Spanish-American Institute

 

 

To:             All Faculty and Staff   ~   «FirstNAME» «LastNAME»

From:        Carolyn Prager, Dean of Academic Affairs

Re:             New TOEFL Instructional Resources and Suggestions For Use

Date:          July 14, 2008

                  

At the June 28, 2008 faculty meeting, faculty spoke highly of two recent additions to instructional resources for TOEFL teachers (and others). 

 

q      the new Classroom Activities TOEFL teacher’s manual and

q      NorthStar’s Building Skills for the TOEFL iBT –three levels, Intermediate, High Intermediate, and Advanced. 

 

In response to faculty recommendations, we have:

 

q      added copies of the above to the instructional resource collection, and

q      added NEW Building Skills Teacher’s Manuals with ETS Scoring Guides and Practice Sets (includes CD listening material).

 

Please note that the new Building Skills Teachers’ Manual CDs include listening material with benchmark and practice response scoring guidelines.  These practice sets and their scoring should help teachers explain to students how ETS might score their responses to listening and speaking questions.  

 

Please see the other side of this memo for suggestions on how TOEFL and other teachers can use these instructional resources.  

 

Title

Call Number

Longman Preparation Course for the TOEFL Test: Classroom Activities (copy 2)

TM23.1B

 

 

NorthStar Building Skills for the TOEFL iBT:  Intermediate (copy 2)

 

  . . . Intermediate CD1, units 1-6  (copy 3)

A18.10B

  . . . Intermediate CD2, units 7-10 (copy 3)

A18.11B

NEW **  NorthStar Building Skills . . . Intermediate:  Teacher’s Manual with ETS Scoring Guide   NEW **

 

TM22.1C

  NEW **   . . . Intermediate . . . Teacher’s Manual ETS Practice Sets with Benchmark and Practice Responses, CD  NEW **

 

A18.14

 

 

NorthStar Building Skills for the TOEFL iBT:  High Intermediate

TM22.2B

  . . . High Intermediate CD1, units 1-6 (copy 3)

A20.12B

  . . .  High Intermediate CD2, units 7-10 (copy 3)

A20.14.B

NEW ** . . . High Intermediate:  Teacher’s Manual with ETS Scoring Guide   NEW **

 

TM22.2C

NEW **  . . . High Intermediate Teacher’s Manual ETS Practice Sets with Benchmark and Practice Responses, CD  NEW **

 

A20.15

 

 

NorthStar Building Skills for the TOEFL iBT:  Advanced (copy2)

TM22.3B

  . . . Advanced CD1, units 1-6 (copy 3)

A21.12B

  . . . Advanced CD2, units 7-10 (copy 3)

A21.15.B

NEW **   . . . Advanced:  Teacher’s Manual with ETS Scoring Guide   NEW **

 

TM22.3C

NEW **   . . . Advanced Teacher’s Manual ETS Practice Sets with Benchmark and Practice Responses, CD  NEW **

 

A21.16

 

Recommended Uses for Building Skills TOEFL Instructional Material

 

The Building Skills for the TOEFL series parallels NorthStar’s Listening and Speaking and Reading and Writing Intermediate to Advanced books.  Therefore, Building Skills books will parallel the themes, vocabulary, and structures used in ESL 4, 5, 6, BE, and ARW textbooks at their respective levels.  In other words:

 

q      Building Skills for the TOEFL Intermediate will parallel the L&S Intermediate text used in ESL 4, 

q      Building Skills for the TOEFL High Intermediate will parallel the L&S Intermediate text used in ESL 5 and the R&W High Intermediate text used in Business English,

q      etc. 

 

ESL 4-6, BE, and ARW Teachers:   Pre-TOEFL teachers may want the use Building Skills for the TOEFL material as: 

 

q      ideas for classroom activities integrating two or more of the four language skills,

q      ideas for bi-monthly exam material, and/or

q      mini-exams to demonstrate lack of readiness to students who want to jump ahead to TOEFL without the necessary language skills. 

 

TOEFL Teachers:  TOEFL teachers should not use the Building Skills series to “teach” language skills.  Remember, TOEFL is a language application course, not a language learning course.  Students who do not possess the necessary language skills should be encouraged to take the Institute’s pre-TOEFL courses.

 

The new Building Skills Teacher’s Manuals are divided into two sections. 

 

q      Section A (Part One) contains unit-by-unit teaching suggestions.

q      Section B (Part Two) contains scoring guides and practice sets for TOEFL instructors.  The practice sets can be used with students to demonstrate scores students might receive from ETS depending on the sophistication of their responses.

 

Therefore, TOEFL teachers should find the Building Skills series and their new Teachers’ Manuals helpful for:

 

q      teaching ideas and suggestions for integrating language skills,

q      examples of authentic student responses graded at each score level,  

q      practice sets that help teachers score student responses according to ETS’s criteria, and

q      examples to help students understand the difference between “correct” but low-scoring TOEFL responses and higher scoring responses.