How to Increase Your TOEFL Speaking Score
There are four tasks in the TOEFL iBT Speaking section.
The first task is an independent speaking task. The next three tasks are integrated speaking tasks. That means you have to listen and speak or you have to listen, read and speak.
You get up to 30 seconds to prepare your answer. Each of your answers has to be 45 to 60 seconds long.
The speaking section takes about 16 minutes.
Here are some strategies for the independent and integrated speaking tasks.
Speak from notes, not a transcript
You get only about 15 to 30 seconds to prepare your response. That means you won’t have time to prepare a transcript of your answer. So, jot down your ideas in note form: words, abbreviations and sentence fragments. These notes are the clues about what you want to speak. While preparing for the Speaking section, some students make the mistake of writing out their answers as whole sentences and then speaking them out loud. That is not the right way to prepare. While this practice might help you improve your pronunciation and stress, it does not really help to enable you to speak fluently. So, learn to speak clearly and correctly with the help of notes.
Organize your thoughts
Your answers must be organized, but they are not supposed to be spoken essays. Make your point quickly. Use familiar vocabulary and a conversational tone. Your answer should have the tone of a serious but friendly conversation about an academic topic. Do not use long, unfamiliar words and sentences.
Spoken English does not sound like written English. However, speech should still be grammatically correct, organized and detailed. Use a casual and relaxed style. Do not speak out long sentences. Natural speech is made up of short and simple sentences with one or two clauses.
Vary your vocabulary and sentence structure
Do not use the same word forms while discussing related or similar ideas. Use different forms of a word (nouns, verbs and adjectives) to discuss related ideas. This way you can avoid repetition and make your speech more interesting. Remember that there are different ways to say something.
Use cohesive elements
You have to establish connections among the ideas in your sentences. In order to achieve this, you have to use cohesive elements correctly.
Use transitional adverbs to indicate ideas such as connection, similarity, contrast etc. However, do not overuse transitions.
Be concise
A concise answer is both brief and informative. It gives a lot of information in a short amount of time. Some students speak faster so that they can say more in the allotted time (45 – 60 seconds). This is not a good strategy. First, you do not have to say more. Your answer should only include details that you can express in about 1 minute. Use a natural, comfortable speed while speaking. You should be neither too slow nor too fast.
Use idioms in moderation
It is perfectly all right to use idioms in your answers. Spoken English is highly idiomatic, so don’t be afraid to use idioms. Actually, by using idioms appropriately, you can demonstrate your language skills. However, resist the temptation to overuse idioms. Also, keep in mind that using an idiom out of context will lower your marks. Avoid slang altogether.
