‘MENEKUNI’ BAHASA INGGRIS

Tidakkah anda melihat banyak di luar sana, orang yang tidak mengambil studi bahasa Inggris, namun ia mampu ceplas-ceplos bahasa Inggris? Sedangkan anda bertahun-tahun mempelajari syntax, linguistics, dan lainnya hanya untuk lulus dan sebuah predikat? Lalu apa yang anda lakukan? Anda tidak hidup dengan bahasa Inggris, anda hanya menekuninya. Syukur saja bila anda mempraktekkannya.

Coba bayangkan seseorang yang menekuni bidang strategis seperti ekonomi, sains, dan lainnya dan dibantu dengan bekal bahasa Inggris. Mereka punya bekal topic popular untuk dibahas. Sedangkan anda? OK jika kemampuan berbicara bahasa Inggris anda sempurna. Tapi apa yang ingin anda bahas? Siapa yang mau mendengarkan linguistic ? Syukurlah jika anda bisa membahas pendidikan. Namun jika anda membahas bahasa, hanya sedikit orang yang mendengarkan dan sedikit topic untuk anda jelaskan pada dunia. Anda pun akan sulit mengikuti perkembangan.

Sanksikah anda akan diri anda sekarang?

1 Maret

  

Mengapa Aku Tidak Bisa Bahasa Inggris?

Pertanyaan seperti itu telah seringkali diberikan oada  saya baik oleh orang yang telah saya kenal lama maupun orang  baru yang mengetahui latar belakang pendidikan saya. Seharusnya mereka sendirilah yang memahami permasalahan diri mereka dalam memperlajari bahasa Inggris, dan tugas saya hanya membantu  mereka memperbaikinya.

Memang tidak ada alasan dari ketidakmampuan seseorang dalam menggunakan bahasa Inggris. Dilihat dari aspek-aspek kebahasaan seperti grammar, kosa kata, pengucapan, serta skill-skill seperti writing, speaking, listening, dan reading, seseorang sebenarnya memiiki kemampuan yang berbeda-beda satu sama lain. Beberapa hanya mengalami masalah grammar, sedangkan yang lainnya memiliki problem yang lain. Dan untuk memperbaikinya, ada banyak cara pula yang bias anda lakukan.

Ada banyak jalan untuk bias memahami dan menggunakan bahasa Inggris dengan lebih baik. Akan tetapi, mungkin secara umum, yang terbaik, terutama untuk mereka para pemula, adalah dengan mengikutsertakan hal-hal yang anda sukai dalam aktivitas kehidupan keseharian anda.

Simply, bring English to your life.

Kelilingi anda dengan exposure ataupun hal-hal yang berbau bahasa Inggris. Dalam melakukan ini, anda tidak perlu harus mengikuti les atau kursus, memaksakan diri untuk membaca koran bahasa Inggris, dan lainnya. Anda dapat memulainya dengan tetap menggunakan bahasa Inggris  pada halaman akun-akun sosial atau bahkan ponsel anda, menyukai dan menghafal lagu bahasa Inggris, dan lainnya. Akan tetapi, yang paling penting mungkin, terutama untuk meningkatkan kemampuan berbicara anda, adalah mencari partner berbahasa Inggris. Inilah yang sulit dilakukan. Dan yang terakhir, don’t be afraid of making mistakes. Anda adalah seorang pembelajar, maka kesalahanlah yang akan membuat anda lebih baik. Jangan mau dituntut untuk selalu benar. Salam bahagia.

21 Februari, 07.57

Illustrated Journal Writing of SMP N 2 Kalasan Students, Yk

Nine pictures below are the result of illustrated journal writing activity 

done in a junior high school in Yogyakarta.

Apa Itu Scrabble? (1)

Saya secara pribadi memang belum lama mengenal permainan ini, namun setidaknya mungkin dengan sedikit berbagi tentangnya, dapat memberikan inspirasi bagi anda, terutama para pengajar bahasa Inggris di negeri ini.

