SpeakingResponses:FormalorInformal?
ATOEFLTIGERVISITORWROTE:
DearToefltiger,
HimynameisSamarthandIhavejustrecentlystartedreadingyour blogandfinditveryhelpfulinmypreparationforthetoefl.WhatI wantedtoknowwas:onthespeakingsectionisitokayifour responsesarefilledwithsomecolloquialtermssuchasuhmean.youknowandyouwouldntwantto..Orshouldwesticktoa slightlymoreacademicwayofspeaking?
Secondly,shouldwerestateourpositionacoupleoftimesduringthe 45secondstoremindthelistener,ornotriskdoingthatatall?
Thankyouforyourhelp.Sorryfortheinconvenience.
Thanks,
Samarth.
TOEFLTIGERRESPONSE:
ImpleasedthatwerehelpingyouonyourTOEFLquest!Thisisanimportantquestion.SpeakingresponsesneedtobegiveninwhatETScallsanaturalspeakingvoice.Whilethismightseemtomeanthatyoucansayuhwheneveryouwant,Iadviseyoutotakeadifferentapproach.Ifyougettocomfortable,Ithinktheresponsewillsufferinmanycategories.Firstly,itwillseemtooinformal,thisisatestafterall.Secondly,itmightencourageyoutomakemoremistakesbecauseyourenotonguard(formal).Thirdly,itsaneasywaytowastetimeandgradersknowthis.Mostimportantly,itwillnotresultinthemostspecificresponsepossible.Myopinionisthatifyouwantatopscorethenyouneedtoseparateyourselffromthecrowd.Onewaytodothisistoperfectyourspeech.Youdonthavetospeakwithouterror.Thatsimpossible.However,itshouldbeclearthatyourespeakingaswellasyoucan.Anybeginnercanusethesephrases,butnotanyonecanelevatetheirspeech.Remember,whenyouregivingaresponse,youreprovingyourselftothegrader.
Ifthisischallenging,recordyourresponseandthenwritedowneverysinglewordandsoundthatyousaid.Theneditthatresponseandtrytosayitagainwithinthetimelimit.Thiswillhelpreduceanybadhabits.
Now,thesecondquestionwantstoknowifweshouldrestateinquestiononeandtwo.Whenthetimelimitisforty-fiveseconds,thistimeistooshorttobotherwithrestatingunlessifyouranoutofthingstosay.Ideally,statethetopicwithinfivesecondsandspendtheremainingfortyonreasonsandexamples.Thanksfortheinsightfulquestionsandfeedback!
POSTEDBYTOEFLTIGERAT5:07AMLINKSTOTHISPOST
LABELS:REALIBTTOEFLTOPICSANDQUESTIONS
TUESDAY,OCTOBER9,2007