Welcome to our brand-new guide to TOEFL Speaking question number three. Now, if you
haven't heard already, the TOEFL test has changed. As of August 1st, 2019 they've actually changed the
Speaking section of the test. So, today we're gonna go through the new TOEFL Speaking question number
three. And here's what you're going to know by the end of this lecture. We're gonna go through one
question walkthrough of the new question three, we're gonna go over a note-taking strategy so
you know how to take notes, we're going to do one speaking template, one example response, one grading
checklist for exclusive tricks and tips, and one free and complete TOEFL test that you can practice
as well so you can actually experiment with this style at home. So, my name is Josh MacPherson, I am
the head instructor at TST Prep where our mission is simple, to help you get the TOEFL score you need
as quickly and easily as possible. And today it's all about TOEFL Speaking question number three.
So, let's get right into it now. The TOEFL, like I said, has changed, and here's how it's changed. In
the past, there were six questions and now there are four questions, one independent question and
three integrated questions. If you know about the past test, this question will look very familiar.
Question number three in the past used to be questioned four.,all right. So, this is the new
question three. Now, what is question three look like? Here's a quick rundown of what it looks
like. It's an academic reading and lecture. There is an academic topic that is introducing a
reading and then you listen to a lecture about the reading. You'll have 50 seconds to read, the lecture
takes about 90 seconds, you'll have 30 seconds to prepare and 60 seconds to speak about what
you read about and what you heard in the lecture. The reading and listening will be about the same
topic. The listening will be a lecture explaining the reading. So, the big thing for you here is that
you want to remember to think like a teacher. So, imagine you have to teach this topic to a
10-year old. Now, I'm kind of giving you a lot of information at once. So, this will be more clear,
this will be clearer, more clear as we move forward, but one thing I want you to know
is that basically, you're gonna get a passage about a topic you probably don't know about. Let's say
for example, one that we have in our TOEFL test is about swarm intelligence. Now, maybe you have
no idea what swarm intelligence is, that's okay. Your job is to read the passage, listen to the lecture
about the passage about the topic and then speak about it for 60 seconds. And you want to speak like
you're a teacher trying to explain this, that's pretty much the idea here, all right. So, that's
question three in a nutshell, but we'll talk about it more. So, there are a lot of different question
topics and types, so it's hard to predict, but here are some common question topics are in the fields
of biology, psychology, business, and history, and art are the most common topics. And this is how
you're going to respond, this is what you want to think about. So, when you're reading, you want
to identify and define the topic, so let's say it's swarm intelligence, you want to identify that
and define it, and then you're going to listen to a lecture about the topic. And the lecture
will probably be some example of the topic, and so you understand the topics real-world application,
this real-world example, and you report about the topic and elaborate which means explain about it.
Again, this will be made clearer in a minute. So, let me explain a little bit more here. So here's
an example of a TOEFL question from one of our tests here, and this is one that you can
again, can download for free in the description. Now, this is about swarm intelligence, like I
mentioned before. When you see this passage on the TOEFL, you'll have about 50 seconds to read it. You
can take some notes. I will talk about that in a minute. Another example here is about habit
formation. Now, this is something from psychology, swarm intelligence is something from biology, so
this is just another example of a type of passage that you'll get. And then the question is almost
always similar. Using the examples from the lecture, explain the concept of swarm intelligence. Using
the examples of the lecture, explain the concept of habit formation. Using the examples of from
the lecture, explain the topic of and whatever the topic is. So, it's almost always
the same question, question number three. Now, when you're reading the passage, let's talk about your
note-taking strategy now, so this is about taking notes. When you're reading the passage, you want to
find the topic and the definition for that topic, that's the most important thing you want to find.
And if you can find any additional notes, you have some time write down those additional notes, but
this is the most important thing. Here, for swarm intelligence, I've highlighted in yellow the topic
which is swarm intelligence. One good thing about question three is the title is usually the topic,
okay. So, all you have to do is look at the title and you'll probably know what the topic is and
then your job is to find the definition, what does this mean, what a swarm intelligence means. It's what
I've highlighted in green here. These insects do not work individually but as a collective
in order to create a kind of super brain which is usually referred to as swarm intelligence. So,
sometimes they give you the definition right in the beginning, in the first sentence. Sometimes
it's in the middle, sometimes it's at the end. So, it used to almost always be in the beginning,
but it's kind of changed lately. So, you might have to read a little bit to find out what the topic is
really about, what does this mean, okay. So, try to practice making sure that you can read all this
in 50 seconds and take a couple notes. The parts that I've highlighted in blue are the extra notes.
