很多人以為口語(yǔ)測(cè)試是四個(gè)部分中令中國(guó)人特別頭疼的部分。其實(shí)， 對(duì)任何非英語(yǔ)國(guó)家的考生來(lái)說(shuō)，都是問(wèn)題。比如說(shuō)，一同學(xué)習(xí)的有一位巴基斯坦人，原來(lái)是做醫(yī)學(xué)工作的， license要求口語(yǔ)26分以上。他其他部分都不錯(cuò)，但是口語(yǔ)問(wèn)題比較大。不僅僅是口音，關(guān)鍵是表達(dá)方法。
很多人不重視第1-2題，以為這兩題只需要閉起眼睛胡侃就行了。況且，由于很多題目網(wǎng)上有披露，大同小異，或者做題前已經(jīng)偷聽(tīng)到別人的內(nèi)容，已經(jīng)有了準(zhǔn)備，所以更加放心。其實(shí)，No 1-2 往往是讓很多人跌破眼鏡的地方。口語(yǔ)的要求是必須：表達(dá)清楚、準(zhǔn)確、流利、自然。1-2特別要求例證豐富，而且回答時(shí)必須是在“講”，不是在“背”和 “讀”。
有網(wǎng)友說(shuō)，她準(zhǔn)備材料時(shí)堅(jiān)決杜絕“en.." "ha.."的過(guò)渡用詞，我認(rèn)為是不對(duì)的。我們平時(shí)在上課時(shí)，班上的同學(xué)或老師都會(huì)有正常的“hesitance". 連電視臺(tái)主持人也會(huì)有偶然失誤，何況中國(guó)人。所以，假如你1-2題講的太順，只有三個(gè)可能：
a. 你是大牛，你中國(guó)人比美國(guó)人還美國(guó)人
b. 你在朗讀。你可能休息時(shí)將答案基本寫在draft paper 上了
c. 你在背誦。你曾經(jīng)準(zhǔn)備好了答案。
假如評(píng)分人認(rèn)為你的口語(yǔ)不是即興的，他就會(huì)刻意挑毛病，你的分?jǐn)?shù)可想而知。
所以，我個(gè)人認(rèn)為，第1-2題必須充分準(zhǔn)備，然后最后表演時(shí)必須不留痕跡，中間偶爾的“en.." "ha.."可以存在，但是不可太多。有時(shí)甚至故意弄一個(gè)小錯(cuò)誤，但是要立即糾正。
另外， 由于第1-2題是主觀題，大家有發(fā)揮的空間，所以你在舉例或細(xì)節(jié)描述時(shí)，應(yīng)該盡量故意點(diǎn)名你的英語(yǔ)strong背景。比如， 已經(jīng)在北美的人可以表明已經(jīng)到北美讀書很長(zhǎng)時(shí)間了，沒(méi)有出國(guó)的人也可以間接表達(dá)自己英語(yǔ)是很不錯(cuò)的。 (我會(huì)在下面舉例說(shuō)明)。這是因?yàn)楝F(xiàn)在TOEFL口語(yǔ)的評(píng)分人(raters)基本上都是業(yè)余人員組成的。假如你住在北美，有一定的背景，你都可以通過(guò) ets的網(wǎng)站申請(qǐng)成為TOEFL考試口語(yǔ)或?qū)懽鞯膔aters (http://www.toefl.org)。 這就是為什么大家必須對(duì)不滿意的成績(jī)申請(qǐng)rescore的原因。而在rescore時(shí)，往往是由ETS指定的專業(yè)人員重新評(píng)分的。
舉例：(2007年12月7日北美口語(yǔ)題第1題)
Talk about a special gift you once gave to someone.Describe the gift and explain why it is special.
假如是我，我可能會(huì)像這樣回答(具體內(nèi)容應(yīng)該根據(jù)自己的語(yǔ)速進(jìn)行調(diào)整)：
I am living and studying in Canada now. I moved here with my parents about 2 years ago. Before I left China, I had a farewell party with my friends and relatives, and gifts were exchanged there. I had prepared a very special gift to my former English Teacher in my high school -- A Bible with both English and Chinese. You know, I was born into a traditional chinese family who believed in God. However, it is almost impossible to claim openly that you beleive in God in China, not to mention to read Bibles everyday. (這里請(qǐng)大家不要罵我賣國(guó),純粹為考試而說(shuō)) My English teacher was my family''s friend, and we had witnessed his change in his belief. However, he had been dreaming of getting a English Bible. I had one which my father gave me to improve English because this Bible has both English version and Chinese version togehther. I believed that when I went to Canada, it would be very easy to get another English Bible for myself. Therefore, I decided to give this Bible to my teacher as a SPECIAL GIFT.
我決定這樣講，并不是我不愛(ài)國(guó)，也不是因?yàn)槲艺娴氖且粋€(gè)基督徒，純粹為了考試。 TOEFL考試決定不會(huì)因?yàn)槟阏f(shuō)了真話就給你高分，也不會(huì)因?yàn)槟阏f(shuō)了謊話就降分。關(guān)鍵在于你的論據(jù)是不是reasonable and believable.