Scrabble adalah suatu bentuk permainan yang berbasiskan dari penggunaan kosa kata bahasa Inggris (vocabulary). Permainan ini sebenarnya belum terlampau luas dikenal oleh para pengajar maupun pelajar di Indonesia, dikarenakan distribusi dan mahalnya perlengkapan permainannya yang berlisensi. Dalam hal ini, Scrabble tidak hanya melibatkan pemikiran akan strategi, seperti layaknya pada catur. Lebih-lebih, dengan bermain Scrabble kita dapat memperluas cakupan kebahasaan kita dalam bahasa Inggris, dan juga sebagian bahasa dunia lain, karena bahasa Inggris pada dasarnya adalah bahasa dunia. Banyak kata dalam bahasa Inggris yang diserap dari bahasa lain.

Dalam hal ini, anda harus mengenal beberapa istilah yang terkait dengan Scrabble, seperti yang di bawah ini:

tiles: seperti yang anda lihat pada gambar, balok kecil yang bertuliskan huruf dan nilai tersebut, adalah tiles.

bingo: seperti sebuah jackpot, atau bonus, yang bisa anda dapatkan jika anda dapat mengeluarkan seluruh tiles anda pada satu kesempatan jalan. Dengan itu, anda akan mendapatkan nilai tambahan sebanyak 50 poin.

Scrabble dapat dimainkan oleh 2-4 orang. Namun biasanya untuk turnamen internasional, sistemnya adalah face-to-face, atau 2 orang. Untuk menentukan giliran, biasanya salah satu pemain akan meletakkan tiles secara terbalik,sebanyak jumlah pemain. Kemudian tiap pemain akan memilih satu tile secara acak. Barangsiapa yang memiliki tile paling dekat dengan huruf A, maka ialah yang akan mengambil 7 tiles pertama dan memulai permainan dengan katanya.

Untuk permainannya, akan dilanjutkan pada posting berikutnya.
Terima kasih,

With much love and happiness,

Kusuma

REDUCED ADVERB CLAUSES

When the subject of the main clause and the subject of the adverb clause are the same person or thing, the adverb clause can be reduced (shortened). Reduced adverb clauses do not contain a main verb or a subject. They consist or a marker and a participle (either a present or a past participle) or a marker and an adjective.

When astronauts are orbiting the earth, they don’t feel the force of gravity. (full adverb clause)
When orbiting the earth, astronauts don’t feel the force of gravity. (reduced clause with present participle)

Although it had been damaged, the machine was still operational (full adverb clause)
Although damaged, the machine was still operational. (reduced clause with a past participle)

Although he was nervous, he gave a wonderful speech. (full adverb clause)
Although nervous, he gave a wonderful speech. (reduced clause with and adjective)

You will most often see reduced clauses with the markers although, while, if, when, before, after, and until. Reduced adverb clauses are NEVER used after because.

JOURNAL REVIEW: Effects of Peer Feedback on EFL Student Writers at Different Levels of English Proficiency: A Japanese Context.

Kamimura, Taeko. (2006). Effects of Peer Feedback on EFL Student Writers at Different Levels of English Proficiency: A Japanese Context. TESL Canada Journal/Revue TESL du Canada Vol. 23, No. 2, Spring 2006 p12-34.

In this research, Kamimura investigates the effectiveness of peer feedback in Japanese writing classroom. First of all, views about the effects of peer feedback both in the context of English as L1 and L2 are mentioned. From the views, peer feedback gives positive effects on the students’ writing development, though some analysts do not agree with this. For the research, Kamimura took two classes of university students with different level of English proficiency. The text type used in the sessions is argumentative essay. Meanwhile, there are five sessions in this research, as the same treatment for both classes. The first session is pre-test where there is still no peer feedback. On the second session, students write the original draft of another essay with different topic. Then, the peer feedback training is held including three sessions. In the fourth session, as the previous one, students again work in pairs to rewrite the draft and start to give oral peer feedback to their partner. The last session is the post-test where they write another essay. In this case, students’ writing is scored holistically by word count, and classification of comments. According to the quantitative analysis on the data, both classes show the improvement on writing. In the qualitative analysis, Kamimura gives examples of the text both from the low and high-proficiency class. Overall, it can be concluded that peer feedback gives positive improvement of writing for the students with different levels of English proficiency, especially for the low one. Finally, Kamimura suggests some further studies to reach the conclusion about the peer feedback effects in EFL/ESL context. 

