{"id":1836,"date":"2015-05-28T09:00:32","date_gmt":"2015-05-28T16:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?p=1836"},"modified":"2020-12-10T13:45:52","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T21:45:52","slug":"how-to-teach-toefl-to-beginner-level-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/how-to-teach-toefl-to-beginner-level-students\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Teach TOEFL to Beginner Level Students"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve been teaching TOEFL and other standardized exams in classrooms and tutoring centers since 2011. Teaching test prep can be rewarding, but it can also be challenging. I\u2019ve found that it\u2019s especially important to know how to teach TOEFL to students who have different levels of English ability. Beginner-level students in particular have needs that should be met carefully and creatively.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve said before that <a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/are-you-ready-to-start-studying-for-the-toefl\/\">beginner-level students may not be ready for standard TOEFL prep materials<\/a>. But this doesn\u2019t mean that you can\u2019t start preparing your beginner-level students for the TOEFL in some ways.<\/p>\n<p>For reading, you\u2019ll want your students to practice non-fiction reading. This nonfiction should have an academic tone, but be simpler than the reading found on the exam. There are a number of really great levelled websites for beginner academic reading. I\u2019ve found <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newsinlevels.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">News in Levels<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.student-weekly.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Student Weekly<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/english-online.at\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">English Online<\/a> can really help students reach for eventual TOEFL-level reading. <a href=\"https:\/\/simple.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Main_Page\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Simple English Wikipedia<\/a> is great too. (Just remember to let you students know that Wikipedia is not supposed to be used as a source for academic essays. <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wikipedia:Academic_use\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Even Wikipedia agrees!<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Levelled listening prep that gets students ready for the TOEFL can be a little harder to find. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.elllo.org\/english\/home.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Elllo.org<\/a> has a lot of listening tracks in different accents. Each track is clearly marked to show which accents your students will hear. The American, UK, and \u201cDown Under\u201d accents will be useful for the TOEFL. The many other accents on Elllo may not be so useful. The tracks themselves focus on conversations and newscasts. The conversations are especially relevant to the TOEFL. The newscasts aren\u2019t quite as \u201cTOEFL-friendly\u201d, but can still be useful practice. Elllo is a very big site; a good place to start is their <a href=\"http:\/\/www.elllo.org\/english\/index_beginner.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">beginner level listening page<\/a>. As your beginner students become more ready for TOEFL-like academic listening, consider using the TED Talk ESL page. <a href=\"http:\/\/tedxesl.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">TEDxESL<\/a> has a lot of shorter talks, well-supported with transcripts and other learning materials.<\/p>\n<p>To prepare your students for TOEFL Speaking and Writing, it\u2019s important to have the students work with the language skills they have. This is pretty easy with the Independent <a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/the-toefl-independent-writing-task\/\">Writing<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/toefl-speaking-topics\/\">Speaking<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/toefl-speaking-topics\/\">tasks<\/a>. These tasks require students to write or talk about their own personal experiences and opinions, which can be done with beginner-level or higher language. Integrated <a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/toefl-integrated-writing-complete-guide\/\">Writing<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/toefl-integrated-speaking-practice\/\">Speaking<\/a> is more complex. But you can use the graded reading and listening materials above to create TOEFL-like beginner level integrated tasks for your students.<\/p>\n<p>Once you put your materials together, you should also be sensitive to the way your beginner-level students probably feel about the TOEFL. Most beginner-level students have sampled real TOEFL materials from ETS or from sites like Magoosh. They likely find the test to be intimidating, even downright scary, given that it\u2019s a high-stakes, \u201cgatekeeper\u201d exam. Remind their students that they are in the <em>prep<\/em> stage of their studies. Encourage them to focus on their strengths and the improvements they\u2019re making, and not the scores they\u2019d get if they had to take the TOEFL immediately.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve been teaching TOEFL and other standardized exams in classrooms and tutoring centers since 2011. Teaching test prep can be rewarding, but it can also be challenging. I\u2019ve found that it\u2019s especially important to know how to teach TOEFL to students who have different levels of English ability. Beginner-level students in particular have needs that should be met carefully and creatively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13600],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[13630],"class_list":["post-1836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-resources"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.7 (Yoast SEO v21.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to Teach TOEFL to Beginner Level Students - Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/how-to-teach-toefl-to-beginner-level-students\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Teach TOEFL to Beginner Level Students\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I\u2019ve been teaching TOEFL and other standardized exams in classrooms and tutoring centers since 2011. Teaching test prep can be rewarding, but it can also be challenging. I\u2019ve found that it\u2019s especially important to know how to teach TOEFL to students who have different levels of English ability. 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Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT. David has a BS and MA from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew"],"knowsAbout":["TOEFL","IELTS","TOEIC","PET","FCE","BULATS","Eiken","SAT","ACT","GRE","GMAT"],"knowsLanguage":["English","Italian"],"jobTitle":"Content Creator","worksFor":"Magoosh","url":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/author\/davidr\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":13630,"user_id":80,"is_guest":0,"slug":"davidr","display_name":"David Recine","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b70c17ee6f3ef87dc4cc5dbdebda911d6dd30dfe15845e4b1d459a3e1b33ef98?s=96&d=mm&r=g","user_url":"","last_name":"Recine","first_name":"David","description":"David is a Test Prep Expert for Magoosh TOEFL and IELTS. Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT.\r\n\r\nDavid has a BS from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. His work at Magoosh has been cited in<a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/scholar?hl=en&amp;as_sdt=0%2C50&amp;q=Recine+magoosh&amp;btnG=\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> many scholarly articles<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/minds.wisconsin.edu\/handle\/1793\/65479\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> his Master's Thesis<\/a> is featured on the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.readingwithpictures.org\/2013\/09\/research-highlight-teaching-english-language-learners-with-comics\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Reading with Pictures<\/a> website, and he's presented at the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.witesol.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/2014-WITESOL-Program-FINAL-10-28-14.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> WITESOL (link to PDF)<\/a> and<a href=\"https:\/\/issuu.com\/interoff\/docs\/nafsaregionv_2014conference\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> NAFSA<\/a> conferences. David has taught K-12 ESL in South Korea as well as undergraduate English and MBA-level business English at American universities. He has also trained English teachers in America, Italy, and Peru.\r\n\r\nCome join David and the Magoosh team on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew\"> Youtube<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning\"> Facebook<\/a>, and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/magooshenglish\/?hl=en\"> Instagram<\/a>, or connect with him via<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/\"> LinkedIn<\/a>!"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1836\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1836"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=1836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}