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TIP:
Record your own voice and listen to make sure that your pronunciation and fluency of speech are clear. Then take the recording to an English teacher or tutor who can evalu¬ate your response using the TOEFL IBT Speaking rubric.
Question 2
In this second Independent Speaking Task, you will be presented with two possible actions, situations, or opinions. Then you will be asked to say which of the actions or situations you think is preferable or which opinion you think is more justified and then explain your choice by providing reasons and details. As with question 1, you will have 45 seconds to give your response.
Topics for this question include everyday issues of general interest to a student. You may be asked, for example, whether you think it is better to study at home or at the library, or whether you think students should take courses from a wide variety of fields or else focus on a single subject area, or whether first-year college students should be required to live in the dormitory or be allowed to live off campus in apart¬ments of their own. You could also be presented with two opposing opinions about a familiar topic—for example, about whether or not television has been a benefit for humanity—and you would then be asked which of the two opinions you agree with.
This question will always ask you to state what your choice or preference or opinion is and to explain why—in other words, to support your answer with reasons, explanations, details, and/or examples. It is important that you respond to all parts of the ques¬tion, and that you are clear about what your opinion is and give reasons that will communicate why you have made the choice you did. It does not matter which of the two actions, situations, or opinions you choose, and, as with Question 1, there is no "right" or "wrong" answer. Your response will be rated not on which of the alternatives you choose but rather on how well you explain your choice by supporting it with reasons and details.
Like Question 1, this question will appear on your computer screen and be read aloud at the same time by the narrator, and you will be given 15 seconds to prepare an answer. You should use this time to think about what you want to say, organize your thoughts, and jot down some notes if you feel this will be help¬ful. But remember, you should not try to write out a full answer—just a few words or phrases that may help remind you of the direction you want to take in giving your response.
TIP:
One good exercise would be to state an opinion or a preference and then present supporting reasons clearly and with detail.
TIP:
Study and practice words and expressions commonly used to express opinions, such as:
In my opinion ...
I believe ...
Example
The following example shows how a question of this type will appear on your com¬puter screen.
2. Some students study for classes individually. Others study in groups. Which method of studying do you think is better for students and why.
Preparation Time: 15 Seconds
Response Time 45 Seconds
After you hear the question, you will be told when to begin to prepare your response and when to begin speaking. As with question 1, a "Preparation Time" clock will appear below the question and begin to count down from 15 seconds (00:00:15). At the end of 15 seconds you will hear a short beep. After the beep, the clock will change to read "Response Time" and will begin to count down from 45 seconds (00:00:45). When the response time has ended, recording will stop and a new screen will appear alerting you that the response time has ended.
In answering a question like this one, it is important that you begin by clearly stat¬ing what your opinion is: do you think it is better for students to study for classes individually or do you think it is better for them to study in groups? If you do not begin by stating your opinion, it may be difficult for someone listening to your response to understand your reasons for holding that opinion. As for the reasons you give in support of your opinion, they can vary widely and may be based on your own experience and observations. For example, if the position you take is that it is better for students to study alone, you might say that when students meet to study in groups, they often waste time discussing matters that have nothing to do with their class work. You might continue this explanation by contrasting the inefficiency of studying in a group with the kind of productivity a student can achieve when studying alone. If you have personal experi¬ences that help illustrate your point, you might want to include them in your expla¬nation. If so, you should be clear about how they illustrate your point. Or perhaps you want to take the opposite position, that it is better for students to study in groups. In that case, you would explain the advantages of group study and the disadvantages of studying alone. Perhaps you think that the more capable students can help the less capable students when students study together. Or perhaps you have found that stu¬dents who study in groups often share each other\'s lecture notes and this way they can make sure everyone understands all the material that has been covered in a course. There are any number of good reasons for either choice. In fact, it may be your opinion that in some cases it is better to study in groups and in other cases it is better to study alone. If that is the opinion you would like to express, you should explain—with reasons, examples, and/or specific details—why group study is better in some cases and individual study is better in others. Here again, there is no "right" or "wrong" answer to a question like this. The important thing is to clearly commu¬nicate to the person who will be listening to your response what your opinion is and explain the reasons you have for holding it.
