iBT TOEFL Speaking Topic 1.1: Best friend..

Hi Marie,

Thanks for telling us about your best friend.

It's interesting that many people seem to count a cousin as a very close if not best friend. Cousins appear to enjoy the closeness of the family environment (often knowing each other from birth and getting to spend time together during traditional holidays and family gatherings), but also the characteristics of normal friendship given they don't often grow up in the same household (in Western families, anyway) on a full-time basis.

Like you, I have a child, and thinking about him makes it easy to decide who my best friends are. Basically, if you're willing to let a person raise your child in your absence, there's a pretty strong chance you consider that person a best friend.

Thanks for sharing!

~ Jason

Hi Marie,

I'm in the process of designing some video lectures giving very specific advice on how to answer each of the iBT speaking tasks. It's not quite ready, as I am quite busy with a variety of tasks at the moment...

However, I can tell you that this topic is related to question type 1 on the iBT TOEFL, and it requires you to describe your best friend and then give reasons as to why this person is your best friend.

The best way to approach this task on the official test is:

[05 seconds] - State who your best friend is

[15 seconds] - Describe the friend (character, relationship background, etc)

[25 seconds] - Explain why you consider this person your best friend (give clear reasons and support with some clear real-life example)

That will cover the 45 second time limit ideally, and cover all the requirements of the official task.

I hope that helps you!

I'll be posting more tasks and tips here in the forum as I get time and more people participate...

Best of luck,

~ Jason

***

Hi Wonsu,

Thanks for responding and telling us about your best friend.

I think casual mentoring is a natural part of many close friendships. When I consider my own circle of best friends, it's true that we are there for each other in many ways, and in many cases we give great advice and encouragement to each other. I think the trust involved in true friendship makes our best friends potentially our greatest mentors.

I'm glad to hear you have someone like that in your life!

Take care,

~ Jason

***

Hi Marie,

Good luck for your test!

Unfortunately, through a free public forum it is unfeasible for me to give extensive 1-1 training to test takers. I really encourage you to form a network with other test takers and learn how to exchange feedback about tasks and help each other.

Generally speaking, the best training for iBT speaking is to do a lot of speaking and interaction, especially oriented around giving opinions (independent tasks) and reporting information (integrated tasks).

Using the structure I suggested above for question 1, you should try to apply it with as many open topics as possible. Here is a link to 40 topics I put together on my iBT Speaking and Writing blog:

http://jasonrenshaw.typepad.com/ibt_speaking_writing/2008/05/40-new-practice.html 

I plan to put a lot of iBT speaking practice tasks here in this forum, but it will take some time. Unfortunately, not all of it will be available before you take your test, but whatever you've seen so far should at least help a little.

Good luck with it,

~ Jason

*** 

I think we have something in common there, because my wife is definitely my best friend!

~ Jason

***

Quick scores and feedback for people who posted recorded responses to this topic:

http://www.chinswing.com/pages/discussion.aspx?id=39968a0c-2c3a-4aa7-bf47-d42ad80b6ea7

[002] - Score = 2.0 (No real description of your friend, and not enough reasons or details to support your response, you only used 20 seconds from a 45 second time limit!)

[003] - Score = 2.0 (Intonation too flat, good description of the friend, but not enough reasons in support)

[004] - Score = 2.5-3.0 (No real description of the friend, good reasons given but needs more explanation)

[005] - Score = 0 (No recording registered)

[006] - Score = 3.0 (Repeated recording, this time with slightly better delivery and explanation)

[007] - Score = 2.0 (Confusion with pronouns his/her, no real description of the person, reasons too brief)

[008] - Score = 3.0-3.5 (Need a basic description of the person, but very good fluency and a positive/confident response)

[009] - Score = 3.0 (Strong response, a little repetitive and could do with a more specific example)

[010] - Score = 3.5-4.0 (Excellent response with great quote at the start, slightly too rushed and possibly not enough detail at the end)

[011] - Score = 1.0-1.5 (Went way over the 45 second time limit, so didn't achieve any description or major reasons in support when the time limit expired)

[012] - Score = 3.5-4.0 (Repeat recording, little better on the delivery/pace this time)

[013] - Score = 2.0-2.5 (Not enough description of the person and too vague for the reasons and supporting details, also need to be more precise with enunciation)

Keep practicing, and try to give feedback and suggestions to each other. By sharing your feedback with each other, you increase your own knowledge and chance for a better performance...

