TOEFL Writing: the Independent Writing Task

Overview of the Independent Writing Task

Source: https://www.coursera.org/learn/toefl-speaking-writing-sections-skills-mastery/supplement/5FKY8/overview-of-the-independent-writing-task

The last task you need to complete on an iBT test is writing an essay.  Just like the Integrated Writing task, there is one independent writing task. However, you will not need to read or listen before you type your response. You will have 30 minutes to write your essay on the topic you receive. Although ETS does not state a minimum requirement for the length of the essay, your essay should be about 300 words.

The questions you need to answer ask you to respond to an issue with your opinion. This is how the question usually appears followed by a wide variety of statements as in the following example:

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

Technology has improved the quality of life in the world.

Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. 

There is no correct or incorrect answer to this question. You are encouraged to use your opinion and personal ideas. Therefore, you should not try to answer this question with memorized phrases. 

Scoring

iBT raters will assign a score to your writing based on three areas:

1. Topic development: your score will depend on the number and types of examples, details, and reasons you use to support your idea. Get a top score by making your essay “well-developed” and supporting your ideas well.
2. Organization: this means your essay should be easy to follow from the beginning to the end. All the points you include must be related to the essay topic and to the main idea you are making in your response. Get a top score by not repeating ideas (therefore avoiding redundancy), not making unclear connections, and not including unrelated points to your main idea (also called irrelevant ideas).
3. Language use: this criterion is related to vocabulary and grammatical structure. Use several different sentence structures and choose appropriate words. You will not get a top score if 1) your writing is difficult to follow, 2)  you write in too-simple sentences, or 3) your vocabulary is limited.

The following link will show you the rubrics that ETS use to evaluate the Independent (and Integrated) writing tasks. TOEFL iBT® Test — Independent Writing Rubrics

The Prompt

The prompt gives you the topic which you must write about. All the prompts are very general and do not require any special knowledge or experience. As mentioned, you will need to make a choice and choose an idea to support. There is no correct or incorrect answer to the question. The most common topic areas for prompts are education, culture, business, travel, career, friendship, communication, technology, and so on.

In the 5th edition of the TOEFL Official Guide, ETS provides a list of TOEFL independent essay questions.  Look over the sample questions.  You will also see  thorough information in the text, however, below is a useful summary of central subjects divided into types.

Expect a TOEFL independent writing question in one of these four styles:

• Agree/Disagree -- most common style; used about 50% of the time
• Multiple Choice -- used about 20% of the time
• Paired Choice -- used about 20% of the time
• “Good Idea” -- used about 10% of the time

Below are samples of each question type.  

Sample TOEFL Independent Essay Questions

1. Agree/Disagree Style Prompt:

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Overall, the wide use of the internet has a mostly positive effect on life in today’s world.

2. Multiple Choice Style Prompt:

Neighbors are the individuals who live near us. In your opinion, what kind of neighbor is the best?

•  A quiet neighbor  
•  A neighbor who is similar to us 
•  A supportive neighbor  

 Use specific details and examples in your answer.

3. Paired Choice Style Prompt  

Some people like living in a big city while others prefer a small town. Which place would you choose? Use specific reasons and details to support your answer.

4. “Good Idea”  Essay Prompt

The administrators of a university have decided to change which campus areas are prioritized as they revise their budget. They will now budget more money on sports and athletic facilities than on campus libraries. Do you think this is a good idea?  Why or why not? Use specific reasons and examples to explain your position.

In this module we will look at some approaches that can help you start and plan your essay when you answer any independent writing task. We will also go over some useful templates that will save you time. However, remember that these templates are merely suggestions that can help you save time and are by no means the only accepted way to write your essay.

Before you proceed, please follow the link below to read more about this task. There is a seven-minute video which summarizes these points as well. The information is available on ETS.org and explains what the task looks like and what you are expected to do.  Independent transcript

Finally, after watching the videos, come back to this reading and click on the following link. It will take you to a website that has more than 100 topics to choose from. Next, pick the topic of your choice, time your writing for 30 minutes, and write an essay on that topic.  104 TOEFL Independent Writing Topics. When you finish writing your essay, check it against the rubric to make sure that your essay answers the question properly. If you need a high-score sample answer to help you get ideas, check the following link:

2 Perfect-Scoring TOEFL Writing Samples, Analyzed • PrepScholar TOEFL

Sources:

www.ets.org

The Official Guide to the iBT Test (fifth edition) 2017.

TOEFL Writing (2021) – Sample TOEFL Essays and Questions | Test Resources

There are some useful features that you should use, you will have to cut button, paste button, undo button and another useful feature here is the word count, and you can see how many words you have typed.

