Academic English Skills with Dr. Byrnes

The TOEFL Academic Discussion writing task asks you to: 1. Express and support your opinion. This means you need to have a clear claim (your opinion or thesis) and provide evidence to support it. 2. Contribute to the discussion. This means your idea must answer the professor's question, but it should be original and different from the responses given by the two students. Your response should not simply summarize their points. Step-by-step method This is a step-by-step method for producing a TOEFL academic response. Read only the question. Since you have only 10 minutes, you should go straight to reading the professor's question. You can find the question at the end. Don't waste time reading the whole paragraph; they are fillers. Identify the question type. The question can be either binary, with only two positions, or open, with more than two positions. Two students in the discussion have already chosen each position for a binary question. Develop your own position and reas...

  Main Lesson The TOEFL Listening Best Response task tests whether you can follow the logic of the conversation , not what seems realistic in everyday life. Stay inside the conversation . Do not use outside knowledge, assumptions, or personal experiences. The conversation provides all the information you need. Distractors often sound reasonable in real life but do not fit the dialogue. Common TOEFL Trap An answer may sound correct in the real world but still be wrong on the TOEFL. Example: Speaker: "I think the printer's broken again." Wrong TOEFL response: "Have you tried turning it off and on?" Why? The speaker is expressing frustration, not asking for advice. Focus on Speaker Intention Native speakers often respond to the intention behind a question, not its literal grammar. Ask: What is the speaker trying to accomplish? What feeling or concern are they expressing? Choose the answer that matches the speaker's intention. Example: Tickets Question Question...