JOURNAL REVIEW: Christine Sabieh: The Influence of Email on Language Learning: A positive impact

In this research study, Sabieh investigates the effects of the use of email on English language learning mainly on the confidence and self-esteem. Firstly, she explains the role of computer and internet on empowering the students’ learning which is still debatable, stated by some experts. Furthermore, she also mentions her belief about the use of technology, especially email, and her strategies and reasons in using email in this research. For this research, Sabieh took 30 students of a university not majoring English. Then, they are divided into two groups: the one having consultation face to face with the educator (the researcher) in her office and the one having consultation by email. However, both groups also have chance to consult inside the class during the eight weeks of data collection. From the research findings found by using time frame, Sabieh finds that the faceless group is more active to consult than the face one. The content of communication from both groups is mainly about the course. Meanwhile, the address style from the faceless group is relatively more informal than the face one. In this case, Sabieh also mentions the result of the long-term communication and the communication dynamics during the class session. Overall, it can be concluded that technology (in this case: email) is effective enough in order to improve the students’ learning process, specifically on their confidence and self-esteem. 

JOURNAL REVIEW: Motivators That Do Not Motivate

Chen, Judy F., Warden, Clyde A. & Chang, H. (2005). Motivators That Do Not Motivate: The Case of Chinese EFL Learners and the Influence of Culture on Motivation. TESOL QUARTERLY Vol. 39, No. 4, December 2005 p609-633

In this research, Chen, Warden, and Chang investigate the English learning motivation in Chinese cultural setting, especially in Taiwan. First of all, they explain the condition of English learning in Asia that is still similarly adopted from the western. Then, the theory of motivation orientation in EFL is mentioned, including three phases of process model (preactional, actional, and postactional phase) and two main questions to be discussed in the research study: how far motivation orientation affects self-evaluated skill and how expectancy relates them. Moreover, they also explain the method used in the research, which is by a survey including 567 valid respondents answering questions via the Web. In this section, they also explain the variables of each phase and how they analyze the data by using SEM (structural equation model). Based on the research findings, they find that the required orientation has the biggest influence to the learning process of the respondents. It is because in Chinese culture, the need to have good mark at exam is absolutely important, not only for the participant him/herself, but also to the clan. It can be concluded that the context of culture affects the motivation orientation and furthermore, their need in social life. Finally, they explain the significance of the study to the ELT in Chinese context.

Journal Review 4: Creative EFL Writing as a Means of Intensifying English Writing Skill Acquisition: A Ukrainian Experience

Tarnopolsky, Oleg. (2005). Creative EFL Writing as a Means of Intensifying English Writing Skill Acquisition: A Ukrainian Experience. TESL Canada Journal/ Revue TESL Du Canada 83 Vol. 23 No. 1, Winter 2005, p76-88

In this research, Tarnopolsky investigates how the technique of creative writing can develop writing skill for EFL (English for Foreign Language) learners in Ukraine. Firstly, Tarnopolsky explains the theory of creative writing and the condition of it in Ukraine EFL teaching. Then, he mentions the technique used in this research, which is the combination of process and genre approach. For this research, Tarnopolsky takes a small group of students who have not learned English before they have it as their major in the university. The research is conducted for the whole academic year of September 2001-May 2002. The technique of creative writing is later divided into three stages and periods. The first stage is approaching creative writing. In this stage, students are prepared by asked to write an essay with independently chosen topic. There is a session of giving comments from the teacher to the students’ writing. The second stage is writing literary works. In this case, students start to focus their writing to be in the form of short story and begin to give comments on other students’ writing. There is also a literary contest where students can perform their writing by reading aloud. The last stage is developing skills in commenting and critique. This stage is similar to the previous stages. The only difference is only the emphasis of comments in written form. Based on the research findings, Tarnopolsky finds that almost in all stages, the students’ enthusiasm and writing ability are improved by applying creative writing technique. 

Journal Review 3: Teachers' and Students' Beliefs About Responding to ESL Writing: A Case Study.

