Toefl prep for students

[John Partain]

I'm currently teaching at a language center in Celaya. We have 8 students that want me to help them prepare for the TOEFL. I gave them a them a pre-exam just to get an idea of where they were at and all of them are around the 400 level. Any suggestions other than the Longman course book. Verbal skills with this group aren't very good, writing skills are sub par, listening, grammer, reading are OK. These guys need to score at least 550. I feel like I can get them there, but if anyone has any thoughts I would really appreciate it.

John

[Benjamin Stewart]

Hi John. How long do your students have to prepare? And what are the reasons for needing a TOEFL score of 550? These two factors will help determine if you are better off sticking to TOEFL exam strategies (ignoring the fact that their English proficiency is unlikely to improve) or a general English course approach (or some combination of the two).

Just curious, are they taking an institutional TOEFL exam? Do they have the option of taking an internet-based TOEFL?

[John Partain]

Benjamin : good morning, thanks for the reply. We have until September to prep for the Toefl. Of the 8 students 3 will be taking the institutional exam, 3 will be taking the paper test and 2 will be taking the internet-based test. Honestley that's why I'm a little aprehensive on which way to approach the course. All of the students are in college. The 3 that are taking the inst. test need to score 550 to get their titulo. The 2 students that are taking the IBT are english teachers at a University here in celaya ( how about that ) and the 3 taking the paper test need the toefl to graduate.

All of that being said, from my understanding they've all had advanced grammer and have finished at least 6 levels of college English. That is why I'm kind of miffed at their English level, especially verbal skills.

Any ideas???

.

[Carlos Melo]

hi John, I've been working with the Longman course book for a while and I can tell you it's really good if, as Benjamin says, you simply stick to the skills suggested there. I would do it especially in the haste you are, but I must say that I usually have some remedial grammar sessions with the most relevant elements like "clauses", "phrases" and so on because the Longman edition usually mentions these items and they become confusing at times. Another suggestion is increase vocabulary which will improve performance in all sections especially if your students don't have the same level. Cambridge editions and North Star are a "must". Raedon Wyatt (London) published an interesting booklet called "Check your English Vocabulary" which I use to check grammar as well. The added value is the confrontation of Br. Eng. words with the Am. Eng. words required in the TOEFL. In case you can't get it let me know to email it if our policies here allow us. Now, about the iBT, skills are different as you need your students to develop in just 45 seconds any topic given in the test with a coherent corpus implying intro/development/conclusion format. This is in speaking and writing. So, you can start with them all this exercise: take any topic from any edition and give them 15 seconds to prepare their impromptu version and in second 15 start talking. You can make your students work in the Cambridge style and work in pairs. This will help all of them for any version required And again, I feel comfortable with the Longman and North Star (Pearsons) which is a bit costly.

[Benjamin Stewart]

Adding to what Frank said about vocabulary, I would also focus on idioms. Since time is of the essence, I would recommend taking two or three listening samples from the TOEFL and writing out all the idioms they include (unless their's another reference book or source that includes TOEFL idioms that I'm unaware of). Then use that as a reference or study guide for your students as you develop their understanding and speaking and writing skills. I´m afraid if you use just any idioms book or website, it'd be more difficult in narrowing down which idioms to focus on specifically for the TOEFL.

Also, I would recommend using Voxopop (used to be Chinswing) since they already have many voice threads (not to be confused with VoiceThread) related to TOEFL topics that learners can comment on. Or you can create your own.

Just some thoughts...Good luck!

[John Partain]

Frank / Benjamin : thanks for the input! You guys just reaffirmed what I was thinking, Idioms and vocabulary. I have a very good book store here I will take a look at what you suggested Frank. I have also been thinking about the time issue,as you guys have stated, the class as well as the TOEFL have time issues. I like your suggestions. I'll try this tomorrow, I'll keep you guys posted. Once again thanks!

John

[John Partain]

Carlos : sorry I addressed you as Frank. Thanks again

[Benjamin Stewart]

Oops, me too. I meant to say Carlos.

John Partain said:

Carlos : sorry I addressed you as Frank. Thanks again

[Carlos Melo]

Don't worry if you think I'm frank. I should thank you for your opinion; actually I try to be the most sincere in all aspects of life. It's OK.

[Michael Nolan]

Going from 400 to 550 on the written test is tough--you need a good upper-intermediate course, rather than TOEFL preparation. I've used both Mission (Virginia Evans & Jenny Doolittle; Express Publishing) and Headway (Oxford). While you'll probably want American English, you could use a text with British English.

I would stay away from material designed specifically for the TOEFL (or FCE, which is basically the same level). 550 is B2 level for the Council of Europe, so you want something that will bring them there.

[John Partain]

Micheal : thanks for the imput! I've been looking for just such material all week, thanks for the recomendation. You're right though, writing is killing these guys. That's what I'm doing now is going over essays that I've assigned. What I'm seeing is that there lack of verbal skills is transfering over into their writing. I thinks this weeks plan of attack is going to be vocabulary and coverstional English. I've found in the past that students with good coversational skills tend to have the best writing skills.

Once againg thanks for the help!!

[Frank]

Will the real frank Frank please step forward? Here are some helpful resources. Students also need basic TOEFL test taking strategies, something not even connected to the language! http://esl.about.com/cs/toefl/a/a_toefl.htm AND http://www.geocities.com/fstonehouse/toefl.htm

[Edward Cadena]

hi john..how long have you been in celaya? i am currently looking for a job there..was it difficult to find work? i have a buddy down there that says there are a ton of language schools and that it is easy? can you verify that for me and help a newbie start out? :)