Tag Archives: writing

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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The DailyLit challenge - write a story in exactly 50 words

By Salsita Says | Published: March 22, 2009

The website DailyLit has a challenge for its readers that could be a really fun way to practice writing clear concise paragraphs. The idea is that you have to write a 50 word story with a beginning a middle and an end. The rule is that you must have exactly 50 words, no more, no [...]

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TOEFL writing practice - Workshopping sample responses

By Salsita Says | Published: March 22, 2009

This week we will be practicing our writing skills in my English test preparation classes. If you would like to participate then please prepare a  response to the following sample topic from question two of the TOEFL ibt writing test. Please prepare your answers in advance of the class. We will use class time to [...]

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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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Airplane safety

By Salsita Says | Published: March 19, 2009

I recently flew with a rather cheap airline. Out of boredom I began looking at the emergency landing instructions. I’m glad that I was only looking at them out of boredom. I’m quite sure that if the airplane had crash landed in the ocean I would have had absolutely no idea what to do!
It seems [...]

Posted in English conversation topics, English resources | Also tagged , | 11 Comments