Diab, Rula L. (2005). Teachers' and Students' Beliefs About Responding to ESL Writing: A Case Study. TESL CANADA JOURNAL/ REVUE TESL DU CANADA 29 Vol. 23, No. 1, Winter 2005 p28-43

Diab, in this research study, investigates ESL instructor feedback and the belief towards it both from the instructor him/herself and the students. For this research, Diab takes three participants, which consist of an instructor and two college students. In this case, the process of collecting data is conducted with think-aloud protocols and interview. Meanwhile, the feedback is given both in the drafting process and the final draft. Firstly, Diab states the previous research findings about the effectiveness of grammatical correction that is still arguable. On data analysis, Diab focuses on the two main elements: the area of correction and the belief of the participants towards the correction (feedback). Based on research findings, Diab found that the instructor's correction is mostly in the are of grammar. Meanwhile, the belief of the participants on the feedback is relatively positive, though some of them mention several problems. Finally, Diab suggests further research study to conclude the specualtion about the effectiveness of feedback, mainly the grammatical one.

Journal Review 2: Collaborative Writing: Product, process, and students' reflections

Storch, Neomy. (2005). Collaborative Writing: Product, process, and students' reflections. Journal of Second Language Writing 14 (2005) 153-173

Storch, in this research, investigates the application of group/pair work on the writing process for ESL Asia students studying in an Australian university. Firstly, she mentions the bases for the use of group/pair work and previous researches on collaborative writing. Based on those researches, the responses to collaborative writing is positive. for the research, the used task was data commentary text, and the process of gathering data was held in week 4 of the semester. the students are free to choose on working individually or in pairs. however, most of them chose to work in pairs. Then, Storch analyzes the data based on product (composition), process (pair dialogues), and students' reflection (interview). From the research findings, texts produced by pairs are shorter but better and more complex, compared with the individual work. in the scope of the process, application of collaborative writing shows benefits for students, mainly for their English development. Meanwhile, the students' responses to collaborative writing are mostly positive. finally, Storch suggests a further investigation on the topic to know the more significant result if collaborative writing.

Journal Review 1: The Impact of School on EFL Learning Motivation: An Indonesian Case Study.

Lamb, Martin. (2007). The Impact of School on EFL Learning Motivation: An Indonesian Case Study. TESOL Quarterly: A Journal for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages and of Standard English as a Second Dialect, v41 n4 p757-780.

In this research, Lamb investigates the changes of a group of junior high school students' motivation in learning English for 20 months in Indonesia and all the factors affecting them. firstly, he mentions some literature reviews from previous similar researches outside Indonesia. from the studies, the learner's motivation seems to fall. then, Lamb explains the method of his research and discusses the barriers for the students to have high motivation to learn, both from inside and outside the classroom. based on the research finding, Lamb finds that the students' motivation he observed is relatively decreasing for formal learning activities, while it is increasing for informal ones. one of the most important factors causing them is the role of English for their future. finally, Lamb suggests that the teachers and the learner's environment must be supportive in order to  make the learner's motivation high. a more focused research about this topic is also needed.

English Songs for Teaching Narrative

 Berikut ini adalah daftar lagu berbahasa Inggris yang bisa digunakan untuk mengajar narrative, karena lagu-lagu berikut ini juga berisikan cerita. Selamat mencoba.

1. Johnny Cash, "A Boy Named Sue"
2. Kenny Rogers, "Coward Of The County"
3. Jawbreaker, "Chesterfield King" 
4. The Temptations, "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone"
5. Loudon Wainwright III, "The Man Who Couldn't Cry"
6. Todd Snider, "Tillamook County Jail"
7. Bob Dylan, "Lily, Rosemary, And The Jack Of Hearts"      
8. Elvis Presley, "In The Ghetto" 
9. Barry Manilow, "Copacabana" 
10. Eminem, "Stan" 

Writing and Public Speaking

How to Write a Speech: Just How Long Should Your Speech Be?

