TOEFL

Why Am I Not Improving English?

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Woman Writing in Daily Planner

Avoid translating

  1. You are translating from your native language into English. That’s a big “no-no.” Avoid translating from your first language into English. You can speed up your progress in English if you simply focus on listening to English and catch the words you understand. Use the context to guess understanding. For instance, if someone says, “There will be a big shin dig this Friday night.” Imagine you don’t know the word shin dig. Don’t translate it. Just imagine what those words could mean in terms of happening on Friday night: a feast, a reception, a get together, a dance, or a dinner party.

 

  1. You are not practicing enough English speaking with a native. Dedicate enough study time to make advancements. Don’t expect to study English only a half hour per week and improve rapidly. Intensive language learning of a few set hours every weekday can expand your progress. When you do have a set study session in-person with a native speaker, don’t forget to speak. Sometimes, when you are conversing with someone in another language, it’s easy to just listen, but you won’t learn English faster if you don’t practice participating more in the conversation. So, the more you converse, the more you will learn to communicate better in English. If you spoke English just one time today, next time or tomorrow, try to speak two times. Of course, the more often you practice speaking, you can improve your confidence and your fluency in the language.

 

  1. You lack confidence in your English abilities. How can you improve in the language if you do not believe in yourself? Be confident that you are learning, and you will acquire more language skills day by day. Avoid saying, “Sorry,” if you don’t feel confident using English fluently yet with a native speaker. If you come across a new word/phrase/express, you can always ask a native speaker, “What does (~phrase) mean?” Just because you may not be familiar with idiomatic expressions or advanced vocabulary, you don’t need to apologize if you are not at the highest level. Remember that you are trying. Give yourself a break because you are learning a language. Keep trying your best, be confident that you will learn more and more. No doubt, you will learn more vocabulary as you progress to a higher level.

 

  1. You are not listening to a sufficient amount of English daily. Perhaps you do not understand enough of what you listen to. Let’s say that you comprehend only about 65%. This is particularly a concern if you live in a foreign country (a non-English speaking place) and do not have access to listening to speakers of English face-to-face. Solution: get a native trainer online or in-person, or listen to English on the web. Practice listening to English every day to train your ears to focus on words you already know in English and listen for word chunks, phrases, which you may be familiar with to comprehend the context. Avoid listening just for grammar. You won’t be able to attain fluency by picking apart a conversation through grammar points. Stop trying to catch single words. Neither will you be capable of advanced fluency if you are concentrating only on individual words in a dialogue. You need to listen for how phrases are grouped together in a pattern. You can listen to music, television, or movies to gain more fluency and understanding. Tell your ears they must listen to English phrases, understand English in context, and capture the bigger picture, the overall meaning.

 

  1. You forgot what you already studied in previous lessons. If you are not remembering your intake, then taking notes on what you learned during your study sessions will help you review and keep the knowledge fresh. For example, keep an English notebook for acquiring more information. In your journal (digital or paper,) you can take note of phrases that are new that you can learn. Then, try to use these new groups of words if you think of it in context. If you write down only the vocabulary word, you may not understand in the future how to use it in context, so try to catch an entire phrase. Later, when you review your notebook, the whole phrase will serve as a reminder of the meaning in context. Consequently, it will be much easier to recall. Furthermore, it will be a base for you to move up to the next level.

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Steps to TOEFL Integrated Writing High Score

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pen

The first task on the writing section of the TOEFL—the integrated summary—requires that you integrate three skills. It is a difficult task because it engages you in having to draw information from a reading passage and a lecture, two different sources on the same topic, and synthesize it in your own words. In this respect, it may be more challenging than the independent essay sole topic. Since the integrated tasks on the TOEFL give you multiple sources to work with, you have more information to deal with; consequently, the topic becomes slightly more complicated.

 

Step 1

Do not give your opinion. In the second writing task, the independent essay, you will be asked to give your opinion on an issue. However, that is not what is asked in the first writing task, the integrated summary. In fact, the question requires you to synthesize information from two sources–a reading and a lecture–and put that into writing, answering the particular question. So, concentrate on the information in the sources, citing them, and avoid wasting time thinking about your opinion on whatever academic topic is given.

 

Step 2

Know exactly where to look for the main idea and key points of both the reading passage and the lecture. Prior to writing your integrated essay in 20 minutes, you will be asked to read a passage on an academic topic and listen to a lecture on that topic. Though each deals with a similar topic, they give different perspectives of the topic. To read the passage, you will have approximately three minutes to read, and the lecture transcript will take about two minutes. You will need to use a practiced skill of knowing where to look for the main idea and three key points in the passage and how to predict and hear the lecture main idea and three key counterpoints. The main idea of the passage may be found after the topic, usually in the last sentence of the first paragraph. The key points are often in the first sentences of each following body paragraph. For the listening part, the main idea will be signaled at the start of the lecture, usually after the topic. It will often be the contrary to the reading point, so you can predict beforehand what you might hear. The lecture three key points to support the main idea will often follow a signal or transition word to indicate an important point is coming. You will need to take notes on those key points on a paper. No doubt, if you are not taking effective, organized notes that you can use to write from, it is difficult to construct a sound essay to answer the task and get a top score on this part of the writing section. Even though you can see the reading passage on the screen while you are writing your summary, during the three-minute reading time, it is wise to jot down the main purpose and key points underneath so that you can refer to them more easily. It will save you time and keep your writing logical and organized.

 

Step 3

Use a clear structure to accurately present the content points in the essay. Once you have taken notes on the key points in both the sources, you will have 20 minutes to write the essay. You need to answer the question, so read it carefully. Organize your essay with an orderly structure to answer the question. Be sure to relate the sources and give all the key points. Being precise with the ideas does not mean copying the exact words you read in the passage; paraphrasing in your own words is a sound strategy.

 

Step 4

Be familiar with what writing style you will use before you go into the exam. It is better to be prepared with the structure you will write in and the style of writing you will convey to answer the question concisely. A smooth, varied writing style connects ideas with transitions or introductory phrases, cites sources (refer to the author and lecturer) with effective reporting verbs, and employs sentence variety.

Use these four steps and you will be ahead of the game in the integrated task.