TOEFL Speaking Topics?

marcopolopoet · Post by **marcopolopoet** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 4:00 pm

Please can you kindly e-mail a list of TOEFL Speaking Topics? Thanks! Marco Polo e-mail: [email protected]

toeflsmeagle · Post by **toeflsmeagle** » Sat Nov 04, 2006 6:39 pm

I wouldn't think there'd be an official list of speaking topics, although I could be wrong about that. However, for speaking, I recommend the following website:

Conversation Questions for the ESL/EFL Classroom
A Project of The Internet TESL Journal
http://iteslj.org/questions/

The reason I recommend this is that it has about a thousand potential speaking topics. I would choose only the ones where students either state a personal preference (e.g., "Describe a particular movie that you thought was excellent.") or defend a choice among two possibilities (e.g., "Would you rather live in the country or the city?"). These are the kinds of topics that students would be tested on, for overall effectiveness, delivery, language use, and topic development. I believe I've put a link to the speaking rubrics to use in class. One exists in the "TOEFL iBT Tips" PDF, around page 55, I think.

Many of these topics can be dropped into some kind of survey template, so your students can walk around and do judging and evaluating based on the independent speaking rubric that ETS provides.

There are probably other places that offer speaking topics.

I'll post the info here, but if anyone wants to send an e-mail about this to his mailbox, please do.

marcopolopoet · Post by **marcopolopoet** » Sat Nov 04, 2006 10:32 pm

Sunday, 05 November 2006

Hi Toeflsmeagle!

Thanks for the list of speaking topics (http://iteslj.org/questions/)!

Can you kindly e-mail here the direct URL for the cited document “TOEFL iBT Tips” and perhaps the exact page number for the “to the speaking rubrics”?

Thanks again!

Marco Polo,
The American English Instructor in SPB

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

MARCO POLO
The Photographing-Poet-Errant
ul. Chekova 8, Apt. 32
191104 St. Petersburg, Russia
Metro: Mayakovskaya
Tel/fax: +7-812-272-9189
Mobile: +7-911-181-1674
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]
Poetry & Photo Homepage: www.marcopolopoet.info
English Teacher Homepage: www.geocities.com/eispb
Russian English Teacher Homepage: http://eispb.narod.ru
Profiles:
www.couchsurfing.com/profile.html?id=EXFYK
http://secure.hospitalityclub.org/hc/tr ... copolopoet
Skype: marcopolopoet

fin.

toeflsmeagle · Post by **toeflsmeagle** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 3:07 am

Marco,

Here you are:

TOEFL iBT Tips – Created to help English-language learners understand TOEFL iBT and prepare for it. Helpful for ESL/EFL instructors and educational advisors as they help students to prepare.
http://www.ets.org/Media/Tests/TOEFL/pdf/TOEFL_Tips.pdf
Also available at http://upload.mcgill.ca/applying/TOEFL_Tips.pdf and
ftp://ftp.ets.org/pub/toefl/989563wt.pdf

Study this PDF with great interest. It makes all kinds of teaching suggestions, has the writing rubrics, etc.

For other links, I recommend my own TOEFL iBT Links 101, where I have three posts of links that are helpful. (I don't necessarily recommend other links that sneak into the sticky.) And check in about once or twice a month, because I add more stuff to those links. Additions are coming soon.

marcopolopoet · Post by **marcopolopoet** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 12:48 pm

Sunday, 05 November 2006

Hi Toeflsmeagle!

Thanks for the links!

Can you please send the direct URL for your “own TOEFL iBT Links 101”?

Thanks again!!

Marco

-------------------------------------

MARCO POLO
The Photographing-Poet-Errant
ul. Chekova 8, Apt. 32
191104 St. Petersburg, Russia
Metro: Mayakovskaya
Tel/fax: +7-812-272-9189
Mobile: +7-911-181-1674
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]
Poetry & Photo Homepage: www.marcopolopoet.info
English Teacher Homepage: www.geocities.com/eispb
Russian English Teacher Homepage: http://eispb.narod.ru
Profiles:
www.couchsurfing.com/profile.html?id=EXFYK
http://secure.hospitalityclub.org/hc/tr ... copolopoet
Skype: marcopolopoet

fin.

toeflsmeagle · Post by **toeflsmeagle** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 5:29 pm

Marco,

You can find it. Try harder.

Lorikeet · Post by **Lorikeet** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 7:07 pm

toeflsmeagle wrote:Marco,

You can find it. Try harder.

*points up*

marcopolopoet · Post by **marcopolopoet** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 8:28 pm

Where?

toeflsmeagle · Post by **toeflsmeagle** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 8:36 pm

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

marcopolopoet · Post by **marcopolopoet** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 8:42 pm

For a teacher you are very mysterious! Why?

Lorikeet · Post by **Lorikeet** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 9:13 pm

marcopolopoet wrote:For a teacher you are very mysterious! Why?

Many teachers like to push their students to learn by themselves as well as to follow their guidance. Do you know what a "sticky" is? It's a post that remains at the top of the forum (sticks) because it is considered to have some particularly pertinent informaton that might get lost if it was treated like any other post, and put in order of how recent the post was. The post you are seeking is a "sticky" in this forum. Look before you come to this topic.

marcopolopoet · Post by **marcopolopoet** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 9:34 pm

Do not know what a "stiky" is nor why you are so mysterious! 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 reasons for refusing to supply the info!!!

toeflsmeagle · Post by **toeflsmeagle** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 1:45 am

“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 reasons for refusing to supply the info!!!”

Is there a note of anger in these unnecessary exclamation points?

You are not my student. I am not your teacher. I don’t owe you anything, nor have I promised you anything. You are a complete stranger. Your need for information is not a lien on me to produce it. You are also an adult who can function independently enough to find things on his own. I think it is presumptuous to request e-mail answers rather than to make the minimum effort to visit the appropriate teacher forum regularly for when or if the answer shows up. Also, the phrase “beggars can’t be choosers” comes to mind when you receive the info you asked for yet still want special treatment and additional modifications to our gifts to you. Why do I want to give you, a complete stranger, my e-mail? Is “Spam Me” written on my forehead? Why can’t you find the page number in TOEFL iBT Tips on your own? There are things such as indices, tables of contents, search engines, etc. for those purposes.

If you were my TOEFL student, I would require a minimum amount of independent thought, curiosity, and initiative on your own. With me, you haven’t shown that. Teachers are meant to empower students, not to replace them. You can’t expect anonymous humans to hand you the information you want. Please do not show that same sense of entitlement to your students, and do not expect help when it’s nearly couched in the form of an anonymous helper’s duty to you.

EnglishRaven · Post by **EnglishRaven** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 5:14 am

Try these links:

http://www.english-itutor.com/TOEFL_Speaking_Tips.html (with links to more than 80 independent speaking topics! plus all the other question types)

http://www.english-itutor.com/TOEFL_iBT ... tests.html (full online test for practice - with some of my own sample answers and tips)

eslweb · Post by **eslweb** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 11:55 am

So I was a bit slow, but I read this thread this morning and realised that there was a need for more practice topics and not finding anything, made it myself. You're welcome to use the speaking practice on my site:
http://www.jamesabela.co.uk/exams/TOEFL.html

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