Korean Job Discussion Forums

[globusmonkey]

Hi - I've been poking around here and found a few links, but I thought I would throw this question out and see if anyone had suggestions.

I've been approved by my academy to take an online training course on how to effectively prep students for TOEFL. I'm looking for specific information on how the test works, and strategies for answering questions in a fashion that will improve scores. I'm familiar with a lot of the freely available resources online, but I want something that will breakdown a more formulaic approach to what students need to do to improve scores. Can anyone recommend some good sites/courses?

I've run some searches, but haven't found what I'm looking for. Thanks!

[Snowkr]

I am a TOEFL and IELTS instructor in the U.S. and I highly recommend that you take the test yourself. I've been teaching TOEFL for two years and having my own personal experience with iBT really changed my style and method of teaching.

While my classes are a mixture of nationalities, I do have Korean students too. Our program attracts many Koreans. For reading and listening sections, it is imperative that you and the students understand the different types of multiple choice questions (i.e. compare/contrast, summarizing, word substitution, schematic tables and so on...)

For speaking and writing, you need to really emphasize the importance of synthesizing! This means students will have to show a relationship between two different sources- typically a lecture excerpt and a reading passage, or a bulletin and a conversation. There are also two types of tasks for speaking and writing known as independent and integrated.

Based on my experience with the Koreans, they struggle the most with the integrated speaking tasks. They have 30 seconds to prepare an answer and 60 seconds to give it. They get flustered and very uncomfortable with this.

Barron's TOEFL iBT is a fairly good preparation book as is Longman. But the best source for material is ETS (online) as they are the creators of TOEFL. Again though, nothing will help you to familiarize yourself with this test more than taking it yourself. It's tedious, but it makes a huge difference in how you prepare your classes. And your students will definitely appreciate it!