ESymposia

Bino: You are right to correct me on the additional s on "looks" when the subject is skills. Also, there is an absence of commas in the last sentence. However, I don't think this reply quite stays with the intent of the forum, So, while welcoming your criticism, I would also love to remind you that I am here for the students. Moreover, you are just in telling me to edit my work before posting. Thank you for your remarks. The original message was for 12345678.

v. proofed, proof·ing, proofs v.tr.1. Printinga. To make a trial impression of (printed or engraved matter). b. To proofread (copy). 2.a. To activate (dormant dry yeast) by adding water. b. To work (dough) into proper lightness. 3. To treat so as to make resistant: proof a fabric against shrinkage. v.intr.1. Printing To proofread. 2. To become properly light for cooking: The batter proofed overnight. ---------------------------------Definition given by verb (used with object)24.to test; examine for flaws, errors, etc.; check against astandard or standards. [/left]]proofed__ 25.Printing . prove ( def. 7 ) . 26.to proofread. 27.to treat or coat for the purpose of rendering resistant todeterioration, damage, etc. (often used in combination): toproof a house against termites; to shrink-proof a shirt. 28.Cookery .a.to test the effectiveness of (yeast), as by combiningwith warm water so that a bubbling action occurs. b.to cause (especially bread dough) to rise due to theaddition of baker's yeast or other leavening. -- Definition given by Proof | Define Proof at Dictionary.com [h=3]Usage(s):[/h] And this justified and proofed that cracking down on dissidents and stopping anyone from voicing any alternative view are right for China, as it produced an economic boom. The heavily wooded compound was arranged so that people could not view what was happening, and one of the buildings was sound-proofed and could only be opened from the outside. The White House was due for its first remodeling since President Coolidge fire-proofed it in 1927. ---proofed definition: Bee English Dictionary definition of proofed[h=2]3proof[/h] verb transitive verb 1 a : to make or take a proof or test ofb : proofread == Definition by Merriam-Webster Thank you MAndrew for pointing this out. Obviously, proof is not the past form of "to prove". Which in this case, it should be "proved". And no, it is not slang to say proofed in printing, but rather jargon. jargonn jargon [ˈdʒaːgən]special words or phrases used within a group, trade or profession etc legal jargon; medical jargon; Thieves use a special jargon in order to confuse passing hearers. Now my argument goes as follows. We don't know if these scientists did not proofread the statement "photovotaic cells convert sunglight into energy". Thus this sentence could be technically correct as a form of reported speech, however unlikely or obvious this spelling error is on the past form word of "to prove". The sentence still stands-- Is there any problem with this sentence? In complete honesty, no. In complete likelihood, yes. The sentence should be corrected most likely to: Scientists have proven ... as Corey states.

(The reading states that a core curriculum is a sequence of course that all students must have and makes up one third of the undergrad studies.) The professor focuses on the changes being bought about in the core cirriculum at the univeristy. (While the reading gives a basic understanding of the core curricula, the professor gives the importance of the changes that are being made.) First, the reading states that the core curricula should focus on numerous areas such as communication, math, reasoning, and perspectives. The professors states that the key focus of the core curricula is to expose students beyond their interests. .Although there were several advantages linked to these programs earlier such as nurturing communication skills and quantitative thinking in the students, some courses were too easy or not appropriate. These courses will be restructured and replaced. The second complaint that the professor points out is class size. Classes which involved communication and writing in particular would be revised. Moreover, students wanted to get more out of their classes. An example of intensive courses like political sciences majors has been illustrated by professor to prove his point. He stresses on the fact that additional guidance would be required by the students in their core cirriculum subjects to get more out of the subjects. The third change that applied is the increase in ways to gain core credit. The reading states that the core curriculum is also designed to give students a broader perspective on life. After revamping their course structure , summer internships and volunteer work would be added to core credit . While a core curriculum is a key component of undergrad studies at university, the professor highlights three changes to the the university’s core curriculum: course structure, class size, and application. Score 4/5 A response at this level is generally good in selecting the important information from the lecture and in coherently and accurately presenting this information in relation to the relevant information in the reading, but it may have minor omission, inaccuracy, vagueness, or imprecision of some content from the lecture or in connection to points made in the reading. A response is also scored at this level if it has more frequent or noticeable minor language errors, as long as such usage and grammatical structures do not result in anything more than an occasional lapse of clarity or in the connection of idea

