The EFL Magazine TOEFL® Summit for Students and Teachers

When taking or teaching for the TOEFL speaking exam, most fall into the trap of improving pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary. Unfortunately, these aspects can be time-consuming and do not help to produce higher speaking scores, and often result in test takers overthinking and giving slow, monotonal responses that peak out in the low 20’s. Most non-native speakers find the short preparation time and fast answer process extremely challenging.

By working through repetition and building of learners’ organization, pace, and focus on multiple examples, the fast response needed for the exam becomes more comfortable and achievable. The methodology includes strengthening attitude, confidence, and prosody skills (intonation and stress), along with the proper use of the perfect tenses for more sophisticated sentences 

All this is done within a framework using conjunctive adverbs, idiomatic expressions, and well-placed collocations. The method will be discussed.

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• 

  Rob Howard

  Owner

  Online Language Center

Sponsors

The results are in! Hakan has just analyzed data from 2,000 SpeechRater-scored responses from My Speaking Score. The results are fascinating. If you’re a data-driven teacher (or want to become one) you can't afford to miss Hakan’s jargon-free talk on which SpeechRater dimensions matter most, how SpeechRater data should inform your teaching, and what we still can’t figure out about ETS’s super secretive scoring engine. Join Hakan to get the ultimate “insiders view” of how top TOEFL Speaking teachers are using SpeechRater data to make more accurate assessments and recommendations.

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  Hakan Tarhan

  Professional Development Facilitator

  TOBB University of Economics and Technology

Sponsors

This is a summary of the TOEFLiBT® Reading Section for language instructors. Relating an exam skill to a student's real-life makes the test more meaningful to the learner from the acquisition phase. The purpose is to present  an overview of the Reading Task, strategies to answer questions requiring advanced subskills, and challenges in relating reading skills to the test-taker's personal, educational and professional life. Based on observations from English Proficiency Test workshops, it is evident that linking reading skills to academic and professional communicational purposes, provides extrinsic and intrinsic value-add to the candidate. Not being exposed to cultural differences, elementary EFL language learners require bilingual inputs to decode certain elements such as lexical items specific to a region, organisation of a text and deciphering the writer's position. Facilitating this understanding reduces learners' indifference to the content and subsequently the test. Bilingual teaching is essential in questions that require inferencing, understanding genres. Overall, in order to make teaching the Reading section successful, it is recommended that the text is made meaningful for the candidate.  

Topics

1. Overview of TOEFL iBT® Reading section 

2. Subskills for reading comprehension 

3. Bingual teaching to avoid comprehension mistakes due to culture

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  Veena Krishnamurty

  TOEFL® Master Trainer

  Synchrolearn

Sponsors

Corpus analysis of TOEFL tests reveals that 1/3 of the words occurring in all parts of every TOEFL test are NOT commonly used words in authentic general English. Students who study with traditional preparation materials will not develop recognition and fluency for 33% of the words that commonly occur on every TOEFL.  There is a universe of 16,736 different words that can possibly occur on any one TOEFL test.  7,501 of these different words constitute 99% of all words that will ever occur on any TOEFL test.  993 different words constitute 90% of all words that will ever occur on any TOEFL test. It is essential that students have automatic recall for the 993 words that cover 90% of all TOEFL tests.  We are talking about words such as: aboard, absent, gallon, and garbage. These are lower frequency words in authentic general English but they are very high frequency words on all TOEFL tests.  Come find out how you can help your students quickly learn and retain all of the most important high frequency vocabulary for TOEFL. 

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  Guy Cihi

  Founder

  Lexxica

Sponsors

Listening starts with hearing the words correctly. You’ll learn step-by-step techniques to teach your learners how to hear almost every word of natural spoken English. You’ll receive a concise summary of “The Three Main Differences Between Spoken and Written English” plus supporting practice material.  We’ll also discuss how you can help your learners with British English and other dialects.

Step 2

We’ll list the main TOEFL® listening question types, the typical vocabulary for each, and sample questions and answers as well as finding the best preparation material.

In addition, we’ll have a special bonus for this situation – The learners hear the material correctly, but don’t know what some words mean. I’ll give the strongest vocabulary techniques to figure out unfamiliar words without a dictionary.

We’ll have time at the end to answer your questions.

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  Nina Weinstein

  Teacher and Author

  Nina Weinstein

Sponsors

This session will provide an overview of official teacher resources available from ETS, the maker of the TOEFL test. Learn about opportunities for professional development through ETS, including upcoming courses, workshops, and webinars. Attendees will also be introduced to materials and resources that can be used in the classroom, from course curricula to practice tests. Join this session for an opportunity to become familiar with these resources, ask questions, and make suggestions for future offerings from ETS. Additionally, attendees of this session will be entered into a drawing for a chance to win a free digital copy of The Official Guide to the TOEFL iBT^® Test.

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  Faye Weidner

  Product Manager

  ETS
• 

  Jazzme Blackwell

  Director of TOEFL® Learning and Support

  ETS

Sponsors

The Writing section of the iBT can be intimidating because of the item types and the time pressure. This session will unpack the format and features of both the independent and the integrated skills writing task and then explain the how to organize writing response and include elements that will maximize students’ potential scores. We’ll also look at exercises you can do in class, both online and in person, to help students improve their writing in general—and of course we’ll address those pesky time limits.

