How to improve your fluency for TOEFL speaking

By Zen/陈翘伊 (Changsha New Channel school)

Fluency refers to generally well-paced flow or so called 'fluid expression' in a speaking response. Even though TOEFL speaking is scored based on three major criteria: delivery, language use and topic development, fluency is of paramount importance among them.  A fluent response would not only allow you to get a high score for delivery, it can also give the examiner a good impression about your speaking ability in general, which often determines whether you get a fair or a good for any task.  I have come across many TOEFL students who have excellent content, vocabulary and grammar in their speaking response. Yet, they just couldn't get high score for speaking section; some of them even failed to get over 20 despite numerous attempts.   As frustrated as it can be, it all boils down to fluency. So I would like to address the issue of fluency by answering the burning question of most students: How can I improve my fluency?

When you are asked to give a response to task 1 and 2 in TOEFL, most likely you are doing something like a direct translation, which definitely limit yourself with Chinese means of expressions AND your also find it difficult to find corresponding words in English.  Also your English fluency is impaired due to the simple fact that you form English sentences in your mind as if writing on a piece of paper – they don’t come out of your mouth automatically. So you simply just have to forget about translating if you want speak fluent English! You also have to speak straight out of your mouth without preparing a whole sentence in your mind beforehand! Furthermore, try to Get used to paraphrasing using simpler words in case you’re struggling with explaining a certain thing or concept. Lastly, try to hesitate like a native speaker.

Here’s a good exercise to help you start thinking in English. I am sure you definitely have some sort of a routine task that you perform on a daily basis. For example, I have the habit of thinking about the things I have to do the next day. When I go through the list in my mind, I have two options – I can think about them either in Chinese or English. As you can imagine, I’ve switched over to thinking in English ages ago, and it’s definitely helped me with English fluency. I would think like this " TOEFL speaking class at 9am, Lunch with Cherry, meeting at 4pm at NC, call the maintenance guy to fix washing machine, get cereal and milk from the supermarket on my way home, start writing the required essay".  Whenever you perform a mundane task, such as doing house chores – use that time wisely to either comment on your actions in English OR think in English about something else if your particular activity doesn’t occupy your mind.  It’s not easy at first, but you’ll be surprised how quickly you can substitute Chinese for English.

Another biggest myth about speaking is to worry about sounding too simple in your speaking. If you try to sound smart and use passive vocabulary (the one that you're not really comfortable with when you speak), that's when the real trouble begins.  You may stuck there in the middle of a sentence, or pronounce a word wrongly. Let's say you’re struggling to produce a sentence “I became extremely irritated because of my financial difficulties”, you’re most likely trying to build an ‘ideal’ sentence in your head and then speak it out. Stop doing it, take a short pause and speak using simpler words – “I got very nervous because I have money problems” The verb ‘got’ is among the simplest English verbs and can be used to describe nearly every action that involves change of emotional state; you just need to attach the corresponding adjective to it. And if you were struggling with the word ‘irritated’, then ‘nervous’ is definitely something you can use instead. And of course, even beginning English learners would know words ‘money’ and ‘problems’’.  Quite often, students tend to put themselves under unnecessary stress when speaking so they end up struggling for words. Remember there is always a way of putting the same thing in different words. Of course I’m not saying you don’t have to improve your sentence structure and accumulate more active vocabulary. That's something you MUST do in your daily practice, but you should never try to use passive vocabulary during the actual exam, at the expense of fluency.

Many training school teachers like to talk about "killer phrase" for speaking. For me, they are definitely not something like 'bona fide', 'sliver lining', but filler phrases such as ' well...." and ' like...'. By now you might have used ‘eeeerrr…’ and ‘hmmmm…’ to fill pauses, which certainly lowers your fluency score. You want to know how to get rid of this bad habit? Well, try to use 'Well...' instead, which is probably the most popular English word used to buy time while considering the question you’ve just been asked. Another brilliant pause filler is 'like...' and it can be used in a similar manner as  'you know...’ For example, “We had an argument, and then he became like… (Considering which words would better fit the description at that time) a completely different person! " You can also – and this is VERY IMPORTANT for spoken English fluency– Start a new sentence right after the pause; you don’t necessarily need to continue the same sentence: “The reason why it happened is… well… it’s actually because I offended her...".

Finally, you cannot possibly switch to English thinking or change your speech habit in a day. Just like the other three tasks in TOEFL, speaking needs consistent effort as well. Eloquence would not only get you the speaking score you wanted, but become a strong asset of yours that will definitely help you succeed in your future endeavors overseas.

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