Enhancing Fluency in iBT Speaking Tasks: Challenges and Solutions

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Templates may aid fluency in iBT speaking tasks, but students face challenges due to limited preparation and response time. The solution involves ensuring students reach a sufficient fluency level and understand test requirements. However, in reality, students often lack fluency, especially in spoken English. As a result, educators must prepare students effectively for speaking tasks to help them succeed in obtaining TOEFL iBT scores for exchange programs.

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Can Templates Aid Fluency in iBT Speaking Tasks ETAI 2016 July 5, 2016 Ashkelon, Israel

Alexander Chirnside Soka University alex@soka.ac.jp

iBT Independent speaking tasks: Examinee given topic Has 15 seconds to prepare response Has 45 seconds to make response 3

The target Examinees must address the topic Examinees must demonstrate their fluency in English Examinees must present their thoughts in a clear and logical way 4

The challenge Preparation time is extremely limited Thus generation of ideas is very difficult Response time is also limited Allows little time to demonstrate good command of grammar & vocabulary 5

The problem Students have great difficulty marshaling their thoughts Students, initially, find it very difficult to maintain a fluid 45 second discourse Even students very competent in everyday conversation can find this very challenging Even native speakers produce some very poor responses 6

The solution Allow students to take the test only when they 1.have attained a sufficient fluency level 2.are completely familiar with the format of the test and what is required of them This is the perfect world solution 7

The perfect world solution My university is not part of the perfect world My students mostly have limited fluency, even at conversational level BUT My university runs many exchange programs My students are usually very keen to get on such programs They need to obtain a reasonable TOEFL iBT score Historically they are weak at the speaking sections of the test THEREFORE It is my duty to do all I can to prepare them for addressing speaking tasks 8

The imperfect world solution My students have limited fluency TOEFL speaking tasks are very different from normal conversation Students find it difficult to generate ideas quickly Students find it even more difficult to organize their ideas into a coherent speech The most cost-effective way of improving their chances is to eliminate the difficulties they face in organizing ideas This is best achieved by using templates 9

No shopping lists One danger of an unorganized speech is the shopping list The shopping list is a list of simple barely connected sentences Example Topic - "Did you have a good summer vacation? Response: Yes, I had a good summer vacation. I went to the beach. I went swimming. I saw a fireworks festival. I ate lots of watermelon. The weather was very warm. School was over and I had no homework. I slept every day until 12:00. I watched a lot of TV. I saw three movies. I went to Disneyland twice. My friends from high school all came to my hometown. So I had a good summer vacation. (69 words) 10

A textbook template One possible template looks like this Introduction Supporting idea 1 Supporting idea 2 Conclusion From Longman s Preparation course for the TOEFL Test iBT by Deborah Phillips 11

A problem with the textbook template The template has a conclusion In a 45 second speech there is little time for a conclusion Many students simply repeat introduction as conclusion 12

Example of speech with conclusion This speech was made by a student with an TOEIC score of 480 Topic: Should university students live in a dormitory on campus or an apartment in town? Response: I think 1st years students should live in a dormitory on campus. Live in a dormitory is very safety compare to live in an apartment in town. In dormitory, students can make many friends. So, students feel relief but live in an apartment, students feel lonely every day. So, I think 1st years students should live in a dormitory on campus All speech 61 words Introductory statement + conclusion 25 words Body of speech 36 words 13

No conclusions Students use the concluding sentence as a crutch, as a time-filler Students are notoriously bad clock-watchers, their time-management is very poor, and when they utter the concluding sentence, they are finished In the example speech above the speaker uttered her conclusion after only 25 seconds and could do no more. 14

Definitely no conclusions At first, I allowed students to use a concluding sentence in an emergency If their speech is finished, they have absolutely nothing else to say, there are some seconds left on the clock, then OK use a concluding sentence This worked fairly well with advanced-level students Lower-level students still relied too much on a conclusion as a time-filler Use of any conclusion was banned in my classes 15

The revised template The revised template which I started to use looked like this Topic statement Main point 1 Explanation/support for main point 1 Main point 2 Explanation/support for main point 2 Main point 3 Explanation/support for main point 3 16

Weakness of the revised template The revised template closely mirrored the structure of a five paragraph essay minus the conclusion. This was a mistake In order to get three main points, explained and supported, into a 45 second speech required greater fluency than my students possessed. They ended up with Topic statement Main point 1 Main point 2 Main point 3 This is dangerously close to a shopping list 17

