HELP A TOEFL Teacher
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blarkin1774
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Mon Sep 18, 2006 6:01 am
- Location: Seoul Korea
HELP A TOEFL Teacher
I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for a good writing book for beginner to intermediate TOEFL students. i will be teaching IBT. also any ideas on how to teach TOEL to make it more fun and enjoyable for students. i have been teaching TOEFL for awhile and I can't seem to get the students really interested in the lessons. Any suggestions would be a great help.
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toeflsmeagle
- Posts: 42
- Joined: Thu Mar 30, 2006 3:02 pm
Blanchard and Root's "Ready to Write" may be good, as is the sequel "Ready to Write More." There are TOEFL writing books out there. Compass has one. You can get "Building Skills for the TOEFL iBT" either as a whole four-skills book or as a book concentrating on one of the skills, such as writing. Perhaps that's the way to go with your classes.
As for ideas, yes, check out this forum. Motivating your students means finding why it is important or helpful, and so what you do should be prefaced with some kind of motivation beyond "It's on the test." There's a reason it's on the test -- summarizing helps you organize your thoughts, pragmatic understanding is important when listening to anyone speak, having a coherent writing style helps readers follow what you're saying, etc. Stay away from fakey motivation -- e.g., let's do X for 30 minutes and then let's have a game -- because serious TOEFL students are already with you and unserious TOEFL students won't be convinced with a game. Aim at the top of the class, not at the middle or the bottom. Give written assignments with some goal in mind beyond just practicing an essay. Find out what they need and focus on that.
As for ideas, yes, check out this forum. Motivating your students means finding why it is important or helpful, and so what you do should be prefaced with some kind of motivation beyond "It's on the test." There's a reason it's on the test -- summarizing helps you organize your thoughts, pragmatic understanding is important when listening to anyone speak, having a coherent writing style helps readers follow what you're saying, etc. Stay away from fakey motivation -- e.g., let's do X for 30 minutes and then let's have a game -- because serious TOEFL students are already with you and unserious TOEFL students won't be convinced with a game. Aim at the top of the class, not at the middle or the bottom. Give written assignments with some goal in mind beyond just practicing an essay. Find out what they need and focus on that.