The TOEFL® iBT: Improving Your Speaking Skills

Advice for Speaking
Skill: Speaking about Familiar Topics
Performance Level: Weak
Score Range: 0 – 9

1. Take a conversation class. This will help you improve your fluency and pronunciation in English.
2. Develop friendships with people who want to speak English with you. If you can't find a native English speaker, find a friend who wants to practice speaking English and promise to speak only English for a certain period of time.
3. Record yourself speaking in English.
   • Read a simple paragraph and record your voice. Ask a teacher to give you feedback on the recording.
   • Listen to something spoken by a native English speaker. Record yourself repeating the same information, and compare the two.
4. Practice speaking for a limited time on different topics without a lot of preparation.
   • Write down several questions about various topics.
     • your family
     • your hobbies
     • your friends
     • your school
     Select a question and answer it aloud.
   • Ask a friend to give you topics and record yourself discussing them. Ask someone to listen with you and suggest ways for you to improve.
   • Think of a story that you are familiar with. Tell the story to several different people. Try to tell the story faster each time.
5. Use books that come with audio recordings to study pronunciation, stress, and intonation in English.