Independent
Speaking 1
In the next
five units we are going to look at the TOEFL iBT independent speaking,
free response task.
Reflection 1
From
a language point of view there are four areas that will probably form
the basis of this section of the test. What do you think these are?
Look at the
bottom of the page and see if you got any of them. Did you think of any
others?
In
this unit we’ll look at talking about the past
Resource:
For a list of English irregular verbs and their past forms click here.
1
Warm up
Task
1: Type five sentences about things you did yesterday or that occurred
yesterday. Make sure all the verbs are different.
Now,
change screens with your partner. Can you see any grammar errors in
their sentences? Tell your partner about them.
Task 2: Type ten sentences about things you did last week or that
occurred last week. Make sure all the verbs are different from each
other and different from the sentences in Task 1.
Now,
change screens with your partner. Can you see any grammar errors in
their sentences? Tell your partner about them.
Task 3: Type fifteen sentences about things you did in the past year or
that occurred in the past year. Again, make sure all the verbs are
different from any you have used so far.
Now,
change screens with your partner. Can you see any grammar errors in
their sentences? Tell your partner about them.
2
Save your files and place them in report box 5__10__15
3 Speaking
Task 1
Make a plan for
a 45 second speech on this topic; Did
you have a good day yesterday? You have 1 minute to make this
plan.
Now, using soft
recorder, make your speech and save it.
4 Speaking
Task 2
Make a plan
for the same topic; Did you have
a good day yesterday?, but this time change your answer. If your
answer in Speaking Practice 1 was 'yes, I did' , make your answer 'no,
I didn't' this time.
YOU
HAVE ONLY 15 SECONDS TO MAKE THIS PLAN!!!
Now, using soft
recorder, make your 45 second speech and save it.
5
Exchange your plan for speaking task 1 with a partner. Read their plan
and then listen to their speech.
6 Do
the same for speaking task 2.
Reflection
2
Which plan was better? Which speech was better? Why do you think this
is so? What does this tell us about making plans for the independent
speaking free response task?
7 Now look at a plan made for this topic. Click here
Notice the two versions of the plan and why the writer thinks the
second one is better.
8 Now listen to the speech. Click
here to hear.
9 Now look at the transcript of the speech and compare it to the plan.
Click here.
10 Task 4: Make up three topics
and give them to your partner. He/she has 15 seconds to make a plan for
each topic.
Possible answers
to Reflection
1 at the top of the page are
situations in the past, situations
in the present, situations in the future, hypothetical situations