About American Universities

Last year, I met Professor Mónica Dominguez Mulholland through one of my blogs for language teachers. Since she teaches Spanish at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC, I thought it would be a good idea to carry out a short exchange with her class to learn a bit more about university life in the USA.

In the TOEFL iBT we have listening and short readings related to different campus situations and we've discussed some of the differences with our system as well. Let's take this opportunity to exchange information with the protagonists! The discussion has already started in Spanish on their blog: Spanish is Fun - Proyecto Internacional, so let's move on to English now.

Here goes the first question to get started:
In my case, it is related to the faculty (professors). How are office hours assigned? Do they depend on the number of courses each professor has? Are these hours also offered online? In Argentina, professors do not have office hours as a part of their daily work schedule. According to the material we've read and listened to, office hours seem to be a great idea since students can discuss their questions in depth and professors can address the specific needs of individual students. Do students take advantage of this extra time?

I look forward to your answers ... and to more questions, of course!

TOEFL iBT Class Project

Dear all,

I am proud to announce a new edition of our TOEFL iBT Class Project!

Following the iBT integrated skills format, the project consists of oral presentations on an academic topic that belongs to your own fields of study, complemented by written summaries that will be complied on our class wiki for future reference.

The TOEFL iBT Wiki is an ongoing construction that represents our shared body of knowledge, our interests and our learning paths.

This year the first presentation will be delivered by Mariana next Wednesday (before her trip to the USA) on In Vitro Fertilization (IVF).

Can't wait to get started!

Cheers, Carla

TOEFL iBT Webinar: Writing

Dear all,
I’ve just attended a TOEFL iBT Teacher Webinar (web seminar) on the Writing Section offered by ETS. The presentation focused especially on the Integrated task and reviewed its main features as well as general strategies, classroom activities and useful resources that can help students improve their writing performance.

As you already know, the TOEFL Writing section includes:

1 Integrated Task in which you’ll have to synthesize the information from a reading passage and a lecture in a written response. Time: 20 minutes Length: (150 -225 words)

1 Independent Task in which you’ll have to express and support an opinion in the form of a written essay. Time: 30 minutes Length (250-300 words)

Each task is rated on a 0-5 scale. The average score is based on the two tasks and then converted to 0-30 scale.

You can find the recommended resources on our Class WIKI (link on the sidebar).

Next month we will be focusing on the Integrated Writing and we’ll discuss some strategies that can help you excel in this new task.

Enjoy the resources!

Independent Writing: Brainstorming

Today we went over the main steps of the writing process:

-Brainstorming: generating ideas
-Planning: organizing ideas
-Drafting: writing several versions of the essay
-Editing: Correcting mistakes in content, organization, grammar, vocabulary and mechanics(spelling, punctuation, capitalization)

This week we are going to brainstorm ideas on a new topic:

The Best Source of News
“Due to the development of new technology such as satellite communication and the Internet, we can get updates on the latest breaking stories as soon as they happen. However, some people argue that these sources mainly report unconnected events while newspapers or weekly magazines provide a deeper and contextualized analysis of the news, helping us understand what those events mean.”

What do you think? What is the best source of news (newspaper, cable TV, the Internet, magazines, the radio)?



Let's brainstorm the pros and cons of the different sources!

Need some help to get started? Listen to six people from different countries talk about where they get their news from.

Remember we are going to use your contributions to start working on the essay next week!

Time for reflection

BubbleShare: Share photos - Delicious Christmas Recipes.

We've come a long way dear TOEFLers! It's been an amazing year with lots of excitement, new experiences, some disappointments, puzzling situations, great ideas, ... learning, learning, learning 24/7!

I strongly believe the new TOEFL is a breakthrough in EFL/ESL assessment since it really focuses on the development of integrated communication skills and critical thinking, resembling real life academic situations. Therefore, a TOEFL prep course should foster authentic interaction, knowledge sharing and collaborative learning.