By:Neil Sawers

Ed McMahon, Johnny Carson's well-known sidekick, used to say that a good dinner speech should be no longer than around 17 minutes. I've written longer ones, shorter ones, and several around the length Ed suggests. The determining factor depends on the occasion, the caliber of the speaker and the topic being covered. We deplore long wedding speeches, eulogies (unless they're really good), and Oscar acceptance speeches. Most wedding speeches I've seen, including ones I've done as groom and best man, are under three minutes. These speeches need to be warm, light, funny if possible, and contain that special emotional quality that distinguishes the occasion. Most of all, they need to be short. That's about a page and a half double spaced.
Writing a business speech can be different. So much depends on the amount of ground that has to be covered. One way I like to determine length is as follows. I'll write the draft of a speech, read it over and make corrections. Then I'll print out a revised version and set it aside for a while. I'll then come back to it with one aim. Cut it by 25%. That is a very interesting exercise. Can you reduce what you've written without losing any of the content or the essence? When you force yourself to be concise, it is amazing how much you can cut. So a 22 minute speech can come down to 17 minutes. Ed McMahon would be pleased.
Much depends on the audience. What can they handle? What can they tolerate? If you cannot hear a pin drop during a presentation, it means that the speaker has captured their attention. Coughs, shuffling chairs, glancing around, all indicate that attention is wavering. A great speech, full of interesting information and intriguing stories can hold an audience for half an hour or more. A speech that fails to spark attention is too long at eight minutes. What is your criterion?
I suggest that in crafting a business speech you aim for 15 to 17 minutes. If you've done your homework, and the speaker has played around with it to his or her satisfaction, and assuming that the speaker knows the audience, there's no reason why it cannot be done within that time frame. Under reasonable conditions it's not too long or too short, contains valuable information, and the audience doesn't have time to get bored or restless.
There are some who claim that a speech should be as long as it needs to be. I think that's dangerous. It allows writers to cover every possible argument without worrying about how the audience will react. They claim that the audience needs to have all the information. The inevitable result is that the audience tunes out. My suggestion is to follow Ed McMahon's advice. Keep it concise, keep it short, and keep your audience.
Neil Sawers develops books and e-books on business writing to help you grow your business. He is a strong supporter of entrepreneurs, small business and students in business and entrepreneurial programs. To discover how you can write more effective and compelling speeches for your business, begin by downloading the free chapter on The Discovery Process available at:=> http://www.how-to-write-proposals.com. This chapter contains key tools and concepts that are useful in any writing you're called on to do. Check it out.

Taken from: http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/writing/index.pl?read=3303

QUANTIFIERS

Like articles, quantifiers are words that precede and modify nouns. They tell us how many or how much. Selecting the correct quantifier depends on your understanding the distinction between Count and Non-Count Nouns. For our purposes, we will choose the count noun trees and the non-count noun dancing:
#The following quantifiers will work with count nouns:
many trees
a few trees
few trees
several trees
a couple of trees
none of the trees

#The following quantifiers will work with non-count nouns:
not much dancing
a little dancing
little dancing
a bit of dancing
a good deal of dancing
a great deal of dancing
no dancing

#The following quantifiers will work with both count and non-count nouns:
all of the trees/dancing
some trees/dancing
most of the trees/dancing
enough trees/dancing
a lot of trees/dancing
lots of trees/dancing
plenty of trees/dancing
a lack of trees/dancing

In formal academic writing, it is usually better to use many and much rather than phrases such as a lot of, lots of and plenty of.

There is an important difference between "a little" and "little" (used with non-count words) and between "a few" and "few" (used with count words). If I say that Tashonda has a little experience in management that means that although Tashonda is no great expert she does have some experience and that experience might well be enough for our purposes. If I say that Tashonda has little experience in management that means that she doesn't have enough experience. If I say that Charlie owns a few books on Latin American literature that means that he has some some books — not a lot of books, but probably enough for our purposes. If I say that Charlie owns few books on Latin American literature, that means he doesn't have enough for our purposes and we'd better go to the library.

Unless it is combined with of, the quantifier "much" is reserved for questions and negative statements:

Much of the snow has already melted.
How much snow fell yesterday?
Not much.

Note that the quantifier "most of the" must include the definite article the when it modifies a specific noun, whether it's a count or a non-count noun: "most of the instructors at this college have a doctorate"; "most of the water has evaporated." With a general plural noun, however (when you are not referring to a specific entity), the "of the" is dropped:

Most colleges have their own admissions policy.
Most students apply to several colleges.

