Miguel Derett - TS #15

December 10th, 2018. 

For this tutoring session, I met once more with Santiago Pineda. We agreed to continue to work on speaking skills. This time, I showcased him an example from an external website. This website had sound clips of TOEFL speaking response examples. I had Santiago listen to one example repeatedly. After we heard the speaking example a few times, I asked him why he believes this example is considered “exemplary.” He mentioned that the response was clear, it had a clear message, and provided examples. Also, it was long. All of these were true, yet I also tried to remind him that grammar and vocabulary were still important. After our discussion I showed him the written transcript of the response. I showed him that the “answer” part of the response was only a minimal portion of the response. The majority of the response consisted of transition words/phrases, elaborating sentences, and also examples. I showed him this in attempts to calm his nerves as he could visually see that he did not have to stress too much on his “answer.” In theory, his “answer” could be anything that is slightly related to the question. The essence of the response would come from what you build around the “answer.”  


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Written Transcript of exemplary TOEFL Speaking Response: 

Question: Your degree requires that you should choose a history course. Which of the following courses would you prefer? (1) Art history (2) Twentieth-century world history (3) Science history

Response: If I had to choose between art history, twenty century world history, or science history, I would always choose art history. To begin, my favorite types of museums are art museums. I enjoy looking at the art and trying to interpret how people were feeling or what they were going through at that time. Second, compared to traditional history courses, art history can give a different perspective on a certain time period. Rather than hear facts and figures, art history courses give you the opportunity to see how common people felt through that time. For example, people who lived through the war may paint traditional scenes of how traditional towns were rather than hear about the fighting and conflict that you hear throughout history. 

Response Analyzed and Decoded: If I had to choose between art history, twenty century world history, or science history, I would always choose art history. To begin, my favorite types of museums are art museums.I enjoy looking at the art and trying to interpret how people were feeling or what they were going through at that time. Second, compared to traditional history courses, art history can give a different perspective on a certain time period. Rather thanhear facts and figures, art history courses give you the opportunity to see how common people felt through that time. For example, people who lived through the war may paint traditional scenes of how traditional towns were rather than hear about the fighting and conflict that you hear throughout history. 

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