~ Jason

***

I recently recorded some new lectures explaining how to understand and respond to the six different iBT speaking questions. You can access them at this link here:

http://www.english-itutor.com/TOEFL_iBT.html 

I hope you find the tips useful!

~ Jason

More quick scores and feedback for people who posted recorded responses to this topic:

http://www.chinswing.com/pages/discussion.aspx?id=39968a0c-2c3a-4aa7-bf47-d42ad80b6ea7 

[015] - Score = 2.5-3.0 (Good description and well organized, but too much repetition and clearer prounciation needed)

[016] - Score = 3.0 (Great content, organization and language use - main problem is over-doing emphasis on too many words in too many sentences, resulting in unnatural-sounding delivery)

[017] - Score = 2.0 (Major problems hearing the delivery - maybe a microphone issue - but the content and details sound quite random and not very well organized or elaborated)

[018] - Score = 3.0 (A pretty strong answer with great detail and organization - just too many 'ums' and 'ahs', and the final 10-15 seconds was a little hard to follow because of the pronunciation)

[019] - Score = 3.5 (Good response with all the major requirements covered very well - only issue is the pronunciation in some parts, which requires a native speaker to strain a little to understand)

[020] - Score = 3.5 (Very good answer, just a few problems with language use, but quite fluent and well delivered)

[021] - Score = 1.0 (Only 20-25 seconds used within the 45 second time limit, description and reasons very vague, not enough detail, and intonation very flat)

[022] - Score = 2.0 (Missed time with slow start, no real detail to back up the general reasons given, and in the end no real description of the person)

[023] - Score = 2.0 (Went way over time limit due to too much supplementary, unorganized details that often went off topic)

[024] - Score = 2.0 (No real description of your friend, and not enough details to support the very general reasons you give)

[025] - Score = 3.0 (Well organized response that provides all the right areas, but probably needs more detail, and while the enunciation was very clear, overall delivery was a little choppy)

[026] - Score = 2.5 (Way over the 45 second time limit, with a collection of good details in support of your topic that nonetheless weren't presented in any clear groupings representing broad reasons)

[027] - Score = 1.0 (10 seconds lost at the start, then the answer misses the main topic, talking about general characteristics of friends rather than a specific friend known to the speaker)

[028] - Score = 2.0 (No real description of your friend, and not enough details to support your reasons; only used 30 seconds from the 45 second time limit)

  ~ Jason

More quick scores and feedback for people who posted recorded responses to this topic:

[030] - Score = 2.0 (A little hard to follow organizationally, no solid examples to back up the reasons given, and language use needs improvement - note: he's having = he has)

[031] - Score = 3.0 (Good delivery and language use, just needs some kind of solid example to back up one or two of the reasons given)

[032] - Score = 3.0 (Well organized and expressed, delivery a little too slow to be considered natural, which in turn limits the amount of detail included to support the reasons)

[033] - Score = 0 (Inaudible - can't hear it - and way over the time limit for this task)

[034] - Score = 3.0 (Quite a good response in terms of language use and use of examples - would benefit from some clearer organization and better use of transitions between ideas)

[035] - Score = 1.5 (Too much emphasis on the description/context, no reasons given or supported within the 45 seconds limit)

[036] - Score = 2.0 (Good description of the friend and good use of language and delivery, but not organized or expressed in a way that transfers solid, well supported reasons)

[037] - Score = 2.0 (Sounds more like a description of a good father than a friend, so needs better focus on the topic, watch pronunciation of "th" sound)

[038] - Score = 1.0 (Very hard to follow and understand - perhaps because of recording quality, but topic focus, organization and delivery are clearly issues needing improvement in the response)

[039] - Score = 1.0 (This is more like a story - it goes well over the time limit, lacks focus and organization, reasons are not given and delivery and language use all need a lot more work)

[040] - Score = 3.5 ~ 4.0 (Quite a good response, well organized and lovely clear delivery. May be penalized for language use, which sometimes causes strain for a native speaker listener, but not much)

[041] - Score = 3.0 (Sounded like a well organized and fluent response, but hard to follow in delivery - probably due to microphone/recording quality)

  ~ Jason

I didn't think your spoken response was too informal, but it was hard to tell because of the voice recording quality. However, I did find your text message here very difficult to read! Do you think you could use full words when you type a message or ask a question? It would help me a lot in trying to help answer your inquiry.

Thanks,

~ Jason

Hi umak,

It's nice to hear how your husband and you are so close as friends. You sound like a model couple!

~ Jason