23How NIC prepares you for TOEFL
by Danny K. Howard, EAP Associate Director
A lot of students know about the Test of English as a Foreign Language, commonly known as TOEFL. This test is required for all students who want to enter the United States to study at a college or university. This year TOEFL is making some great changes! The Next Generation TOEFL is coming out this year in the United States. Other countries will follow.
There is great news though...
Everything you have to do on the new TOEFL test is already done in NIC classes!!
Take a look at the similarities...
1 In the Next Generation TOEFL, students will have a speaking task. First they will listen to lectures or conversations. They can take notes as they do this. Next, they have to answer a variety of questions. The speakers will sometimes speak American, British or Australian English.
At NIC, we’ve been doing this for years! Discussion is the main part of every class, and we encourage students to speak everyday. Students must respond to questions asked by the teacher, and we encourage them to share lots of examples to make their answers better. And our teachers at NIC are native English speakers from different countries, so students can get used to hearing many kinds of English everyday!
2 In the Next Generation TOEFL’s reading section, students will have to read articles, answer questions and complete summaries of what they learned.
Summaries are writings that include the main ideas of a reading. In NIC’s Reading, Writing & Discussion (RWD) classes, students do summary writing every week in their journals. Teachers collect these and give advice on how to make them better. And each day students spend a lot of time reading. We understand that reading is very important for college life abroad, so NIC teachers give you a lot of practice reading a variety of topics every day.
3 In the Next Generation TOEFL’s writing section, students will have to listen to a short lecture, read a short article & write a short essay about both. Then students must type a response to a general question.
In NIC’s writing classes, many papers are based on sources. Sometimes the source is a lecture. Other times it is a reading. So our students get a lot of practice for this anyway. Sometimes teachers will give lectures about a topic, give articles for students to read, and then give a topic to write about. This is commonly done throughout the year.
And at NIC, we know many students do not type quickly. Therefore, every week students practice typing 30-minute essays in the computer lab. Teachers give students advice on how to organize and improve their writing.
4 In the Next Generation TOEFL, students will listen to several short lectures and take notes to answer questions.
Now this is exactly what we do at NIC & it is exactly what you do in college. In NIC’s Note-taking & Discussion (ND) classes, students listen to short lectures and learn how to take notes. In a year, students will listen to many different lecture topics such as business, psychology, education, computers and others. Our students get so much practice in our English for Academic Purposes (EAP) program, which is good for their college success, as well.
As you can see, there is no reason to take a special class if you are interested in studying abroad in America or the UK. Just come to NIC and we can prepare you for studying abroad and for the TOEFL at the same time! If you have any more questions about the current or Next Generation TOEFL, either come see me at NIC or write to me at the address below. Cheers!