Job Discussion Forums

[cormac]

I'm leaving new oriental, and you won't hear any compliments from me

[StephenfromNZ]

I‘m also employed to teach TOFEL, but I find many students have poor oral English, so I have been focusing on that first.

One way of preparing to teach it is to take the exam yourself. It is permitted. A thorough preparation will develop plenty of exam skills usefull for teaching.

Some of my students have said that the Chinese TOEFL teachers "just teach how to pass the exam, not how to speak English"![/i]

[wonderingjoesmith]

Isn't the speaking combined with reading, writing and listening? Focusing on "Oral English" skills solely may slow down the development of students in the language and that especially when some local intellectual drills them traditionally. We want them to use the language, not to just grow "orally" when they enter our higher education system, don't we?

My brief experience to this country suggests that many Chinese students are more inadequate in areas of listening and writing than speaking. However, their speaking skills taper as soon as there's a demand on higher level of formality.

Taking a TOEFL exam prior to teaching it may be enlightening, although my opinion is that higher importance ought to be given to the use of academic English rather than the TOEFL test questions. Whether this is practical or not remains to be seen. The company has undergone some changes and some unis in States are critical about their foreign students' proficiency test results.

[StephenfromNZ]

You're right, speaking is integrated with listening and reading in TOEFL. I agree also that academic writing, scan reading and note taking for example are some of the skills necessary for a good TOEFL/IELTS score, and success in a Western academic environment.

The ETS/TOEFL administration have given workshops in China on teaching for the exam which would be interesting.