For this question, the readers are looking for three main things.

• One, development, that means the readers are looking for how well you develop the topic with your details, examples, and reasons. If you just use a lot of words and sentences that don't really support the points you are making about the topic. Or if you just develop ideas not related to the topic, you'll receive a low score.
• Second, organization, this basically means a reader can read your essay from beginning to end without becoming confused, you can help the reader follow your ideas by writing in paragraphs and using good transitions.
• The third criterion is language use, readers are looking for things like sentence structure, word choice, and vocabulary. It's also important that you use grammar that's strong and consistent. We will talk about all these three in course number 3 when we talk about tips and strategies in writing.

In this section, you need to think about quantity over quality. The more ideas you write, the better, you don't need to worry about them being right or wrong, you'll have a chance to go through them and pick the ones that you want to use in your answer.

the first step in planning has to choose your basic thesis. Thesis is the controlling or central idea of an essay. This simply means choosing what you want to support or agree with. Remember that when you choose a thesis, there's no right or wrong answer. Next, you need to choose your reasons. These reasons need to be strong enough to support your thesis. Next, you need to write a simple outline, you don't have to write a formal outline, just a basic plan for your four or five paragraphs. You may be tempted to skip this step to save time, but an outline will actually save you time as it will help you focus and keep your essay organized.

Ideally, you don't want to spend more than five minutes in understanding the prompt, brainstorming and planning your essay.

TOEFL Vocabulary

The Importance of Vocabulary

Source: https://www.coursera.org/learn/toefl-reading-listening-sections-skills-mastery/supplement/TN5vK/the-importance-of-vocabulary

As you may have noticed, vocabulary plays a very important role in getting your desired scores. Although, as mentioned, you don’t need to know extensive technical vocabulary, you still need to know a sufficient amount of academic vocabulary.

Academic vocabulary might be confused with difficult vocabulary. Academic vocabulary is not necessarily difficult. It consists of words that are necessary to understand academic passages or conversations. For example, when you read a magazine like “People,” which covers a lot of celebrity news, you see different words than in “National Geographic,” which contains articles about science, geography, history, and world culture.

In this lesson, we will learn some new academic vocabulary that will help you improve your score on the iBT test.The words that are used in this reading can help you understand iBT questions, prompts, listening conversations, as well as  academic readings passages and lectures. This is not the only list that is available. There are many different word lists you can find on the web. Also, this list is not the most comprehensive either, but it will help you prepare for the test and the words that you may read or hear. Try to work on at least five new words per day, and in less than one week, you will know all these words by heart. 

30 Essential Words for the TOEFL Test

Here are 30 words that you’ll probably see on the TOEFL test—in prompts, passages, questions or listening sections.

1. Considerable  (adjective):  large or great in size, distance or amount

Robert ate a considerable amount of pizza. He couldn’t choose between sausage or extra cheese pizza, so he ate them both. 

2. Interpret (verb): to explain the meaning of something especially between two languages

If your parents have weak English skills and you visit Los Angeles together, please interpret anything they don’t understand. 

3. Attitude (noun): manner, feeling or position, sometimes with regard to a person or thing

Flight attendants show their welcoming attitude by greeting their passengers and showing concern. 

4. Estimate (verb): to form an approximate judgment or opinion

I estimate that we will walk about four hours a day when we are touring New York City.

5. Authority (noun): the power or right to control

Police officers have the authority to write traffic tickets.

6. Demonstrate (verb): to describe, explain or show using actions or reasoning

Bakers with the most popular baking shows demonstrate clearly how to make wonderful cakes, cookies and bread.

7. Proceed (verb): to move or go forward

As soon as every student arrives, the class can proceed.  

8. Stable (adjective): to show a secure and steady positionl

A chair with one weak leg is not stable for anyone to use.

9. Contribute  (verb): to give; frequently used when referring to providing money or ideas

Since he didn’t have a job currently, Albert decided to contribute his time instead of money to the project.

10. Risk (noun): a situation with the chance to lose something or to be injured

The risk of falling trees is high in a windstorm, so I stay indoors. 

11. Prior (adjective): something that happens before another event in time

Prior to having mobile phones, everyone depended on landlines. 

12. Shift (verb): to move, usually in an undramatic but noticeable way

The stock market investor shifted some money from one fund to another.

13. Benefit (noun): an advantage or helpful result

The applicant accepted the job offer that included the benefit of working from home three days a week. 

