TOEFL Speaking Task 1

Hi! I am M.Ara and today, I will be showing you a good strategy on answering TOEFL Speaking Task 1.

Many test takers often wonder why their speaking score is quite low even though they feel that they are already good English speakers. What they usually miss in the speaking tasks are the details. For example, if you are asked this question:

"What are the characteristics of a good leader?

Give reasons and examples to support your response"

Bad Answer:

"In my opinion a good leader should be smart and trustworthy. He should also be respected and admired not only by his constituents but also by others outside of his sovereignty. I further believe that to be an efficient leader, a person must also have the ability to impose his command among his followers and sometimes rule with an iron will..."

Why is this not a good answer? Notice what the speaker says. The speaker states a lot of characteristics (smart, trustworthy, respected, admired, ability to impose command) but the speaker does not SUPPORT the reasons by GIVING REASONS AND EXAMPLES for the response.

Good Answer:

"In my opinion, a good leader should be trustworthy and level-headed. A leader should be trustworthy so that his or her constituents would follow him or her. For instance, in case of making new policies, the followers would be confident that their leader is considering what's best for them, so they would not have any second thoughts about obeying the new policies. Another important character is being level-headed. During emergencies, the followers look up to their leader for sound judgement about the situation. If a leader lets his or her emotions take over, it might lead to bad consequences such as failure of a project and loss of respect from his or her followers."

Why is this a good answer? Notice that the response has a topic sentence, two main ideas supported by reasons and examples. Furthermore, the vocabulary used is above average and there are some complex sentence structures. The delivery should be clear (even with local accent) NOT FAST so that it will not be difficult for the listener to understand your response.

Summary! Summary! Summary!

A good response for the TOEFL Speaking Task 1 should contain the following:

- a topic sentence (a paraphrase or restatement of the question)

- main idea 1

- supporting ideas (reasons and examples)

- main idea 2

- supporting ideas (reasons and examples)

- conclusion (summary of the topic sentence plus the 2 main ideas)

I hope that this post will help you in preparing for the TOEFL iBT and getting a good score in the speaking section! This is M.Ara for Better English Dot Com. Have a nice day! ^^

If you have any questions, please leave a comment or send me a message. I would be very glad to help! ^^ Thank you! (>^_^)>