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Showing posts from October, 2016

TOEFL iBT - Listen to the audio.

TOEFL iBT ®  Quick Prep is a free practice tool with real TOEFL iBT questions from past tests. Each Quick Prep volume includes questions from all four sections of the test. Volumes 1 and 2 have transcripts of the audio portions of the test, but do not include audio. Volumes 3 and 4 include both transcripts and audio files. The audio files in MP3 format are embedded into the PDF Download PDF Files https://www.ets.org/s/toefl/pdf/qp_v1_web_a4.pdf Listen to the Audio https://www.ets.org/toefl/ibt/prepare/quick_prep/

Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants By Marc Prensky

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"It is amazing to me how in all the hoopla and debate these days about the decline of education in the US we ignore the most fundamental of its causes. Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach..." DIGITAL NATIVES AND IMMIGRANTS  

Reading Strategies - TOEFL iBT - Your Reading Skills Count!

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TOEFL iBT Reading Section The TOEFL iBT  test is via the Internet.  There are four sections (listening, reading, speaking, and writing) which take a total of about four and a half hours to complete everything.  Some students expect american speakers to take part in the Listening and Speaking sections of the test, however, Different speakers are included, so you may find other  native-speaker English accents in addition to accents from North America. You may hear accents from the U.K., New Zealand or Australia. Try to read materials from diffrent sources and listen to differen English accents. Even though we meant to add some general information about the test format, our main focus in this artcle lies on strategies to be applied in the reading section.  The image shows the TOEFL iBT format. Image:  https://www.ets.org/toefl/ibt/about/content/   If you have been to any school or if you are a student, you know how to read a text, an article or books, but when you prep

How to Use Articles in English Grammar

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Case 01 When we are talking about something and you are very specific. "The dog that I have in my farm bit one of my cows yesterday and ran away. Bad dog!" (we're talking about a specific dog). Case 02 When there is only one of the kind. For example: "The Pope is coming to Brazil." “The Moon is beautiful tonight”, and “the Sun will be shining brightly tomorrow”. Case 03 Another way to use "the" correctly is when you use it in sentences with superlative adjectives. "Peter is the tallest member of our family". Case 04 With adjectives like rich, poor, elderly, unemployed to talk about groups of people. "I think the rich should pay more taxes" or "Life can be very hard for the poor." Case 05 Use “the” before any musical instruments. The guitar, the violin, the piano etc. An article is a word used to modify a noun, which

TOEFL - Writing Preparation

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There are two tasks in TOEFL iBT writing section and they are used to measure the ability to write in standard academic English. They are the independent and the integrated writing tasks. This writing section is the very last part of the test. There are different sections in the TOEFL test, however, my goal in this article is to provide some information students need to succeed with the TOEFL independent and integrated writing tasks. First, let me start with the independent writing task in which students are asked to write an essay on a given general question. In this task, you need to state your opinions or express ideas on topics that are based on personal knowledge and experience. You should support your ideas and opinions with examples, details, and explanations. Thirty minutes is the amount of time to write the essay that should be approximately 300 words. Second, there is the integrated writing task when you are asked to demonstrate that you have understood informa

20 misused English words that make smart people look silly

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When I formally started to learn English, I decided to learn and use academic English language, formal English, for academic purposes. I've read this article and I could quickly remember most mistakes I made at the time. This article is a very helpful material for English language learners who need to brush up English or improve writing language skills. Have a look to see which of these commonly confused words throw you off.

The TOEFL Speaking Section: a quick view about speaking preparation.

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The TOEFL Speaking Section is the shortest section of the TOEFL test; however, I struggled a lot with it when I took the test in 2010. Speaking in English, using a microphone in a very short time that you have, and on top of it, there is a noisy room full of other test-takers. I just did not feel comfortable. It was very stressful and I did not expected that noisy environment.  I was not prepared to take the test (somehow) under so much pressure. In this article, I will give an umbrella view of the speaking section (question 01) and what you go through while taking the TOEFL test. My score was not too bad, but could be much better if I knew how it is done. As a teacher, now I can help my students and others who are interested in taking the TOEFL test. Students have the time to prepare for it; some students might even ace it if you have a good preparation. When you understand the format of the TOEFL Speaking section, you can train, develop, and improve some strategies ( not ne