14. Impact (noun): the result of something influencing or making strong contact with something or someone else

The impact of America’s Great Depression in the 1930s greatly affected businesses and families.

15. Distribute (verb): to divide or give out

Before Bill held a barbeque party, he distributed invitations to all his neighbors.

16. Challenge (verb): to question a statement’s truth or to invite someone to compete

Many residents challenged the mayor’s suggestion of raising taxes in the city.  

17. Evaluate (verb): to determine the value or significance

My instructor evaluates my essays and gives me helpful feedback on my writing. 

18. Former (adjective): previous in time or order 

When Rebecca left her job, she called Ms. Whitson her “former” supervisor.

19. Interfere (verb): to interrupt or when something conflicts with another

The children’s new puppy interfered with getting their homework finished.  As the puppy grew, the situation improved. 

20. Issue (noun): a significant topic or problem that people debate

Even after years of discussion, the issue of global warming continues to be debated.

21. Reinforce (verb): to strengthen or support physically or through ideas

The official reinforced her campaign promise by lowering taxes when she took office.  

22. Significantly (adverb): in a great or important way

My pronunciation in English improved significantly during my speaking class.

23. Widespread  (adjective): found or distributed over a large area or group

When a popular music concert is cancelled, fans react with widespread disappointment.

24. Imply (verb): to suggest but not directly say

The unhappy look on the coach’s face implied that she was unhappy with the team’s performance.

25. Increase (verb): to become greater in size or quantity

The size of cities increased greatly when young people left farming work in the countryside.

26. Effective  (adjective): successful at producing the desired result

Vaccines have been effective in preventing harmful viruses from spreading.

27. Debate (verb): to argue about a subject, sometimes in a formal manner

My best friend and I debated over which restaurant to visit:  he wanted vegetarian;  I wanted seafood. 

28. Sustain (verb): to maintain mental or physical strength over time

He was able to sustain keeping a job and going to school at the same time because his family did all the household chores.

29. Support (verb): to agree with or approve of, or to give financial help

Voters frequently support candidates who inspire them and promise to help the community.

30. Measure  (verb): calculate the size, amount or degree of something

Before Rocky asked the teacher to delay the test, he measured how many other students agreed with him.

Say the words out loud and pay attention to the word stress, because word stress can change that word's meaning. For example, produce is a verb, which means make. But produce refers to things that are grown by farming.

In English, each word is assigned to a particular part of speech. There are eight parts of speech in the English language nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections. An individual words can function as more than one part of speech when used in different circumstances.

noun verb         adjective adverb consideration consider reconsider considerable considerate considerably

estimation estimator estimate

interpretation interpretability interpret interpretable Interpreted

sustainability  sustainment    sustain     sustained sustainably

insignificant signify signified significant significantly

implication imply, re-imply implied, re-implied

stabilizer stabilization stable stabilized unstable

Bringing the Communicative Approach to a Predominantly Grammar Translation System

Bringing the Communicative Approach to a Predominantly Grammar Translation System

by Jessica Cinco

For years, the majority of Chinese schools have taught English using a combination of the Grammar Translation Approach and the Reading Approach.  English courses are teacher- and textbook-centered, focusing primarily on learning specific grammar, reading and writing.  Lessons are geared towards passing government-created standardized English tests.  Classes often have well over 50 students, who may never even visit any English speaking country (Anderson, 1993).  This reminds me of the painful stories my parents told me of their childhood Latin classes in the 1950’s, made up of strict teachers, boring material and copious amounts of memorization to pass standardized tests.  As both a language teacher AND student myself, I cringe to think about either teaching in this manner or having to sit in class and endure this means of instruction.  It just isn’t practical….or fun.  I’ve seen the effects of this style of education, when students who’ve been taught English in this manner, whether from China or other countries, are placed in my English classes at ASU.  They are withdrawn and often resent being in class.  My goal is, and always will be, to bring life back into these burned-out language learners.  

This past summer, I participated in the Jiangsu Teacher Training Program, in the Jiangsu Province of China, located just outside of Shanghai.  The Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education has been striving to revolutionize their English education program in public schools since 2004 (JESIE Program, 2016).  Every summer, native-speaking English teachers journey to the Jiangsu Province to help the government conduct a ten-day English teacher training program for its public school English teachers. This program brings together two amazing groups of teachers:  the Chinese teachers who struggle to prepare massive classes of students who don’t want or care to learn English to take government-created standardized tests and native English speaking educators who’ve been utilizing techniques from the Communicative Approach in their own classrooms. 