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  Dorothy Zemach

  TOEFL® Author

  Wayzgoose Press

Sponsors

One of the challenges of teaching a TOEFL iBT class is figuring out how to best use classroom time. Having students take practice test after practice test only tells you—and them—where they are now. But how do you help them get better? What kinds of exercises will directly prepare students for the test? This informational session shows some ideas for all four sections, taken from Express Publishing’s new TOEFL iBT coursebook, TOEFL iBT Express, by Tammy LeRoi Gilbert and Dorothy Zemach.

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  Dorothy Zemach

  TOEFL® Author

  Wayzgoose Press

Sponsors

Josh MacPherson will deliver a presentation on How to Improve TOEFL® Speaking Scores, which highlights the importance of developing an effective study routine that leads to improvement. After a general overview of the TOEFL Speaking section structure, the majority of presentation will focus on the TOEFL Speaking scoring criteria, how to prepare for the TOEFL Speaking at home, and how to deliver high-scoring responses on test day.

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  Josh MacPherson

  Owner

  TST Prep

Sponsors

Top achievers in TOEFL® Speaking use data to understand exactly why they are underperforming on the Speaking section. Often, students don’t lack the will (or even the skill) needed to get a high TOEFL® Speaking Score. They lack actionable insights from SpeechRater™ that show them why they are underperforming. Join John for a no-fluff/no-sales demo of how students actually use My Speaking Score to get high TOEFL Speaking scores.

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• 

  John Healy

  Founder and CEO

  My Speaking Score

Sponsors

Corpus analysis of TOEFL tests reveals that 1/3 of the words occurring in all parts of every TOEFL test are NOT commonly used words in authentic general English. Students who study with traditional preparation materials will not develop recognition and fluency for 33% of the words that commonly occur on every TOEFL.  There is a universe of 16,736 different words that can possibly occur on any one TOEFL test.  7,501 of these different words constitute 99% of all words that will ever occur on any TOEFL test.  993 different words constitute 90% of all words that will ever occur on any TOEFL test. It is essential that students have automatic recall for the 993 words that cover 90% of all TOEFL tests.  We are talking about words such as: aboard, absent, gallon, and garbage. These are lower frequency words in authentic general English but they are very high frequency words on all TOEFL tests.  Come find out how you can quickly learn and retain all of the most important high frequency vocabulary for TOEFL. 

Add to Calendar

• 

  Guy Cihi

  Founder

  Lexxica

Sponsors

Step 1

Listening begins with the words. If you can’t hear the words, how can you answer the questions?

I’ll start by showing the three most important differences between written and spoken English.  Just as we have grammar rules you can learn, there are listening rules to help you hear almost every word of natural spoken English.  I’ll also show how to understand British and other English accents that you’ll encounter on the test.

Step 2

Now that you can hear the words, we’ll continue with the main listening question types on the TOEFL® and how to answer them. We’ll have plenty of practice and important samples of materials to supplement this workshop as well as suggestions for preparation materials.

In addition, we’ll answer this question with proven techniques – What if you can hear the words correctly, but you don’t know what they mean? I’ll show how you can figure out unfamiliar words without a dictionary.

We’ll have time at the end to answer your questions.

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• 

  Nina Weinstein

  Teacher and Author

  Nina Weinstein

Sponsors

At a summit addressing international students who are planning to take an English test like TOEFL, it's important to also share a bit of information related to university admissions.  That's what this session will be about.  Yes you need X TOEFL score, but you also need your transcripts, financial information, passport, etc.  This quick session will give you a quick framework and checklist that will help you to navigate college (and postgraduate) admissions. 

We'll also talk about hard (objective) factors vs soft (subjective) factors and how important soft factors can be to your success...once you've satisfied all the stated admissions criteria.

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• 

  Marlowe Johnson

  Founder/CEO

  EdAgree

Sponsors

You already know what’s hard about the writing section—the time limit! But what you can do about that? Actually, there are plenty of things you can do. Knowing what kind of response is expected will help you write more efficiently, as will some organizational tips. We’ll also look at useful language for both the independent task and the integrated skills iBT essays, and finally we’ll look at ways you can improve your general writing ability, no matter where you live or whether you are taking a class.

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• 

  Dorothy Zemach

  TOEFL® Author

  Wayzgoose Press

Sponsors

This session will provide an overview of the TOEFL^® test preparation resources available to students like yourself, created by ETS, the maker of the TOEFL test.  You will have an opportunity to learn about the preparation resources available to you on your English-language learning journey. We will talk about the many ETS test prep products, including free resources and paid courses and practice tests which can help you determine your readiness for the TOEFL® iBT test.   You’ll have the opportunity to ask questions, and also enter a drawing for a chance to win a free TOEFL Practice Online test (TPO).

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• 

  Lisa Lieberman

  Product Manager

  ETS
• 

  Rebecca Lang

  Product Manager

  ETS
• 

  Jazzme Blackwell

  Director of TOEFL® Learning and Support

  ETS

Sponsors