TOEFL Speaking Q1: A Fast Way to Generate Ideas

One of the biggest problems people have on the TOEFL speaking section is coming up with ideas in speaking question one. Students tell me that their English skills are great and they can speak fluently in everyday life, but they just can’t come up with anything to say about the topics in this part of the test.

Before I describe my solution to this problem, I’ll back up a moment and describe exactly what goes on in TOEFL speaking question one.

In this question, you are asked to give your opinion on a topic related to life in general. The topics are pretty broad - you could get something that connects to school life, work life, family life… or something else. Here’s an example:

“Some people like to travel alone, while others prefer to travel with other people like their friends or family members. Which do you prefer? Support your answer with details and examples.”

You’ll have just 15 seconds to think about your response, and 45 seconds to speak. After 45 seconds the microphone stops recording.

So how to quickly come up with ideas?

Well, I encourage my students to think about the question in terms of four main categories: education, career, relationships, and health.

Almost every question can be quickly linked to one or more of these categories. Usually to all four!

For instance, if I decide that I like to travel in groups, I could quickly connect it to relationships:

“Personally, I prefer to travel with other people. This is because a shared experience can strengthen my relationships with my loved ones. For example…”

Or to health:

“Personally, I think it is better to travel with other people. This is because we can easily get sick when traveling in a foreign country, and having a partner makes it easier to get help. For example…”

After connecting the topic to one of the categories at the beginning, the test taker can fill up the rest of the time with a fake personal example. Like:

“Personally, I prefer to travel with other people. This is because a shared experience can strengthen my relationships with my loved ones. For example, last year I went to Paris with my sister. We hadn’t spent much time together since I graduated from university, so during the trip we caught up on each other’s lives. When we visited art galleries, she told me about which artists she liked the most, which taught me a lot about her preferences. Even just chatting together in the hotel room we shared helped me learn a lot about her life nowadays. In the end, I returned home with a new understanding of my amazing sister.”

Or:

“Personally, I think it is better to travel with other people. This is because we can easily get sick when traveling in a foreign country, and having a partner makes it easier to get help. For example, last year I went to Paris with my sister. I got terribly sick after eating some uncooked snails at a fancy restaurant, but it was okay since my sister could run to the pharmacy to get some medicine while I was resting in our hotel room. Thanks to that, I could recover right away. Had I been traveling alone, I might have been too weak to get medicine by myself and would have just stayed in the hotel alone for days.”

This approach really works!

Here’s another typical question:

“Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: it is a good idea to give students homework on a daily basis. Use reasons and examples to support your opinion.”

This could be easily connected to careers:

“Personally, I think it is a smart idea to give daily homework to students. This is because it teaches them time management skills that come in useful when they start their careers. For example, my high school math teacher gave me about an hour of homework almost every evening. I had a tough time trying to balance the homework with baseball practice and my social life, but I figured out how to schedule everything eventually. Now I’m working in a corporate office, and my ability to schedule a myriad of tasks is the reason I’m so well respected by my boss and peers.”

Or to education, of course:

“Personally, I totally agree with giving homework to students every day. This is because it is the only way for them to really internalize what they’ve learned in classes. For example, when I was in elementary school I often daydreamed during math lessons at school. I listened to some of what the teacher said, but I forgot it soon after I left the room. However, when the teacher started assigning homework every day I was forced to review the lessons at home in the evening. As a result, I remembered a lot of complex formulas and concepts.”

Try this technique out next time you practice for the TOEFL speaking section. You’ll learn that almost every question can be easily connected to one of the categories.