I was placed in Kunshan, an industrial suburb of Shanghai, for the Jiangsu Teacher Training Program this past July and worked with 22 English teachers from around the city, most of whom didn’t know each other.  When I met the teachers on the first day of this course, on a hot, humid July morning, most of the teachers were not particularly engaged. They were exhausted, overworked and resentful of the fact they had to spend 2 weeks of their summer vacation in a teacher training program full of strangers.  Could I blame them?  Absolutely not.  But my goal was to engage them, rekindle their passion for language education and hopefully send them back to their own classrooms in the fall with new ideas and techniques for language education. 

Throughout the ten-day course, I introduced these teachers to many different methods of language education, all focused around the ever-broadening Communicative approach. I emphasized the importance of creating engaging, student-centered classes, fluency over accuracy, and partner and group work. I not only explained, but also demonstrated through my own teaching style, the importance of making the English classroom a “safe zone,” a warm, comfortable environment where students feel they are able speak and make mistakes without being judged or reprimanded.  We sang songs, wrote and performed skits, gave presentations, created poems, used grids to create and organize paragraphs, played language games, had a food day where students brought in their favorite food and discussed why they liked it and how it was made, and even watched an episode of Friends so that we could analyze some of the differences between American and Chinese culture.  All of these simulated possible activities and techniques for them to use in their own classes.  

At the end of this course, the resentful, withdrawn strangers I met on the first day of class had transformed into warm, vibrant, vivacious friends eager to return to their classes in the fall.  We shared a tearful, loving goodbye, with promises to keep in touch on the last day of the course.  

These incredible teachers provided me with so much positive feedback: they felt like our original group of “strangers” had melded into a big, happy “family;”  they felt comfortable making mistakes and learning from each other; they had new ideas to introduce to their students; their confidence in themselves and their English abilities had risen astronomically.   My heart was warmed and overjoyed by their responses.

However, they also had one major concern:  How can they implement these new, student-centered Communicative Approach ideas when they still had to administer the reading/writing/grammar-based standardized tests?

So, here are some questions for you to ponder:  What would you do if you were put in this situation?  What advice would you give to these teachers? Have you, or someone you know, been in a similar educational situation?  How was the situation handled?  Would you suggest the same solution or a different approach?

References:  

Anderson, Jan (1993).  Is a communicative approach practical for teaching English in China? Pros and cons. System, Vol. 21, No. 4.  

JESIE Program (2015).  Teach in China. Accessed on November 19, 2015 from http://www.teachinchina.org.au/index.htm

Source: https://www.coursera.org/learn/language-theories/supplement/l7PWq/bringing-the-communicative-approach-to-a-predominantly-grammar-translation

ASU Tesol Cert: #2 Theories of Second Language Acquisition

Teach English Now! Course #2 Theories of Second Language Acquisition

Lecturers: Dr. Shane Dixon, Dr. Justin Shewell

In the direct approach, A teacher must make it clear to the learner that they are in charge of seeing this world and of expressing and sharing it. A teacher must make it clear that learners are in charge of their own learning. (my comment: I think it should be the goal of teaching no matter what kind of teaching methods are used. )

Things I learn:  (words from the lecture)

• Language is a way to get to know different people. I want to learn your language so I can communicate with you and learn more about you. I have always been fascinated by other cultures, 
• People learn a language when they care about it. A teacher should make learning fun and interesting. 
• You help people remember a language by making your lessons memorable. You choose things they are interested in, and use those to help them learn a language. You make it fun, if students are having fun, hopefully they are engaged. They are motivated with the language, and that will help them to learn
• If you encounter students who really need to pass a test, then some of the strategies learned in the reading approach might be very attractive and even recommended. If learning just enough language to communicate quickly is attractive to you, there is still commercial products that use a lot of audio-lingual drills to allow you time to practice and practice quickly before your airplane lands. Please consider what your purpose and the purpose of your learners is first.

Week 1: The Swing of the Pendulum: A Brief Look at ESL History

Week 2: A Study in Contrasts: The Grammar Translation and Direct Approach

Week 3: A Study in Contrasts: The Reading and Audiolingual Approach

Week 4: A Study in Contrasts: The Cognitive and Affective-Humanistic Approach

Week 5: A Study in Similarities: The Comprehension and Communicative Approach

Week 6: Assessment

• Three basic elements are purpose, content, and technique ( who, what, why, and how)'
• purpose shapes both content and technique

Technique refers to the ways a teacher teaches. While purpose refers to why and who, and content refers to what, technique refers to how a language is learned and taught. 

Although loosely based on Peter Elbow's The Believing and Doubting Game, we will call our game the Angel and Devil Debate. 

