After joining an Online Course called “The 7-Step System to Pass the TOEFL iBT,” Eva had one more problem to solve—speaking. You see she had already scored 26, 23, and 28 on the reading, listening, and writing sections of the exam. However, Eva was not able to reach her TOEFL goals on the speaking section, which is why, of course, she joined her Online TOEFL Course taught by California State University, San Bernardino linguistics and composition expert Michael Buckhoff.
Eva’s first goal after joining her Online TOEFL Course was to have Michael diagnose her pronunciation problems. After Eva completed her first pre-test, Michael diagnosed problems with vowels [i] beat, [ay] bright, and [u] boot. In addition, Michael discovered that Eva also had problems with the following consonants: [th] these, [z] pleasure, and [z] zoo. To help her solve problems with these vowel and consonant sounds, Michael recommended a series of Speak Clearly lessons to help her learn how to improve her articulation of these trouble spots.
After a few weeks of improving her pronunciation of vowel and consonant sounds, Eva was now ready to complete the second pre-test, which she did. Like the first pre-test, Eva submitted her voiced recording at Michael’s Voxopop Discussion Group. About 12 hours of her having submitting the second pre-test, Michael posted his evaluation of Eva’s pre-test, indicating that Eva needed to improve in the following areas: sentence rhythm, intonation, thought groups, and blending. Therefore, Michael recommended specific Speak Clearly lessons to help her improve her overall intelligibility in these areas. Eva knew with regular practice and with her TOEFL mentor’s guidance, she would be able to make the pronunciation one of her strengths.
It was now time for Eva to begin working on solving her speaking problems with the independent and integrated tasks, so she began studying all the speaking lessons in her Online TOEFL Course. And, each day while she was studying these lessons, Eva began posting speaking practice tests at Michael’s Voxopop Discussion Group for “The 7-Step System to Pass the TOEFL iBT.” After each practice test, Michael commented on her delivery, language use, and topic development. After 9 practice tests in as many days, a pattern began to emerge. Evan needed to provide more specific details for her generalizations in the independent speaking tasks. Therefore, based on Michael’s advice, Eva studied the basic vocabulary in the first section of her Online TOEFL Course so that it would be easier for her to find the words she needed to explain her ideas.
To sum up, it was a long, hard road of intensive practice, but Eva was able to successfully solve her speaking problems. After 54 days of study, she retook the TOEFL exam, this time scoring 26 points on the exam and finally meeting her pharmacy requirements.
Her English studies were over forever!