welcome to our brand-new guide to TOEFL
speaking question number one now if you
haven't heard as of August 1st 2019 the
TOEFL test has changed and the speaking
section has changed and we're going to
talk about all of those changes today
together and we're going to do a lot of
things in this video so I want to get to
it as soon as possible but just a really
quick overview so today what we're going
to do is we're going to go over for
example questions of the new speaking
question number one we're gonna go
through a question walkthrough I'm gonna
take you step-by-step through answering
one of these questions I'm going to
share with you - speaking templates to
help you answer the questions I'm gonna
share an example response so you can
hear how I respond to these types of
questions I'm going to share with you a
grading chest like the checklist so you
can actually check your responses I'm
also going to share some exclusive
tricks and tips and all that good stuff
and also there is a free and complete
TOEFL test that you can download as well
I think it's in the description below so
my name is Josh McPherson I'm the head
instructor of TST prep where our mission
is simple to help you get the TOEFL
score you need as quickly and easily as
possible and today we're going to talk
about question number one so you know
exactly what to do on test day
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all right let's get right into it so
here's how the test has changed this is
actually an image from ETS the company
that makes the TOEFL and instead of c6
speaking questions there are now four
speaking questions that's pretty much it
that's the change so not a whole lot of
change so a couple questions have been
cut pretty much question 1 and question
5 have been cut so this is the new
question order and how it's presented on
test day for those of you who have taken
the test before the old version of the
test a lot of this will sound familiar
all right
so speaking question number one is a
independent question this is a paired
choice most of the time we're going to
talk about what that means in a minute
but basically it asks about your opinion
and you usually have two options and you
have 15 seconds to prepare and 45
seconds to speak and so there's a couple
different types of questions there is a
preference question do you prefer to get
up early or start or get up later which
do you prefer so you have two choices
there agree or disagree again you have
two choices all high school students
should wear school uniforms what do you
think sometimes they give you three
choices now and the new version of the
test I haven't seen this yet but it
might come up where you have three
choices you can work alone or with a
partner with a group which would you
choose
all right and so many times very rarely
this is pretty rare but once in a while
they give this what's called an
advantage disadvantage question they
asked you for example what are the
advantages of disadvantages of having a
part-time job while in school okay so it
happens sometimes but not too often so
your goal for this question and for the
entire TOEFL speaking really is to sound
natural and conversational I want you to
think about this while you're listening
to me talk about the TOEFL speaking
because I'm going to tell you a lot of
like tricks a lot of tips I'm going to
give you some ideas of how to answer you
have to speak for forty-five seconds a
very specific amount of time but a lot
of students start to sound robotic
because they're trying to follow all
these rules so while it's important for
you to follow these rules just remember
that you want to sound conversational
you want to sound natural when you're
speaking very important all right so
next up is an example of a TOEFL
speaking question this is from that test
that I said you can download somewhere
this is speaking question number one and
the question is would you prefer to work
at one job your entire life or switch
jobs every five years explain your
reasons so this is a preference question
all right which do you prefer choose one
so I would encourage you actually to
stop the video here if you would like
and try to answer this question yourself
before you hear me give my own response
but you're probably not going to do that
and that's actually just a
recommendation though so I how are you
going to answer this question so here is
a kind of template that you can use to
answer this question when you have to
speak about something a general opinion
for forty-five seconds that's tough
because let's say I ask you this
question do you want to work at one job
your whole life or switch every five
years you might say oh I want to switch
every five years because it's
interesting that's five seconds that's a
very normal response but you have to
speak for forty-five seconds that is
more difficult and very unnatural you're
not used to speaking that long so a
pretty simple question so this is how
we're going to help you answer these
questions by thinking about using a
template and I'll just walk through this
really quickly to me I definitely think
that and then you restate the question
give your opinion and a specific reason
I'll show you an example in a minute of
this and after you do that you say I
remember one and then you give an
example that helps support your opinion
let's say that I want to switch jobs
every five years maybe I have an example
that I used to work at one job and it
was very boring after five years I
wanted to switch jobs something like
that okay then you can also give a
second reason and second example on top
of that and give another reason another
example
and then you use for example and then
you can finish everything up with the
phrase so to sum up and you repeat the
question so to sum up I would definitely
prefer to switch jobs every five years
all right
so this is a kind of template and I also
gave the time for how you should manage
your time when you're speaking you can
give two reasons or you can give one
it's up to you I actually like to give
one reason and one example but a lot of
students find it difficult so they
prefer two reasons totally up to you
okay so I by the way I noticed a lot of
information at one time so don't worry
if you have to watch this again that's
okay it's a lot of things to think about
for these speaking questions all right
so here's some transitions some other
transitions that you can use to answer
these questions so instead of saying to
me or for me you could say personally
personally speaking I think that that's
fine
or examples I remember when when I was a
child for example take take for example
these are different ways that you can
transition in your independent speaking
just a couple of ideas use this these
ideas these templates to help you make
your own response and a response that
you're comfortable with again you want
to sound natural and conversational so
you want to be comfortable with what
you're saying all right so let's go back
to the question which do you prefer this
one or that one
okay switch jobs every five years or
work the same job your entire life what
do you think okay so this is my note
structure after the question is asked
you have 15 seconds to prepare your
