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English Conversation Practice - TOEFL Speaking Tips




TOEFL Speaking | How To Improve Your Performance

The best way to practice your speaking is with native English speakers. If you are not living in an English-speaking country, finding native speakers of English to speak with can be quite challenging You should try to find an English-speaking tutor or coach to help you with your preparation.

  • pracice speaking English as often as possible
  • join an English conversation practice group in your area or online

TOEFL Independent Speaking Tasks

Begin by describing a familiar place or talking about a personal experience. A more advanced exercise would be to state an opinion or a preference and then present reasons why you feel or think like that.

  • Record yourself speaking
  • Listen to yourself
  • What do you notice about your fluency and pronunciation?
  • Do you speak clearly?
  • Practice giving 1-minute presentations on differerent subjects

TOEFL Integrated Speaking Tasks

Read a short article (100–200 words). Make an outline that includes only the major points of the article.

Use the outline to orally summarize the information. Then add detail to the outline and orally summarize again. Find listening and reading material on the same topic. The material can provide similar or different views. The Internet is a good place to find information.

Take notes on the listening and reading material and do the following:

  1. Orally summarize the information in both. Be sure to paraphrase using different words and grammatical structures.
  2. Orally synthesize by combining information from the reading and listening material and explain how they relate.

The activity described above will help you prepare for the academic environment you plan to enter. Also, if you can do well with this kind of activity, you will most likely succeed on the integrated speaking tasks on the TOEFL test.

  • Present and support an opinion about the ideas and information contained in the reading and listening material.
  • If the reading and/or listening material describes a problem, suggest and explain a solution to the problem.
  • Recognize the attitude of the speaker or the writer of the original material through intonation, stress, and word choice. This helps you understand his/her point of view and plan an appropriate response.

TOEFL Speaking Integrated Speaking Questions


TOEFL All Speaking Tasks

Increase your vocabulary and learn to use idiomatic speech appropriately.

Learn grammatical structures so well that you can use them naturally when speaking.

Work on pronunciation, including word stress, intonation patterns, and pauses.

When practicing for the TOEFL test using the tips above, take around 15 seconds to plan before beginning to speak.

Write down a few key words and ideas, but do not attempt to write down exactly what you are going to say.

Use signal words and phrases to introduce new information or ideas, to connect ideas, and to mark important words or ideas. This will help the listener easily follow what you are saying. For example:

  • “on one hand...”
  • “but on the other hand...”
  • “what that means is...”
  • “The first reason is...”
  • “another difference is...”

Record yourself while doing the above activities and listen to make sure the pronunciation and fluency are clear and easy to understand. Check with others in your English conversation practice group or your English tutor/coach can evaluate your speech using the appropriate TOEFL speaking rubric.


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