Online TOEFL Course
Shimoko needs an Online TOEFL Course for three reasons: vocabulary, vocabulary, and more vocabulary.
First of all, during the reading section of the TOEFL exam, Shimoko stopped many times as she was trying to read unfamiliar words in the passages. Even worse, when answering a vocabulary question, she could not even understand the vocabulary words in the answer choices, so she certainly could not answer the questions correctly.
Then, Shimoko moved on to the listening section of the exam, and, as luck would have it, she still struggled with answering the questions due to a lack of vocabulary. Compounding problems even more, she could not recognize most of the words from the lecture, so it was impossible for her to get in note form the most important points of the lecture. Then, like the reading section, the best answer was usually a restatement of what she had heard. However, Shimoko had a very limited vocabulary and certainly had little or no knowledge of synonyms of the words she had studied.
After a short break, Shomoko began the speaking section of the exam with the first independent speaking task: “Describe a person you knew well as a child. Explain why this person was so important to you.” After looking at the question, Shimoko was not sure how to describe her mother due to a lack of vocabulary, but she did know why her mother was important.
“At least, I answered part of the question,” Shimoko said to herself.
Then came all the other speaking tasks, and, as she got into the academic speaking tasks 4 (reading, listening, speaking–academic) and 6 (listening, speaking—academic), her vocabulary deficiencies became even more pronounced.
Frustrated, after having completed a disastrous attempt at the speaking section, Shimoko boldly attempted the writing section with the two writing tasks: the integrated and independent writing task. During the integrated writing task, Shimoko read something about the black bear which lives in the Northern Hemisphere, but her vocabulary problems prevented her from getting the gist of the reading passage. Then she listened to the lecture, and she knew that it would somehow oppose the points mentioned in the reading passage, but she could not quite figure out how it opposed the points in the reading passage. Like during the listening section of the exam, Shimoko could not understand what she was listening to. The vocabulary was too specific, conceptual, and highly academic. Sadly, instead of writing the required 250 + suggested words, Shimoko cold barely write 75 words, and she had no idea how the two passages were connected.
Finally, Shimoko began the independent writing section of the exam and was confronted with the following prompt: “Someone wants to build a military base near your community. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of building a military base near your home. Then explain whether you would support or oppose the plan.”
Shimoko furrowed her eyebrows, frowned, and thought to herself, “How do I write 350 words about a military base? I do not know vocabulary words associated with this type of topic.”
Predictably, Shimoko ended up writing only 223 words and did not use any specific examples to support her generalizations because she did not have specific vocabulary knowledge to help her answer the question.
Strike 1, strike, 2, strike 3, and strike 4: During each section of the exam, Shomoko had struck out due to a lack of vocabulary, so it was no surprise to her when she found out that her TOEFL score was 44/120.
Online TOEFL Course