Week 1: The Swing of the Pendulum: A Brief Look at ESL History

In art, we have two movements at extreme ends of the pendulum. First, we have abstract expressionism This type of art appeared around the 1940's and 1950's, at the end of World War II, and focused mostly on various shapes and colors, representing a mixture of emotions and expressions. Two famous works from this period in are Number 1, Lavendar Mist, done in 1950 by Jackson Pollack And Door to the River, done by Willem de Kooning in 1960.

At the other end of the pendulum, we have the photorealism movement. This type of art came out in direct contrast to the abstract expressionism movement. This type of art appeared in the 1960s and 70s and focused on creating recreations of realistic scenes. Often taken from a photograph, and adding artistic enhancements to make the scene even more vivid and lifelike. Two famous works from this movement are Self-Portrait, done in 1969 by Chuck Close, and McDonald's Pick-up, done in 1970. By Ralph Goings. As you can see, these two movements represent two extremes in art and the pendulum swung from one to the other rather quickly. 

Week 2: A Study in Contrasts: The Grammar Translation and Direct Approach

One of the primary principles of the direct approach is that language learning should be done completely in the primary language.

Week 3: A Study in Contrasts: The Reading and Audiolingual Approach  

The reading approach focused on explicit grammar instruction, while deemphasizing speaking. And the audio-lingual approach emphasized speaking while focusing on teaching grammar through dialogues. 

Audio-langualism was heavily influenced by the behaviorist theories of B.F. Skinner who was a famous psychologist at that time. When you think of behaviorism, think of Pavlov's dogs.

The audio-lingual approach is based on the idea of language learning as habit formation(by repeat). There was a definite focus on speaking and oral ability, and reading and writing were almost completely ignored. There wasn't much focus on meaning, but a lot of focus on mimicry and pronunciation.

Students were taught by the use of lots of repetition drills, backward drills, build up drills, chain drills, single slot, and multi slot substitution drills, and transformation drills. They were asked to memorize dialogues and phrases. Minimal pairs were used to focus on pronunciation. By overlearning these dialogues and phrases and focusing on correct pronunciation, these language chunks became automatic and habitual.

single-slot substitution drill, where students replace one word or phrase for another in a line they have already memorized.  the transformation drill, where teachers ask students to transform a line they have already memorized into a different grammatical form. ( I like swimming. Do you like swimming?). Chain drill or chain game. In this game, one student begins by saying a line, such as, I like swimming. The next student then repeats the first student's line and adds their own, such as, she likes swimming. I like watching television.

There was even a concept that is often referred to overlearning, which was a theory that suggested that practicing new skills beyond the point of initial mastery leads to durable, long-term gains.

The reading approach focused on explicit grammar instruction, while deemphasizing speaking. And the audio-lingual approach emphasized speaking while focusing on teaching grammar through dialogues.

Week 4: A Study in Contrasts: The Cognitive and Affective-Humanistic Approach

The cognitive approach: brain is called  Language Acquisition Device by Noam Chomsky.

In de-suggestapedia, the concept was to help the students overcome their fear of language learning through an environment that would unlock the potential of their conscious and subconscious mind.

Desuggestopedia is an application of the study of suggestion to pedagogy. Desuggest is the opposite of suggest. It is used to eliminate the negative feeling and Suggestopedia is used to reinforce the positive feeling and to release the full mental power.

• Positive Reinforcement. 
• Multiple Concerts.
• Dramatization, skits 幽默讽刺短剧

Week 5: A Study in Similarities: The Comprehension and Communicative Approach

Asher created a teaching method based on the comprehension approach called Total Physical Response. Lessons in TPR are organized around grammar, and in particular around the verb. For example, to teach "sit down", teachers will demonstrate "sit down" 

The theorist behind the comprehension approach hypothesized that learning a second language is much like learning a first language. And the silent way, was essential for the learners to form their own concepts of the language and make those connections before they began speaking. 

The silent period our teacher mentioned is supposed to mimic the time when children are listening to their parents and others around them and forming connections in their brain with regards to grammar and vocabulary in their first language. Thus, there is a greater focus on comprehension and less on production.

In addition to the silent period, another important concept is the idea of the affective filter. The affective filter is a metaphor that describes a learner's attitudes that affect the relative success of second language acquisition. Negative feelings such as lack of motivation, lack of self-confidence and learning anxiety act as filters that hinder and obstruct language learning. Also using only the target language in the classroom.

In the comprehension approach, emphasis is placed on understanding meaning by connecting physical actions and situations represented in pictures. main focus of the comprehension approach, is on understanding input.