe they used a new combination of words or maybe they spoke faster than you are used to.

Find your weak points and work on these parts. I speak to lot of students who like to say that their grammar is bad, but actually they have trouble with listening because they have only ever spoken with teachers who speak slowly because they are asked to. Know yourself to improve yourself.

Words are the pieces of the puzzle

Use word maps to help you to remember new vocabulary but remember to note the nuances in similar words. And when you remember new vocabularies, look at them in sentences, look at the words that are often used with them and look at similar words to help you to remember them.

When you do come across words that you haven’t heard yet, don’t be surprised, just look at the rest of the sentence and the situation and take your best guess.

Don’t fall for red herrings

Get into the habit of eliminating the options that are obviously wrong first and then looking at the two options that are left. A lot of the questions have two answers that are obviously wrong and two that are more likely. Eliminate the first two and your chances are now 50/50.

Of course the only way that you will get the score that you want is to practice regularly. Set a study schedule and practice a listening section 2-3 times a week and you will see your scores getting higher and higher.

I would say best of luck but good technique and practice are much better than luck.

know your strengths, listening, tips, TOEIC, vocabulary

Getting that dream job overseas

October 9th, 2011 | Posted by glenn in Job Interview in English - (0 Comments)

Interviewing for a job overseas can be a different story to interviewing in your own country. So, here is the guide to getting that job when you haven’t even seen the company yet.

Do your homework if you want to succeed

When you interview for an overseas company, you will not be able to see the building, meet a lot of the people and the tour of the office to see what resources you are supplied with and what the atmosphere is like.

This means that it is even more important to do your homework and gleam all the information that you can from what is available online. Make sure that you check out the company’s site thoroughly but don’t just look at one side of the story, check out what other people have to say about that company too.

You won’t get the job if you don’t answer your phone

Some people take ages to reply to emails. If you are one of these people (and I am too), you need to make a special effort during the job-hunt to check your emails twice a day. Imagine how you would feel if you lost an opportunity because you were just to slow to reply to it.

This also means that you need to make sure that your phone is working and charged at all times and if you do turn it off for a movie, flight or interview, remember to turn it back on and check it!

You don’t have to wear pants but make sure that your tie is straight!

When you interview on Skype, you should follow the same dress code as when you are interviewing in person because you will be judged on the same criteria. Make sure that you have a nice, plain background behind you and make sure that you are free of any distractions; so put the kids in the other room, turn off the movie and put your phone on silent mode.

Check your microphone, camera and Internet connection well before time and be sure to connect to the person’s Skype account 30 minutes before the interview. If it is your first time to use Skype, make a call to a friend first so that you get used to using it.

Remember, you only get one chance to make a first impression so be organized and have all your documents ready before you connect.

job interview, overseas job, resume, tips

Taking your English to the next level

October 2nd, 2011 | Posted by glenn in Improving your English - (0 Comments)

When learning a language, people tend to progress in bursts. This means that there will be times that you feel like you are really learning fast and other times when you seem to plateau. The reason for this plateau is not quite clear although I would like to suggest a couple of theories and ways to combat this and take your English level higher.

Loss of motivation

Motivation will come and go and if you want to keep it longer, you have to find ways to motivate yourself. Motivation is usually a combination of your emotional state, your feelings toward the teacher or class, your stress from studying and other activities, pressure from family and friends and the goals that you set yourself and how you feel about them.

The easiest way to break out of a motivational slump is to set yourself a few short, easy goals. A couple of easy wins will help you to feel confident and willing again.

If that doesn’t work, try finding the source. If you are losing motivation because of stress or your relationship with a family member or your teacher, then that is the challenge you need to face to get your motivation back.

You need time to absorb

Sometimes, if you study at a quick pace, you need to just step back a little and spend some time practicing what you have already learnt. A lot of times, students study the grammar to an advanced level but they have not spent the time practicing the language that they have learnt. So they feel that they are not progressing.

In this case, the best thing to do is to start with the basics and practice. Remember, the stronger you build the foundation, the taller you can build the tower. This is especially true of English. Practice and work grammars that you have already studied into your regular vocabulary and you will be ready to take your English to the next level.

motivation, plateau, progress, tips

Acing the writing in IELTS

September 12th, 2011 | Posted by glenn in English Exams - (0 Comments)

When people write IELTS tips on forums, I often see the advice to do the second writing task first because it is easier. I think that this is good advice if you are doing IELTS for the first time and just trying to get as high a score as you can. If you are looking to break the 6.5 barrier though, it is time to focus your attention to each mark and make a good attempt at each one.

So I would like to dedicate this post to the first writing task.

Getting a good mark writing task one in IELTS

In this task, you will be asked to write one of the following types of letters

Complaint / Request (of information) letter
Formal business letter
Job application letter
Personal letter

and you should spend 20 minutes on this.

Some tips to help you

Aim to write just over the minimum number of words. Don’t do more as you will run out of time for the second task. Don’t write less or you will be penalized
Don’t try to memorize a letter as you will be tempted to write it even if it does not exactly match the question. Irrelevant text will cost you points
Time is your enemy if you have not practiced so keep an eye on the time
Write clearly. Don’t lose marks because the marker couldn’t read it!
You can write a plan or outline on the question sheet. It will not be marked
The markers are looking for structure, vocabulary and fluency of language

Structure

You should have 3 paragraphs (or more) in your letter and each paragraph should fulfill a purpose:

State the purpose of the letter
Fulfill the purpose of the letter
Summarize what should happen next and close the letter

Vocabulary

The vocabulary that you use should set the appropriate tone. It should be formal for all of the letters except for the personal letter. You should use a wide range of words that you feel comfortable using. Do not try to use words that you are not sure about just to make your writing sound technical as you will probably lose marks for lack of sentence coherence.

Fluency of language

This means that you can make your language flow into one smooth letter. In order to do this, read lots of sample letters and see the phrases that they use and understand how they use them. Do not try to memorize sample letters and reproduce them in the test but understand words, phrases and conventions that are used in letters so that you can put them together into a smooth letter in the test. These days, you can find a multitude of such sample letters on the Internet.

A lot of students start a notebook where they can write down the new language that they see. If you do this, keep a section aside for useful phrases that you see when you are looking at sample letters on the web. This will help you to remember to include these in the appropriate task when you do the writing test.

Good luck for your English exam preparation and I wish you all the best in the IELTS test.

IELTS, task 1, tips, writing

live-english.net - Tag Archive - tips