response and 45 seconds to speak 15
seconds is not a lot of time I wrote my
opinion my first reason my example my
second reason my second example you know
you might be thinking Josh how am I
supposed to write all of that in 15
seconds don't have to your notes they
don't have to be more than seven words
at most because you don't have enough
time right writing down notes is totally
optional but I find writing
couple words down helps me focus on what
I want to say because when you're
speaking it's going to be easy to forget
what you want to say for 45 seconds so
these help kind of guide me while I'm
speaking and let me show you the kind of
notes I take just to show you really
quickly is that Oh first of all I just
write oh r 1e x 1 r 2 x 2 I don't write
down reason an example because that
takes time you want to try to save time
so you only write the first letter you
know R means reason e^x means example so
that's a easy kind of shortcut and
besides that also what I wrote is that I
don't write them you know full words I
wrote B Oh RNG that means boring so I
wrote down boring now you don't know
that that that means boring I know what
that means my notes are for me your
notes are for you write your notes in a
way that you understand but also that
you can write kind of quickly New York
school I'm going to talk about a school
I worked at in New York it was the same
every day all right so that's my first
reason second reason I want to change
jobs it's exciting I'm going to talk
about my other job in Japan working with
kids I understand my notes most
important thing as you can see I just
wrote down a couple of words you can
write down even less than this alright
again you only have 15 seconds not a lot
of time so here's my sample response to
this question so you can hear how I
pronounce things and how I deliver it so
to me I definitely think it is better to
switch jobs every five years because old
jobs get boring and new jobs are
exciting I remember when I worked at a
school in New York and by the end of my
time there I was ready for a change
you see at first everything was new and
interesting but by the fifth year I was
tired of taking the same train to go to
the same building every day so I'm gonna
stop there so but you get the point of
how you should be delivering your
response and a more natural and
conversational tone even though I wrote
all this out and you know also don't
expect your response to be like this
I thought about this I wrote this out so
your response is probably not as that is
good as mine and that's okay I said
because I planned this out and all this
up but so don't worry don't compare
yourself to me right now just this is
just an example so you can see a kind of
perfect example quote-unquote alright so
your response will be much more natural
and have mistakes totally fun but yeah
this is just an example for you to see
how it kind of works in action so now
let's talk about how you actually grade
your own response tools for self study
now here are some really helpful grading
rubrics and criteria that's going to
help you practice on your own so first
off there is this kind of chart table
and if u s-- notice there's four
categories and these four categories are
what you're graded on for the TOEFL
based on ETS is criteria and if you
notice I put a simplified translation to
the right besides a general description
you're also graded on your delivery
which is like you speak in a calm cool
and natural manner
you don't sound you don't say like or a
lot you know used to be pretty cool and
you're able to speak in a natural way by
also using different sentence structure
and vocabulary that's language use that
you're able to sound natural and also
use a lot of different vocabulary and
natural grammar and all that stuff and
then there's also topic development and
topic development is if your response
feels like it has a beginning and a
middle and an end like it's going
somewhere very important and so besides
this this is not as helpful as this
checklist that I've provided for you
here I'm going to run through them
really quickly
each grading criteria but use this to
check your own speaking responses at
home it's going to be hard to get used
to at first and it's hard to record your
response and analyze your own response
and again you can always visit our site
TST prep comm we do speaking evaluations
there as well ok so here are some
questions to ask yourself did you speak
for 42 to 45 seconds you
try not to go too long and you want to
try to not leave too much empty silence
at the end is your introduction less
than 12 seconds you want to say your
introduction pretty quickly did you have
enough time to include a short
conclusion the conclusion is not
necessary but if you have more time and
you use it that's actually better
because it's a nice way to end your
speaking and then did you look at the
clock at least twice one thing that's
really hard for students is seeing a
clock countdown you know it's kind of
scary so try to get used to that and try
to look at the clock at least twice when
you practice to help you speak in time
did you include at least two
transitional words or phrases so these
are words and phrases like for example I
remember when to me for me so you want
to use those phrases see if you use a
couple of them and did you speak in a
smooth and even pace so again just like
delivery and the grading criteria try
not to say a lot try to be smooth and
natural and yeah and again try to speak
in a natural and conversational tone
please no robot voice I'll say it over
and over again please do not speak like
a robot speak in a natural way it's it's
what they're looking for and it's what
native speakers do and did you elaborate
on the topic well you include a personal
example personal examples really help
your speaking because it really helps
with topic development a personal
example is a story with the beginning in
the middle and an end and that really
helps just make it easier to speak for
45 seconds all right so when you give
your response a couple of quick tips
make sure you connect emotionally and
that again is about the robot voice
avoid the robot voice did you manage
your time well make sure you look at the
clock of twice when you're speaking that
way you know when you have to finish
it's very important to get used to
seeing a clock the clock is your friend
so keep that in mind and then the next
thing is relate the information back to
the topic so make sure that when you're
giving your example like when I'm
talking about my job in New York I
connect it back to Oh
want to change jobs every five years
make sure that you do that and provide
personal examples again just like I said
a personal example helps you develop the
topic and helps you speak for 45 seconds
a bit easier okay and make sure you can
also download this test make sure you
you practice the big things that you
actually practice this stuff you're
gonna learn a lot more by doing it than
listening to me speak but thank you for
staying to the end it's amazing that
you're still here I really appreciate it
and thank you so much and yeah I'll see
you in the next video guys speaking
question number two see there
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you