Teacher Discussion Forums

Everyone, ETS has changed workshop books. In response to a private message, I decided to post the link and the information ETS now provides. You can also participate in workshops, but check out the ETS website on that. Propell is the name of their workshops, but for those of you who'd only want the ...

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. Pe...

On brainstorming: "Hey, kids, you'd better brainstorm before you write. Otherwise your writing will look stiff. Trust yourself. If you let your subconscious spit out ideas, you may find something cool that your conscious mind can tool into an argument." Slower or faster?: give the too-fast kids an e...

Dear everyone, A member of this forum sent me the following letter. In order to promote discussion, I shall post it here, with the name anonymously removed. I prefer to answer all such questions in public rather than private. Question: What answers would you give to this teacher? Use specific reason...

eslweb's website (aka, James in Malaysia) is worth checking out more than he suggested. I also recommend the IELTS portion of his site: http://www.jamesabela.co.uk/exams/ielts.htm Also check out "Motivating Students for the TOEFL iBT": http://www.angelfire.com/indie/tesolzone/images/MotivationTOEFLi...

An interactive writing checklist with links to other places on the Internet that feature exercises on these writing areas. This could be used as the opposite side of one of ETS's writing rubrics. The boxes in the printed-out version could be checked, and students could do additional homework by clic...

Analeigh, Here are some suggestions: 1) The Words in the News section of the BBC Learn English website has all kinds of stories that go back about four years, complete with sound files, highlighted words, and definitions thereafter: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newsenglish/witn/...

A cyber colleague sent me this question, but I think it's best to share the provocative wealth this questions represent. The salient passage: "I'm preparing a syllabus for a toefl prep course that will last two sememsters and prepare classes of six students, who are know about low-intermediate, to t...

"Many of my students wanted to know if they needed to say "in the reading it says," or "the lecture discusses" as a means of citing the material source. " I agree with this approach. It is very direct, and it is the sort of approach that the Longman Prep book (the book I have been using) teaches. "H...

analeigh, You probably already started your semester, but here's my two cents' worth: 1) (six weeks,two days a week, 3.5 hrs/day- the other three days the students will cover the other areas of the TOEFL with a different teacher.) That length is great for a TOEFL writing class. Do some kind of in-cl...

Writing Tips Integrated Writing Tasks • Find a textbook that includes questions about the material at the end of chapters. Practice writing answers to the questions. • Read an article that is about 300–400 words long. Make an outline that includes the major points and important details of the articl...

“Do not know what a "stiky" is nor why you are so mysterious!” See Lorikeet’s post in this strand. As for why I am so mysterious, please read on. “When a studnet asks a simple question like what is the URL for info that you have cited the student deserves a direct answer! Do NOT understand your reas...

I repeat: You can find it. Try harder. No more clues.

Marco,

You can find it. Try harder.

Conversation Questions for the ESL/EFL Classroom: A Project of The Internet TESL Journal. Useful for training students in the new independent speaking tasks on the test— http://iteslj.org/questions/ The Compleat Lexical Tutor: a website that explores vocabulary for data-driven learning. Can do conco...