TOEFLiBT64-- I don't think that tutors waste the students time in developing the skills necessary for the speaking task. You mentioned that you will not take the subjects with you to your parents. However, that's not the point of the tutor nor the TOEFL classes. Our methodology is to get you to anticipate and use skills necessary to answer anything they give you on TOEFL. The exam is standardized which means it is to some level predictable. The raters make it subjective, but I assure you not because you are a medic. No where in the speaking section does it ask you to state your occupation. While Bino does a good job at offering you alternatives to taking the exam and trying to strong arm ETS, I am still not sure that these measures are sure. I think that NAPB has a reason for going with TOEFL which cannot be seen in IELTS. IELTS speaking section is a lot more open to conflict and subjectivity from the rater. Secondly, IELTS uses a much larger scale than TOEFL. This method of taking action through protest would seem like forever compared to just getting the English speaking skill. Personally, I have trained medics from India and Latin America and it took me all less than three months. Taking the protest method of getting the golden 26 will take you 6 months to a year on the bright side. As on TOEFL, and in life, timing is important.

Well, I'm not sure that a law suit against ETS or NABP will get you what you a score that is 26 nor make you a candidate as a pharmacologist in the United States. You can try that method, but strong arming a large company might just be more of a headache than actually learning English. Moreover, it would give you some English lessons not appropriate for medicine. It is true that TOEFL is set up for students entering university, but in my understanding, pharmacologists and medical practitioners in the United States have to attend routine classes to ensure their professional skills. Thus, this may be a reason for TOEFL as a requirement in such professions. Now, the question is posed: do you want to waste your time with bureaucratic red tape and finding a new career in law or do you want to pursue a career in medicine and pharmacology? If the later is your option, then I would recommend hiring a tutor that will assess and hone your skills in speaking. Seems like you have a problem with grammar and we can begin with your writing skills which looks dreadful; however, you want speaking, right? I am not asking you to build a well by my house; however, if you would like to submit your essays and desire for some free hours to assess your speaking, we could be of help. Perhaps, reading the discussion that we just had Tino might get you somewhere instead of correcting the rater.

No, On it's own this sentence is acceptable.

This is a good question Kfountain. Results of and results from could sometimes be used interchangeably, but not all the time. For example, the results of/from the meeting included.... Results of the meeting does not necessary have to follow the meeting. Of in this sentence can be used in a possessive case meaning that the results are identified by the meeting but not necessarily following the meeting. Results from the meeting are the necessary consequences of the actions in the meeting. A result of the meeting was the increased prices. This could mean that a discussed result in the meeting was increased prices. However, this does not mean that the economy resulted from the meeting. It is only discussed. This may be helpful in a business meeting discussing cause and effect. (However, the economy could still be a result of the meeting.) A result from the meeting was the increased prices. This means that the meeting ended in increasing the prices. Increased prices would necessarily follow the meeting.

Hi Edward. Personally, I would never recommend someone to learn vocabulary through mere repetition. Our minds don't work well that way. Are you talking vocabulary or test preparation? If you are talking about developing skills for the TOEFL, then I would do a couple of initial things: 1) Listen to lectures on Youtube. Youtube has a great educational channel from universities. As you listen, take notes of a couple of things: words you don't know, words that sound unfamiliar, general idea and flow of conversation. You won't have subtittles and the content is like that in the listening and speaking task 4 and 6. Look up any words that are unknown and unfamiliar in a dictionary, then practice speaking them in sentences. 2) Develop strategy early. TOEFL is a standardized exam. With all standardized exams, the questions follow patterns. While one should develop general skills in English, it is also beneficial to practice it in the way that will be seen on the exam. It may even be helpful in building English skills for the exam. 3) Keep timing in mind. TOEFL is a timed exam. As with timed exams, timing is important. Developing the right skills in the TOEFL should also be developing easier and simpler ways to solve the problems in the time allotted. While timing may not be perfect in the beginning, timing should be a goal. 4) Go with a tutor. We can give you free advice for your first three classes. After that, its up to you. Anyway, at some point, you might want to consider seeing a tutor, someone who will help you with useful practice, tips, and advice on the TOEFL. This is especially true in the writing and speaking tasks. While there are some useful guides out there, the tutor should add to it his own knowledge and experience. There are some useful guides such as from Kaplan, Barrons, and Nova, which focuses on the exam. This is good to some degree, but limited to your own ability if you were to use them for self-study. I hope this helps. Thanks.