TOEFL LISTENING COMPREHENSION TIPS

TINGKATKAN EXPOSURE BAHASA LISAN

Di samping kemampuan mengantisipasi arah soal dengan memanfaatkan kata kunci pada pilihan jawaban, peserta tes perlu juga untuk membiasakan diri dengan aksen Amerika karena TOEFL dibuat oleh jaringan pembuat soal di sana. Untuk memulainya, anda harus secara proaktif mendapatkan exposure secara memadai tentang bahasa tersebut. Cara yang paling mudah adalah dengan mendengarkan siaran berita radio atau televise Amerika. Cara lainnya adalah dengan menonton film. Keuntungannya adalah pada saat yang bersamaan seseorang akan mempelajari kata-kata dan idiom yang lazim digunakan dalam kehidupan keseharian.

Agar mendapatkan hasil maksimal dalam tes Listening Comprehension, seseorang harus menanamkan dalam benaknya bahwa film yang ditontonnya hanya berfungsi sebagai media untuk latihan listening. Jika film tersebut dimaksudkan untuk menghibur diri, maka hanya itu saja yang akan didapatkan. Sekali tujuan semula berubah, hasil tidak akan pernah dapat diraih.

Untuk menyiasati agar latiahn menyimak dapat berjalan baik dan alur cerita tetap dapat diikuti, sebelum melihat film tersebut kita dapat menyempatkan diri untuk membaca sinopsisnya. Saat menonton, kita harus mendengarkan dengan seksama dialognya. Teks terjemahan dapat dimanfaatkan jika kita kurang yakin dengan bagian yang didengarkan. Dengan cara demikian, secara perlahan seseorang akan terbiasa dengan pola ucapan Amerika. Lebih jauh lagi ia akan mengenal kata baru yang sangat bermanfaat kelak.

WHAT IS TOEFL?

TOEFL adalah tes bahasa Inggris sebagai bahasa asing yang bertujuan untuk menguji kemampuan bahasa Inggris peserta tes yang berbahasa pengantar nonbahasa Inggris.TOEFL diujikan sebagai bagian dari persyaratan mendafttar perguruan tinggi di Amerika Serikat dan Kanada, serta Negara lain yang menggunakan bahasa Inggris sebagai bahasa pengantar.

Dilihat dari karakternya, TOEFL dapat dikategorikan dalam proficiency test, yakni tes yang digunakan untuk mengukur kemampuan bahasa Inggris seseorang tanpa dikaitkan secara langusung dengan proses belajar mengajar. Dengan demikian bahan yang diujikan tidak terbatas, tidak seperti achievement test yang lingkup ujinya terbatas pada bahan yang telah diberikan pada siswa.

Tes TOEFL meliputi Listening Comprehension (50 soal), Structure and Written Expression (40 soal), dan Reading Comprehension (50 soal). Hasil dari tes ini ditulis dalam bentuk angka atau score yang berjarak dari 310-677 untuk paper-based testing atau 40-300 untuk computer-based testing.

PROVERBS AROUND THE WORLD

1. The absent are always in the wrong.
     English Proverb
2. Abundance, like want, ruins many.
     Romanian Proverb
3. Adversity makes a man wise, not rich.
    Romanian Proverb
4. Advice is least heeded when most needed.
     English Proverb
5. After dark all cats are leopards.
     Native American Proverb (Zuni)
6. After dinner, rest; after supper walk a mile.
     Arab Proverb
7. After the game, the king and the pawn go into the same box.
      Italian Proverb
8. The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected.
      Swedish Proverb
9. After the dance the drum is heavy. (Anpre dans tanbou lou.)
     Haitian Proverb
10. After three days without reading, talk becomes flavorless.
      Chinese proverb
11. After victory, tighten your helmet chord.
      Japanese Proverb
12. All cassava get same skin but all nah taste same way.
      Guyanese Proverb
13. All roads lead to Rome.
      Roman Proverb
14. All roads do not lead to Rome.
       Slovenian Proverb
15. All sins cast long shadows.
       Irish Proverb
16. All sunchine makes the desert.
      Arab Proverb
17. All things good to know are difficult to learn.
      Greek Proverb
18. All sunshine makes the desert.
      Arab Proverb
19. All temptations are found either in hope or fear.
      English Proverb
20. An Arch never sleeps.
      Hindu Proverb

IELTS STRUCTURE

The IELTS contains the same 4 sections, Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing, but the format is very different.

