Online TOEFL Course
The focus of today’s blog is an overview of the Independent Speaking and Integrated Speaking Tasks Tests found on the Online TOEFL Course called “The 7-Step System to Pass the TOEFL iBT”, and how students should focus on the suggestions from Michael, the founder owner and materials writer, and Jacob, a 7-Step System specialist. Some students focus on their score more than their response. Others post an Independent Test one day and an Integrated Test the next.
The most important piece of advice would be to follow the suggestions of the 7-Step system specialists, and your score will improve over time. Two students who have benefited from Michael and Jacob’s suggestions are Chitra and Rasha.
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Firstly, there is a difference between the Independent and Integrated Speaking Tests. The Independent Tests ask a question or a two-part question that students respond to. The student is expected to have good topic development, language use, and delivery. The Integrated speaking tests expect the same, but also ask students to connect their response to a reading passage or connect a reading passage and a lecture in their response. Integrated speaking tasks are more difficult. What we suggest is that students practice and refine their pronunciation and organization issues found in their Independent Test responses. Once they have practiced and improved, we have students proceed to the more difficult Integrated Tests.
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Secondly, the reason why Chitra and Rasha have improved is because they did not get discouraged easily, and they applied the suggestions from the specialists at the “7-Step System to Pass the TOEFL iBT”. Chitra was having trouble with her “V” sound, especially with key words. A response can be totally misunderstood by one word. If the word is part of their thesis statement (main topic sentence) or an important point in their body, then their score is significantly reduced because it is unintelligible. Chitra focused on Speak Clearly Lesson 14: Practice Exercises for the “Fan” versus “Van” Consonants and really focused on not repeating the same mistakes. Her responses drastically improved over time, and we are confident that she will be ready to pass the TOEFL iBT.
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Finally, Rasha was having problems with connecting ideas and the overall organization of her body paragraphs. She focused on Speak Clearly Lesson 41: Thought Groups and Blending Part 1 and was able to connect words in a way that helped the specialists follow and understand the connection of words and phrases in her responses. Rasha was also having issues with details and developing her points. Jacob told her to have a solid topic sentence, support or develop the idea in the topic sentence, and give an example. Rasha followed his advice over six months and her responses improved.
You may be asking where you can post tests and get responses from Michael and Jacob. You have to join “The 7-Step System to Pass the TOEFL iBT” to find out.
Online TOEFL Course