I think that gives a good picture of the problem with accents in general. One of the main constants on the TOEFL speaking task is the time element. This is crucial. Students at intermediate and preintermediate level may think of masking it by speaking slow, but the amount of content and development would suffer. 60 seconds is not a very long time for a response. Thank you MAndrew for stating some of the points there.

Thank you Corey for pointing this out that you mainly teach Advanced students how to pass ETS. I had not such the experience to mainly teach advanced students. For advanced students, the practice for TOEFL focuses more on organization, active listening and reading, and building anticipation. This is much different from intermediate and pre-intermediate students that are seeking practice on the TOEFL. I have attached an zipped audio file of a student's task three response. As one can see, the reply shows a need for correction of all four areas: general, delivery, language use, and development. To correct topic development and language use (grammar points) as well as build fluency and rate of speech, it would be important for me to correct accent. "The average English skill level ranges between Intermediate and Advanced."(TOEFL iBT: About the Test) Between intermediate and advanced level, students are encouraged to speak more. As MAndrew said in his post "6 Main Reasons People Don't Score Well on the TOEFL Exam!", he states as his second point "2. Reviewing TOEFL test strategies exclusively, without enough language skills to perform well in general, or without enough general English review". As I said before, the two statements from the ets guide and the rubric do not deny each other. However, I am saying that accent training might be a necessity in developing and looking at delivery points and building "language skills" to perform well. My past experience shows me that I have had a student that did really well in the other three areas, but because her environment was mainly her native language, hindi, her speaking patterns in English had problems that came from her need to speak Hindi. In summary, no one sure-fire way of teaching TOEFL exists, but what is important is addressing what is needed by the student in the four areas of the rubric. As for my posts to Tino, perhaps it was a regretful over-reaction in a previous post outside of this forum. As for any other offence, I apologize. I hope that we can all agree with MAndrew in stating that one major reason people do not do well is they take the test without "enough language skills to perform well." In answering the question "has the TOEFL iBT changed?". i would just add that the actual preparation of the four areas on the rubric did not change over the past years. The new questions that have been mentioned does not change the rubric, so should not change the anticipation or development of the topic.