TIP:
Practice making a recommen¬dation(建议) and explaining why it is your preferred course of action.
INTEGRATED LISTEXING/READING/SPEAKING: QUESTIONS 3 AXD 4
Question 3
Question 3 is the first of the four Integrated Tasks in the Speaking section. For this question, you will read a short reading passage on your computer screen about a topic of campus-related interest. You will then listen to two people (or in some cases, one person) discussing that topic and expressing an opinion about the topic from the reading. Then you will be asked a question based on what you have read and what you have heard. You will have 60 seconds to speak your response. The general areas from which these topics are typically drawn include university policies, rules or procedures; university plans; campus facilities or quality of life on campus. The top¬ics are designed to be accessible(易接近的，可达到的，易受影响的，可理解的) to all test takers and will be presented to you in a way that does not require that you have prior firsthand experience of college or uni¬versity life in North America.
The reading passage could take various forms. For example, it could be a bulletin from the administration of a university regarding(关于) a new parking rule, or a letter to the editor of a campus newspaper responding to a new university policy restricting the use of radios in dormitory rooms, or an article from the campus newspaper discussing a proposal to build a new football stadium. In addition to describing the proposal, the reading passage will usually present(提出) two reasons either for or against the proposal. The reading passage is brief, usually between 75 and 100 words long. You will be given sufficient time to read the passage.
In the dialogue (or monologue(独白)) that will be played after you have read the read¬ing passage, you will hear one or two speakers—usually students—speaking about the same article (or letter or announcement) that you have just read. If there are two speakers, one of them will have a strong opinion about the proposed change— either in favor of it or against it—and will give reasons to support that opinion. The discussion is brief and typically lasts between 60 and 80 seconds.
After you have read the passage and then listened to the discussion, you will be asked a question about what you have read and heard. For example, there may be a reading passage that describes plans to make a new university rule and a conversa¬tion in which a professor and a student are discussing the rule. If in the conversation the student thinks the new rule is a bad idea, you would be asked to state what the student s opinion is and to explain the reasons the student gives for holding that opin¬ion using information from both the reading and the listening.
This task tests your ability to integrate information from two sources—the read¬ing passage and the listening—and to summarize some aspect of what you have heard. The reading passage provides the context that allows you to understand what the speakers are talking about. The speakers will generally refer to the reading pas¬sage only indirectly. Therefore, as you read the reading passage, you should pay atten¬tion to a number of things: the description of the proposal (what has been proposed, planned, changed, etc.), and the reasons that are given for or against the proposal. This will help you understand what it is that the two speakers are discussing as you listen to their conversation.
In some cases, a speaker will object to the position(立场) taken in the reading and will give information that challenges the reasons offered in the reading for that position. In other cases, a speaker will agree with the position from the reading and will give information that supports those reasons. It is therefore important, as you listen to the discussion, to determine the speaker's opinions toward the proposal and to under¬stand the relationship between what the speakers say and what you have learned from the reading passage.
To answer question 3, it is important to understand not only what the question asks you to do, but also what the question does not ask you to do. This type of Integrated Speaking task does not ask for your own opinion; rather, it asks you to state the opinion of one of the speakers and to summarize the speaker\'s reasons for having that opinion.
You will be given between 40 and 45 seconds to read the passage, depending on its length, after which you will listen to the discussion. Then you will be given 30 seconds to prepare your answer and 60 sec¬onds to respond. As with all the other questions, you may take notes while reading, listening, and preparing your answer, and you may refer to(查阅，谈到，打听) your notes while answering the question.
TIP:
Remember that taking notes on the reading and listening material in the integrated
Speaking tasks on the TOEFL iBT test is allowed.
Example
The following sample question consists of an announcement of a university's decision to increase tuition and a discussion between students about whether the increase is justified. This example shows how a question of this type will be presented to you on your computer.
You will hear:
Narrator
In this question you will read a short passage about a campus situation and then listen to a talk on the same topic. You will then answer a question using information from both the reading passage and the talk. After you hear the question, you will have 30 seconds to prepare your response and 60 seconds to speak.
Then you will hear this:
Narrator
City University is planning to increase tuition and fees. Read the announcement about the increase from the president of City University. You will have 45 seconds to read the announcement. Begin reading now.