If I have extra time, I'll write this stuff down as well. And this is what my notes look like. The topic
is swarm intelligence. And if you notice, I don't write all the, I don't spell the words correctly.
So, don't worry about spelling, you just want to write down enough so you understand what it
is. I understand that means, swarm intelligence, so that's okay for me. The definitions is hundreds
of organisms working together to benefit a group. Ants, bees, wasps, termites, they work collectively.
These are just some extra notes that I had time to write. And again, you probably don't have time
to write all this. I took my time to prepare this presentation. If you only write down ten
words, you know, you're probably not going to have more than 15 words enough to write because it's
hard to read and write notes at the same time. So, don't worry too much about writing down all
the little details, just make sure you understand the topic and you know what it means, that's the
most important thing. You don't even have to take notes. You understand the topic and you know what
it means, that's the most important thing from the reading because that's going to help you
understand the listening which comes next. So yeah, so again, your notes are not as important
as comprehension. Understand first, write second. Understand the passage, understand the definition,
then worry about your notes, alright. So make sure you do that first. When you're writing down your
notes for the listening, usually the listening is a couple of examples of the reading passage. So,
for example, swarm intelligence. Probably, they'll give one example of ants and how they use swarm
intelligence and then they'll use another example of bees and how they use swarm intelligence. That's
very common. Sometimes it's a long example like, for example, the topic I shared before, about habit
formation. It might be a professor talking about his own habits and giving a long example of a
habit he had, that's another type of how can I say format of question number three, but more common
is this type, where they give you a topic and then they will give you two examples of it. And this is
most common for biology stuff. If there's something about psychology, imagine that it's a story from a
professor that's connected to this, ok. So, here are my notes. This is what I'm gonna look for, and this
is the transcript here and again, you could see this in the complete test that you can download in
the description, but basically, I highlighted the parts that's the example, and then the green is
like extra stuff that if I have time I'll write it down. And it's the same here, that the yellow
part about honeybees, they organize in masses of individuals ok, that's the topic, and then
the green stuff is extra information that I can write down, I'm not going to write down all this,
this is a ton of information, ok. This is just, I'm just highlighting the important points that you
should try to write down, you don't have to write down everything. And here are my notes. Now again, these
notes are pretty detailed, you don't have to write it like this, this is just an example, and also
remember I had time to write this out. So, don't get too stressed out if you can't write the same
notes, totally understandable, ok. Alright, so you can look at this in more detail if you want, you could
pause this video, but I'm not going to go into too much with this, but this is just an example
of my notes so you can see it. Now, when you're preparing your response, this is what you want
to do is that you want to start with the reading. You want to introduce the topic and define it. And
then you want to state the first example and talk about it. You want to state the second example and
talk about it. And then have a conclusion, pretty simple. So, here's an example of a question three
template. You can use this template to answer most speaking question number three questions. And I've
included the content and the time as well so you can see about how much time you should have when
you talk about each part of your response. And so let me just show you what this looks like in
action, that's the best way to kind of figure out how to use this. And, I'll just read the first half
of this. According to the reading, so I started with the reading, right, so according to the reading, swarm
intelligence is when a bunch of different insects of the same species are able to combine and
connect their thoughts so hundreds of individuals can think and act as one. In the lecture, the
professor delves deeper into this subject by providing two examples of swarm intelligence. So,
now I'm moving from the reading to the listening pretty quickly. To start, the lecture explains that
ants used this type of thinking when gathering food. One group of ants will find a way to the
food source and release pheromones to mark the trail. Other ants will then follow the pheromone
scent, okay. So, I basically say the one example and a couple of sentences about it, a couple of details,
not a lot, but a little bit, alright. So, you want to talk about the reading not too long, probably
about 20 seconds, at most 30 seconds, and the rest you want to talk about the listening part. The
listening is where you kind of bring everything together. So, try to talk more about the listening
if you took good notes. I know sometimes it's hard to do that, but this is you know, the ideal perfect
passage. Don't worry if here, is this isn't the same, I don't expect it to be the same, and neither
should you, it's just an example, okay. Now, after you give you a response, time to look at your response,
and give it a grade. So, let's look at the tools for actually grading your response. So, this is the
information from ETS, the company that makes the TOEFL. I've offered a simplified translation of it,
but besides the general description, there are three grading criteria which are delivery, language use,
and smoothness. Delivery is how confident you are and how, you know, natural you sound. Language use
is about the vocabulary and grammar you use and if it sounds natural and conversational. And notice how
I use the word natural a lot, really you want to sound just like you're talking to a friend. Topic
development, you have a beginning, middle, end and you have a story in mind that you're going towards,
right. Now, this is not so helpful to help you grade, that's why we provided this checklist as well. I'll
run through it really quickly with you, that you can use to record your own responses and check
them. So, definitely record your speaking. Everybody hates their own voice, I know, I hate my own voice.