I guess, I would have to agree fully with MAndrew, "This is really sad". First, we overlook the issue and the problem. According to the guide:Minor and/or occasional pronunciation mistakes are also expected, even among the most proficient test takers, and, here again, as long as pronunciation mistakes do not interfere with the intelligibility of your response, they will not count against your score According to the rubric: Generally, self-paced flow (fluid expressions. Speech is clear. It may include minor lapses, or minor difficulties with pronunciation or intonation patterns, which do not affect overall intelligibility. There is no mistake between the rubric and the guide. Do you see any difference? What is the affect of Accent on intonation and pronunciation? "Accent is a combination of three main components: intonation (speech music), liaisons (word connections), and pronunciation (the spoken sounds of vowels, consonants, and combinations)" Anne Cook, American Accent Training Is Accent helpful in building Delivery? "Just like your own language, conversational English has a very smooth, fluid sound. Imagine that you are walking along a dry riverbed with your eyes closed. Every time you come to a rock, you trip over it, stop, continue, and trip over the next rock. This is how the average foreigner speaks English. It is slow, awkward, and even painful. Now imagine that you are a great river rushing through that same riverbed—rocks are no problem, are they? You just slide over and around them without ever breaking your smooth flow. It is this feeling that I want you to capture in English"-- Anne Cook, American Accent Training. Is Accent the same as Pronunciation? "Many people equate accent with pronunciation. I don't feel this to be true at all. America is a big country, and while the pronunciation varies from the East Coast to the West Coast, from the southern to the northern states, two components that are uniquely American stay basically the same—the speech music, or intonation, and the word connections or liaisons " Anne Cook-- American Accent Training. Yet, MAndrew, Corey, and Tino would have you to believe that accent is not important in the grading scheme of the rubric. Perhaps the question that is best suited is-- How do you correct pronunciation, intonation, and build fluency? Perhaps they have other ways to do it. For me, the student that I have taught were not absent of ideas, but in want of ability to speak fluently in English in the style tested by ETS. To enable the student on the speaking tasks, I have used strategy and accent reduction. To MAndrews, Corey, and Tino-- could you offer the students pedagogy and strategy that would be able to correct pronunciation, intonation, and add fluency? And by the way, thank you for the correction on the emphatic "non-natives" which ought to be "non-native". Obviously, "More than 27 million people from all over the world have taken the TOEFL test to demonstrate their English-language proficiency" (ETS TOEFL website (http://www.ets.org/toefl/ibt/about/) So, I was not adjusting the scope of who takes the test nor writing incorrectly. Do you have another way of expressing it? But, as even the guide has put it, "even among the most proficient test takers" pronunciation errors do occur By the time this is done, I am sure that the student would rather see professionals working together rather than bickering over two pieces written for different audiences. Let's not lose focus on what is important, are there changes to the 2012 exam? Oh, and by the way, you can find Anne Cook's website at http://www.americanaccent.com/

Tino, thank you for clearing that up because it seems that you don't have a firm grasp of English or how to teach it, just responding from the other post made. Furthermore, how come you are using pirated software which is obvious from your site. Moreover, are you a lawyer or a IT specialist. I see, you are IT and yet you have a website that looks like that? Are you trying the simple is method approach? You don't have much information about your site, your classes, your teachers, or anything really on your site. It's amazing to think that you would be such a master of the language.And how should we reach you? Your videos really need some cropping as well. You should only put on the material which is necessary to deliver your opinion. Not that I think your classes are too technical, just the video has a lot of dead areas in it.

Thank you Tino, I just updated my address, but the problem is that the store does not show it. Besides, I am having a problem accessing your site. Is it down?

Now, look at tutors that try to cheat the students in thinking about what the ETS website has said instead of what the rubrics says. Wow! Think about it people. We can agree that "occassional" and "minor" in the speaking rubrics under delivery. What is meant by "occassional" and "minor" well, lets see. If you pronounce ship as sheep, would you consider that wrong? If you are Spanish and constantly pull back,never pronouncing final -s on third-person singular verbs, would you consider that a problem? If you are Indian and consistently speak with a sing-song accent, would there be a problem with that? The rubrics says that, but ETS wants everyone to participate. What's the difference? Actually, there is no difference. From my perspective, as a teacher, I can help you speak clearly by fixing the underlying issue which is Accent Reduction. It is true that " as long as pronunciation mistakes do not interfere with the intelligibility of your response, they will not count against your score." But I am working with non-natives English speakers and usually a national accent is a source of the differences between clarity and confusion.

Now, look at tutors that try to cheat the students in thinking about what the ETS website has said instead of what the rubrics says. Wow! Think about it people. We can agree that "occassional" and "minor" in the speaking rubrics under delivery. What is meant by "occassional" and "minor" well, lets see. If you pronounce ship as sheep, would you consider that wrong? If you are Spanish and constantly pull back,never pronouncing final -s on third-person singular verbs, would you consider that a problem? If you are Indian and consistently speak with a sing-song accent, would there be a problem with that? The rubrics says that, but ETS wants everyone to participate. What's the difference? Actually, there is no difference. From my perspective, as a teacher, I can help you speak clearly by fixing the underlying issue which is Accent Reduction. It is true that " as long as pronunciation mistakes do not interfere with the intelligibility of your response, they will not count against your score." But I am working with non-natives English speakers and usually a national accent is a source of the differences between clarity and confusion. We are talking about going from a 3 to a 4, so it can still be a source of point reduction.