Eight Useful TOEFL Reading Tips

1. Talk to Native English Speakers
By far the best way to practice your English-speaking skills is to actually go out and speak with native English speakers. (As a reminder, a native English speaker is anyone whose first language is English, regardless of where he or she was born and raised.)

If you don’t personally know any native English speakers, try looking for language groups on Meetup or other social platforms. With Meetup, most groups are free to join and offer a fun chance for socialization and language practice. You can also create your own English-language conversation group if there are none in your area.

Another option is to do online video chat lessons in English. Lessons aren’t free, but you can choose a teacher or tutor whose rate works well for you. Popular websites offering video chat services include italki, Verbalplanet, and Live Lingua.

2. Practice Pronunciation
A big part of the Speaking section is being intelligible, or being able to be understood. This means you must always use clear pronunciation when you speak English.

You will not lose points for having an accent. The truth is, most nonnative English speakers have an accent to some degree, and that’s perfectly fine! 

What’s not fine, however, is being asked to repeat yourself, or being misunderstood when you say certain English words.

Review the English sounds commonly thought to be most difficult for nonnative speakers.
These include:

The hard “th” (as in “think”)
The soft “th” (as in “then”)
H
J
V
R
L
Ng (as in the sound you make at the end of “talking”)
Generally, the most difficult sounds for you will be the ones that aren’t in your native language. 

For additional help, try watching YouTube videos that go over English pronunciation, or ask a native English speaker to explain how to pronounce certain sounds and words you often struggle with.

3. Record Your Responses
As you practice for TOEFL Speaking, record your responses to TOEFL Speaking topics and then listen back to them. Make sure that you speak for 45-60 seconds on each topic (in accordance with the official time limit for your particular Speaking task).

Once you finish speaking, listen to your recording and evaluate yourself using the TOEFL Speaking rubric. Your goal should be to develop a more objective view of what sounds and grammar you need to work on in order to get a higher Speaking score.

As you grade your speaking, ask yourself the following questions:

• Do you answer the prompt completely?
• Are you clear and easy to understand?
• Do you stumble over your words or pause too much?
• Do you make many grammatical mistakes?

If you’re struggling to score your own responses, ask a native English speaker to grade them for you and offer feedback on what you can improve.

4. Listen to Sample High-Scoring Responses
Not sure how to respond to a TOEFL Speaking prompt? Then try listening to sample high-scoring responses.

ETS offers a few examples of quality Speaking responses through its YouTube video series, “Inside the TOEFL Test.” 

5. Enunciate and Use a Natural Pace
During the TOEFL, you’ll record your answers into a microphone attached to a computer, so make sure you’re speaking clearly for the raters to be able to understand you without issue. This means you’ll need to use correct pronunciation (remember, having an accent is OK, just as long as native speakers can understand what you are saying!) as well as natural intonations.

Speaking clearly also means using a natural pace. If you speak too fast, your words and sentences will likely run together, making it difficult to understand your responses. This is why it’s best to enunciate your words and speak at the same speed you use in everyday conversation.

6. Ignore Background Noise and Speak Up
On test day, other test takers in the testing room will likely get to the Speaking section around the same time you do. This can make it difficult to focus on what you’re saying and whether you’re speaking loud enough for raters to be able to hear your responses.

The key here is to ignore the background noise and speak a little more loudly than you normally do. Don’t let the voices distract you from your tasks, and don’t worry about whether your microphone is picking up sounds from other test takers—raters understand that test centers can get loud!

While you shouldn’t shout into your microphone, be careful not to speak too softly. Whispered words are especially difficult to hear if there’s background noise, so speak up, stay calm, and focus on delivering a great response.

7. Talk the Whole Time
On TOEFL Speaking, you’ll have 45 seconds to speak on tasks 1 and 2 (the Independent tasks) and 60 seconds to speak on tasks 3-6 (the Integrated tasks).

But these time limits aren’t simply maximums. In reality, you’ll need to speak for the entirety of the time limit. If you don’t use up all of the time you’re given to speak, you’ll likely lose points. Therefore, you’ll need to practice answering TOEFL Speaking prompts so that you are able to speak for precisely 45 and 60 seconds.

If you have time left on the clock during a task, use the rest of your time to:

• Elaborate on a point or example you’ve already given
• Explain an additional point
• Conclude your response with a brief closing remark or summary
• On the other hand, if you feel you might run out of time, try to wrap up your final point with a clear statement. You shouldn’t lose any points if you don’t include a conclusion, so don’t bother squeezing one in if you don’t have enough time to do so.

8. Don’t Pause for Too Long
Although slight pauses are normal and even expected on the TOEFL, you’ll only have 45-60 seconds to speak, so try not to insert too many lengthy pauses.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pause at all, of course. Pausing briefly to take a breath or end a sentence is completely natural! It’s also OK to use occasional filler words, such as “uh” and “um,” as you move from one idea to the next.

Just be sure you keep pauses to a maximum of 1-2 seconds and don’t overuse filler words. Fewer long pauses allows your responses to flow more smoothly and signals to the raters that you can respond to prompts in English without needing a ton of time to plan what to say.