I thought my voice is very deep and cool until I recorded it, and it's not. So, record your voice
and check it using this checklist. I'll run through it really quickly. Did I speak for fifty-seven to
sixty seconds? So, you don't want to have too much silence and you don't want to speak over
time, you want that kind of sweet spot there, about 58-59 seconds. Was my introduction 15 seconds or
less? Try to keep your introduction short and sweet, to the point. That I have enough time to
include a short conclusion? Yeah, seven seconds or less, it doesn't have to be very long. And it's not
necessary, it's just a nice way to end. It makes you sound like you're confident and comfortable
speaking. Did I look at the clock to monitor my time at least twice? Yes, so you want to look at
the clock to make sure that you're not going over time. And one great way to do that is to actually
look at the clock. So, a lot of students are scared of the clock. The clock is your friend, take a look
at it at least twice. Did I include at least two transitional words and phrases? So, where it's like
in the reading passage, in the listening passage, according to the lecturer, according to the author,
to sum up, in conclusion, these are all transition words that help organize your response. Did I speak
at a smooth and even pace for the majority of my response? So, you try not to say like um, uh, okay. Everybody
does that. If you say it too much though, then it sounds like you're not confident and it kind of
hurts your score. The next one, number seven. Did I speak in a natural and conversational
tone? So, no robot voice, yeah. Make sure that you don't say according to the reading passage, blah
blah blah, according to the listening blah, blah. You want to sound and conversational. According
to the reading, according to the listening, try to sound like you're talking to a friend at a coffee
shop. very important. And did you include all the essential, all the important information from the
reading and listening? So crucial to make sure that you include everything that they want to
hear from both of those passages and hopefully, you have a good idea of how to do that now at
this point. And some four last-minute quick tips. Speak mostly about the listening. Most of your
information should be from the listening passage. So, I would say try to speak at least, let's say
30 seconds, about 30 seconds about the listening passage. And then the second tip is to speak with
interest and enthusiasm. Imagine you love this topic, it's your favorite topic, you can't wait to
talk about it with everybody. Even though you're probably not that interested in the topic, sound
like you are because that enthusiasm is going to help you kind of show how natural you feel
speaking English, that's very important. And then record your responses, definitely don't forget
to record your responses and judge your responses based on those recordings. it's going to give you
a lot of information about your speaking and about your strengths and weaknesses. Don't forget to use
the checklist as well. And then last but not least, don't read your notes. So a lot of students when
they take notes, they take good notes, and they want to use their notes, but the problem is that
they tend to read their notes. And your reading voice is different than your speaking voice. When
you're speaking to somebody and looking them in the eye, your voice changes. When you're reading
words on a page, it changes. So, make sure you try to tap into that experience of looking somebody
in the eye and speaking, okay. So, yeah, don't forget, definitely download our complete test somewhere
in the description and actually practice these questions at home. Thank you guys so much for
staying with me. Again, go to our site tstprep.com for more of this kind of TOEFL stuff. Thank
you for watching. I appreciate your time and yeah, I'll see you guys next time. All right, take care.