TOEFL Speaking Skill 1

1. Planning the Free-Choice
Response
Speaking Skill 1

2. What is the Free-Choice Response?
This Speaking Task asks questions like:
1. Where is a good place to have fun in your city or town? Describe this place and explain
why it is fun.
2. What is your most important possession? Describe it and say why it is so important.
3. Talk about an interesting tourist attraction you have been to. Describe it and say why it
was interesting.

3. How should you respond?
The ibt TOEFL test will give you 15 seconds to plan your response and then will start recording
automatically. You are expected to speak for 45 seconds.
That’s not a lot of time!
Right, so you have to act quickly.

4. A Good Response Understands the Question
A common mistake that people make is to forget to answer the question completely.
First, notice what information the question is looking for.
For example if the question asks:
“Talk about an interesting tourist attraction you have been to. Describe it and say why it was
interesting.”
The information you need to include is:
1. Place 2. Description 3. Why it was interesting to you

5. Don’t Waste Time! Pick an Answer Right Away!
Another common mistake is that people worry too much about trying to think of the perfect response. It
may be tempting to try to remember all tourist attractions you’ve ever been to and then decide which
one was most interesting.
Or some people might still be deciding as they are speaking into the microphone.
Don’t do that!
Just pick the answer that comes to mind. If you can’t think of something, you can just make it up even!
There is nothing wrong with saying something that isn’t true. They just want to test how well you speak.

6. A Good Response is Organized.
Don’t just start speaking about the topic randomly. You’ll have a small amount of time to plan your
response, so use that time wisely and write down a quick plan or outline for what you want to say. You
won’t have a lot of time, so the outline can be very simple.
For the question:
“Talk about an interesting tourist attraction you have been to. Describe it and say why it was interesting.”
Your outline might look like:
Yosemite Nat. Park CA
Mountains Waterfalls Hiking Beautiful

7. That’s All There is to it!
Just a quick plan with a few words to
answer the question is all you need
to get started!