I've tried to find some images to help us reflect on our learning process. How would you describe the TOEFl iBT Prep courses (regular and blended)? As a puzzle, a building process, a bridge, a race against time?

What do you think? Can you find your own metaphors for the TOEFL iBT?

Meet the Blended TOEFL iBT class

Dear all,

I’d like to introduce you to the Blended TOEFL iBT Course students.

Since August, we’ve been sharing a new, innovative experience called Blended Learning, a combination of face-to-face and online learning. We meet at ARICANA every Saturday morning and work throughout the week on a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) called Moodle. They also have lab sessions and have done some of the same assignments you’ve worked on, but, most importantly, they share many of your goals, fears and dreams.

Together, we’ve faced the challenge of teaching and learning online, of becoming a community, of learning through the language and beyond it.

I’m sure you’ll have a lot to discuss and learn from each other.

BubbleShare: Share photos - Here comes Halloween!

Early Spring Musings

Is it all coming to an end? I wonder…
An amazing bunch, the TOEFL group fills up my life with challenging questions, compelling discussions and endless correction hours. As the end of the year approaches, some of you have to leave early to meet required deadlines and achieve your most cherished goals.
The TOEFL test is definitely not an end in itself, but a point of departure. Just like a crowded platform before a journey, filled with promises, hurried good-byes, a bit of anxiety and anticipation, it is a path to new beginnings.
After Vani’s farewell party , I have to confess I felt a bit sad, but before I could get too gloomy, it dawned on me that this space is a treasure box where some of those unique moments we spent together will be kept. And then I thought we can keep it rolling for new groups, new stories…
Why let this channel of communication dwindle when it can thrive and bloom with new voices?
What do you think? How do you feel about sharing this blog with another TOEFL group?

Class Project

What is the difference between a group of students and a community of learners?

"In a community of learners, teachers and students together construct a culture that values the strengths of all participants and respects their interests, abilities, languages, and dialects. Students and teachers shift among the roles of expert, researcher, learner, and teacher, supporting themselves and each other." Aída Walqui, West Ed, San Francisco, California

I think one of the strengths of our class is the possibility of learning form each other's knowledge and experience. Although this is exactly what we've been doing since the very first day, the aim of the present project is to create a collection of mini-lectures on specific academic topics related to your fields of study and close to your hearts. Topics that matter.

The start couldn't have been more powerful. Delivered with great clarity, passion and commitment, Maxi's presentation aroused great interest on a topic that is both too important and too painful to be forgotten.

Remember you can read a summary of his presentation on the wiki and you can also give your feedback or ask more questions there. Each presentation will then contribute to a kind of TOEFL iBT wikipedia we are building together.

I look forward to the rest of the presentations!

Welcome to Cyber TOEFL Prep

Nowadays, with such a wide array of online communication and collaboration tools available, there’s no excuse to stop learning, working and sharing during a long holiday week, right? So, here I am, ready to go beyond the walls of the classroom with you once again.

First, there’s a site called Exam English which has free online exercises for the most important ESL/EFL exams. Nik Peachey , a British learning technology consultant I met in Córdoba, has prepared a reading passage for the TOEFL iBT .
You can try it out here.

Wiki News
Vanina has sent us a link to a funny video, so I’ve added a new wiki page to share videos related to language learning or any other relevant topics. I’ve also made some changes in the Vocabulary Page. Each vocabulary item is a link to a new page, so in order to read the definitions you have to click on each word. In this way the vocabulary “home” page will feature a glossary of the available words and other relevant vocabulary resources such as concordancers and exercises.

As you can see, you have plenty of possibilties to work throughout the week. Choose your own TOEFL iBT adventure!

About the TOEFL iBT

The New Generation TOEFL integrates the four skills, reading, listening, writing and speaking as the occur in real life. Therefore, the test assesses not only your knowledge about the language, but your communicative competence i.e. how you use the language.

Let’s take the TOEFL IBT tour

Listen to an interview about the TOEFL IBT.