The revised template II The revised template which I finally came to use looked like this Topic statement Main point 1 Explanation/support for main point 1 Main point 2 Explanation/support for main point 2 18

A sample speech My best memory from high school is winning the Scottish under-19 rowing championships. It is the only time in my life that I ve ever won anything at the national level. We actually got a medal. The medal ceremony was wonderful, and as they put the medals around our necks I really felt like I was an Olympian. It was brilliant. Also, in the final race we totally connected as a crew. We hadn t been together very long and we d only practiced together a few times, maybe four or five. Often our rowing was pretty poor. But on that day, it all came together. It was perfect teamwork and it gave us perfect balance and great speed. It was quite a fantastic feeling moving across the water, and winning. (126 words) 19

Where the high scores are Thinking of a topic statement and two main points is not difficult Students really display competence when they can effectively support and explain the main points. It is here that the way to a good score lies Templates allow a student to use a simple ready-made structure that fits almost all possible topics Not having to worry about how to organize their speech, students can concentrate on maximizing their support/explanation of the main points. 20

The subjects One class of Advanced level students (12 students TOEIC score 530+ or ITP/PBT score 480+) One class of Upper-intermediate students (13 students TOEIC score 450+ or ITP/PBT score 450+) 21

The speeches Speech 1: Pre-course diagnostic test. Week 1. Students have not been told anything about organizing a speech. Topic Which do you prefer, writing a letter or sending an email? Speech 2: In-class recorded speech. Week 3. Students have now been told about and practiced using the template. Topic What is your best memory from high school? Speech 3: In-class recorded speech. Week 8. Topic Should university students live in a dormitory on campus or an apartment in town? All speeches done under TOEFL test-type conditions 22

Advanced class speech 1 Speech 1 was pre-course diagnostic test recorded in week 1 In speech 1, four students already had an idea of structure, eight students did not Students who followed template and produced a structured speech averaged 72 words per speech Students whose speeches were unstructured averaged 50 words per speech 23

Advanced class speech 2 Speech 2 was recorded in-class under test-type conditions in week 3 In speech 2, ten students have followed the template and produced a well-organized speech, only three students did not Students who followed template and produced a structured speech averaged 86 words per speech Students whose speeches were unstructured averaged 66 words per speech 24

Advanced class speech 3 Speech 3 was recorded in-class under test-type conditions in week 8 In speech 3, all ten students have followed the template and produced a well-organized speech Students averaged 95 words per speech Other factors could be at work here but using templates did seem to help with fluency. 25

Advanced class example speech 1 Example speech 1 Ah~~o, I prefer writing a letter because, ah~, writing letter, written characters, make me feel, ah, writers feeling. Sending e-mail is also, ah~, also good way, but, ah~~, to dd, recently I have receive, a, many e- mails. So, I don t, ahh~, I don t feel like love, love about, ah~, e-mail because there are many e-mails. While writing a letter is very good because, ah~, makes me so happy. (70 words) 26

Advanced class example speech 2 Example speech 2 My best memory of the high school is Oki school trip on the Okinawa. Firstly, I went to Okinawa for the first time on this school trip, and I wanted to go to Okinawa for the time being. Okinawa s food and culture so good, and they were beyond my expectation. So I have strong impression for the Okinawa. The second reason, I, the best memory of the high school is Okinawa is war. Ah~~, I saw Ah, Okinawa involved in World War 2, I saw victim tower. I feel so sad, but I should know it as Japanese. So I have strong, ah~~, Earth for not war. (107 words) 27

Advanced class example speech 3 Example speech 3 I think first year university students should live in dormitory rath on campus rather than an apartment in town. First, dormitory students help each other because there are many students in dormitory. If there is a student in trouble in dormitory, ahh, they ,ah, dormitory students will take care of him or her. Or, ahh, they can talk about, ahh, fa, they can talk about a lot of things on campus. Ty. Second, ahh, first year, first year university students maybe, ahh, not be used to living alone. So they have more a lot of difficulty in living in an apartment alone. But, in dormitory, (105 words) 28

Conclusion templates do work Experience has shown that students need to focus their speeches, and avoid shopping lists need to explain their topic statement with at most two well- supported main points have difficulty organizing their speeches in a logical fashion Using templates gives students a one size-fits-all structure for their speeches This reduces anxiety in both the planning and responding parts of the speaking task This allows more concentration on the explanation/support of the speeches main points, the area where they can show off their prowess 29