Category Archives: TOEFL

Toefl speaking question 5 - unwanted pregnancy

By Salsita Says | Published: July 5, 2009

Hi Toefl takers. A quick warning about this sample question before you listen to it. It contains references to abortion that some people may find offensive. Please remember that while it is created in a similar format to TOEFL speaking question 5, the real TOEFL iBT questions will always be much more ‘moderate’ in their [...]

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Free online ESL textbooks

By Salsita Says | Published: April 17, 2009

I just found this really useful website with lots of free books for learning English. Click here for a link to their TOEFL resources but take the time to look at some of the other books on their site as well. If you are not used to downloading large files from the Internet you might [...]

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Practicing listening, reading, writing and speaking integration tasks

By Salsita Says | Published: March 29, 2009

What is an integration task?
An integration task is a task where you must combine two or more skills such as listening, reading, writing and speaking. The TOEFL iBT requires that you complete several integration tasks, some in the speaking section and some in the writing section. To get a complete overview of the different questions [...]

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How to prepare for an English proficiency test

By Salsita Says | Published: March 24, 2009

Today in class we had an interesting conversation about the best ways to prepare for taking an English proficiency test such as the TOEFL iBT or IELTS. I asked the students what they thought was the best way to prepare for the test. Here are some of the things we spoke about:

You need to know [...]

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Reverse outlining to improve your writing and summarizing

By Salsita Says | Published: March 23, 2009

The OWL (online writing lab) at Purdue has a good resource page about the technique of reverse outlining.
Reverse outlining is a useful method for taking notes, analysing complex writing, or revising and assessing the quality of your written work.
Click here to read more about this very useful technique.
Can you find an online example of reverse [...]

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Writing practice using the OWL at Purdue

By Salsita Says | Published: March 22, 2009

The Owl at Purdue is a very useful resource for students who would like to improve their writing skills. Below is a summary, taken from their web page, of the services and information that they provide.
The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University houses writing resources and instructional material, and we provide these as a [...]

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TOEFL speaking tips

By Salsita Says | Published: March 21, 2009

Jason Renshaw from the Renshaw Internet School of English has prepared an excellent series of short video lectures that give a thorough explanation of the six questions on the speaking section of the TOEFL ibt.
The lectures are designed to give you an overview of the question types, some suggested approaches to time management and some [...]

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