Academic English Skills with Dr. Byrnes

  Successful nations and governments Interviewer: Thinking about your own experiences and the place where you grew up, which contributes most to a country’s success: business opportunities, medical care, or education?” Personally, I believe a developed educational system contributes the most to a country’s success, and this comes from what I saw growing up. In my community, the government invested in good public schools, and that had a huge impact on people’s lives. For example, many of my classmates were able to enter competitive universities because our teachers encouraged us, provided extra support, and made sure we had access to useful resources. I noticed that students who received a strong education later found better jobs and were able to support their families more effectively. This created a ripple effect: as more educated people entered the workforce, local businesses grew, and the overall quality of life improved. Interviewer: Do you think successful governments are defi...

Why Sentence Structure Matters in TOEFL Writing In TOEFL writing, long or complex sentences can help improve scores, but only if ideas are connected properly. Incorrectly formed sentences may turn into fragments or run-ons, which hurts both clarity and your score. Building Correct Sentences Essential Parts of a Sentence Every sentence requires a subject (who or what the sentence is about) and a verb (the action or state). Sometimes, a verb also needs an object or complement to complete its meaning. Example: "I studied for the exam." (complete) "I studied math." (verb + object) Four Sentence Types Simple:  One independent clause. Compound:  Two or more independent clauses joined with a coordinating conjunction (and, but, or, so, yet, nor, for). Complex:  One independent clause plus one or more dependent clauses, using subordinators such as because, although, if, when. Compound-complex:  At least two independent clauses plus at least one dependent clause. Fixing Run-O...

Good morning, everyone!   Being able to guess the meaning of new words as you read is critical—especially for TOEFL Reading. In English, words can be either informal or formal . Informal words often come from Germanic roots. Formal words usually come from Latin or Greek , built from prefixes, roots, and suffixes. Think of the roots and affixes like LEGO pieces : once you know the meaning of the pieces, you can put them together and decode the meaning of unfamiliar words. This skill not only helps you understand passages more deeply but also boosts your performance on TOEFL vocabulary questions. Like all good things, it takes time—but only a finite amount of time. Start now, follow along this journey of word-building, and become a true word detective . Here is the list of A words tested in past TOEFL vocabulary question portions. Several words have appeared multiple times with different answer choices, so be familiar with their various synonyms. Word Meaning / Synonyms...