Reading
The reading section of the IELTS gives you 3 texts, which may be from academic textbooks or from a newspaper or magazine--but all at the level of a university student. One will always be an opinion piece--i.e. a text arguing for one point of view. The variety of questions on the IELTS is quite broad, and not every text will have every question type. One question type asks you to match headings to paragraphs in the text. You may be asked to complete a summary of the passage using words from the text. Or you may have to fill in a table or chart or picture with words from the text. There may be multiple-choice questions that ask you about key details. One of the hardest question types presents statements and asks you whether these statements are true, false or not included in the text. You may also be asked to match words and ideas. Finally, some questions are short-answer but the answers will be taken directly from the text itself.
Some questions come before the text and may not require careful reading to answer. Others come after the text and may expect you to have read the text thoroughly.

Listening
The IELTS has four listening sections. The first is a "transactional conversation" in which someone may be applying for something (a driver's license, a library card) or asking for information (say calling for more details about an advertisement or a hotel). The second section is an informational lecture of some kind, possibly a dean explaining the rules of the university. Third is a conversation in an academic context and the final section will be an academic lecture. For all sections you may be asked to fill out a summary, fill in a table, answer multiple-choice questions, label a diagram or picture, or classify information into different categories. You will be expected to fill out answers as you listen.

Writing
There are two writing tasks on the academic IELTS. The first asks you to summarize a table or chart in about 300 words. You will have to identify important information, compare and contrast different figures or maybe describe a process. The second task asks you to present your opinion on a statement about a fairly open topic such as: "Women should look after children and not work" or "Too many people are moving to cities and rural areas are suffering."

Speaking
Finally, the speaking section will be held on a different day from the rest of the test and in the presence of a trained interviewer. The questions are the same for all examinees but some parts may be more in the form of a conversation than a monologue. The first part of the test will be a brief introductory conversation followed by some short questions about familiar topics. The interviewer may ask your name, your job, what kinds of sports you like, what your daily routine is, and so on. In the second part, you will be given a card with a topic and a few specific questions to address. You will have to speak for two minutes on this topic, which may be about your daily routine, the last time you went to the movies, your favorite part of the world or a similar familiar topic. In the last section, the interviewer will ask you to discuss a more abstract side of the topic in part 2--why do people prefer daily routines? Why do people like the movies? How does travel affect local life?

TIPS LISTENING TOEFL

Untuk Part A, yang dapat anda lakukan adalah:
-Fokus pada baris terakhir
-Hindari sound yang mirip
-Pilihlah sinonim
-Who, What, & Where.
-Negative expression, Negative - Positive, Positive - Negative.
-Almost Negative = Positive.
-Expression of agreement, uncertainty, suggestion & emphatic.
-Contrary result.
-Idioms.
fokuslah pada pembicara terakhir, bisa menghindari bunyi yg sama, dan memilih jawaban yg sifatnya synonym..maka anda sudah bisa menguasai 80% dari total Listening.
20 % sisanya digunakan pd Part B & C

Untuk Part B & C, coba lakukan:
-Anticipate the topic.
-Anticipate the question.
-Listening and reading the answer at once.
-Take note for any number, name, and place mentioned.

Banyak siswa yg mendengar tapi sambil menutup mata (HINDARI INI). Sebaiknya yg perlu anda lakukan, observasi soalnya dulu (beberapa pengawas akan strict utk hal ini). kemudian dgn melihat jawabannya anda bisa mengantisipasi pertanyaan yg akan disampaikan, selanjutnya dengarkan sekaligus baca pilihan jawaban yg tersedia. Beberapa lembaga memang tidak bakal memperbolehkan kita mencatat..pada otak kita short term memory mengacu salah duanya pada angka & nama. jika soal TOEFL menyebut nama atau angka catatlah sebisa mungkin.