首先點(diǎn)名我生活在加拿大，讓評(píng)分者有思想準(zhǔn)備給我高分。然后再告訴the rater我從小就有學(xué)習(xí)英語(yǔ)的熱情，連讀《圣經(jīng)》都是英漢對(duì)照。 這樣聽(tīng)者會(huì)被說(shuō)者牽著鼻子走，至少印象上會(huì)占優(yōu)勢(shì)。
所以說(shuō)，對(duì)于已經(jīng)在北美讀書的很多學(xué)生來(lái)說(shuō)，雖說(shuō)在口語(yǔ)中故意表明身份不一定總是有效果，但是肯定不會(huì)吃虧，何樂(lè)而不為呢。國(guó)內(nèi)的考生也應(yīng)該間接的表明自己的英語(yǔ)基礎(chǔ)不同一般：
所以， 同樣的題目， 假如我在中國(guó)考試， 我會(huì)這樣說(shuō)(具體內(nèi)容應(yīng)該根據(jù)自己的語(yǔ)速進(jìn)行調(diào)整)
China is a country where people love offering gifts. However, the gift I gave to my girl friend this May was very speical. Her birthday was May 14th, and I knew she was expecting a large bunch of rose from me. Instead, I purchased only one rose together with a very thick dictionary: "Oxford Advanced Learner''s dictionary". My girl friend is a very smart girl and she majors in Biology/pschology/... However, her only problem is English. She never wants to spend time keeping English words in mind. However, different from her, I am crazy about learning English. In fact, I won a lot of prizes while attending our university''s English Test Competitions. I hope this gift could offer her confidence to learn English and English study could be as beautiful as the flower I gave her. Besides, I gave her this special dictionary because I have been using this dictionary for many years. It not only has more words than other popular dictionaries, but also has more interesting examples and appendixes.
口語(yǔ)中第三第五題真是比較簡(jiǎn)單, 都是基于校園對(duì)話, 而且大部分普通教材編寫的都跟真題沒(méi)有什么出入。但是有些平時(shí)英語(yǔ)口語(yǔ)不錯(cuò)的人，第三題出了問(wèn)題，是因?yàn)槁?tīng)力比較差的原因,講得跟原對(duì)話有出入。第五題關(guān)鍵是時(shí)間控制，大體三部分，What is the problem? What are the solutions? And Which solution do you prefer?
記得在課堂訓(xùn)練時(shí)，部分同學(xué)時(shí)間控制不好，對(duì)Which solution do you prefer，回答得太匆忙，甚至有人都沒(méi)有時(shí)間說(shuō)。
第4題和第6題往往是難點(diǎn)。有時(shí)第四題閱讀部分太難，45-50秒鐘讀不懂。(國(guó)內(nèi)考生一般這樣的問(wèn)題比較少，因?yàn)樗麄兊拈喿x能力往往比我們北美的中學(xué)生或國(guó)際學(xué)生要好，而且他們很多人都在同時(shí)復(fù)習(xí)GRE 或GMAT，他們的詞匯量真是好了得。所以我的體會(huì)可能更適合北美跟我年齡相仿的人，17-20歲的學(xué)生)。這時(shí)，大家應(yīng)該不要慌。根據(jù)我的經(jīng)驗(yàn)，第四題基本是這么一個(gè)結(jié)構(gòu)：閱讀猶如是本字典，先給我們對(duì)某個(gè)Term下一個(gè)定義或說(shuō)明，然后聽(tīng)力部分再由老師重新說(shuō)一邊。而老師的內(nèi)容更加具體，生動(dòng)，細(xì)節(jié)化。這部分我感覺(jué)ETS考試中心是在極力還原真實(shí)的大學(xué)課堂情景——
老師布置作業(yè)，叫同學(xué)們回去讀那些那些頁(yè)數(shù)。然后，第二天老師先對(duì)預(yù)習(xí)的部分用自己的理解講述一番，然后學(xué)生跟進(jìn)。
好在第四題主要是問(wèn)lecture的內(nèi)容，所以即使文章有時(shí)沒(méi)有完全讀懂(不是經(jīng)常會(huì)發(fā)生，有時(shí)文章超簡(jiǎn)單)，只要能將聽(tīng)力內(nèi)容說(shuō)清楚， 一樣能拿高分。
比如說(shuō)，還拿2007年12月7日的題目為例，即使你沒(méi)有記住文章內(nèi)容，你可以這樣來(lái)回答：
In the lecture, the psychology professor used his daughter as an example to explain the academic concept of chaining behavior. In order to teach his 3-year-old daughter to wash her hands, the professor divided the action of washing-hands into 5 steps. First, teach her how to turn on the water, then teach her how to wet her hands. Step three is to make her learn how to put soap on her hands, then rinse her hands, and finally, step 5, to teach her to turn off the water. He taught his daughter step one first, then after she has learnt how to turn on the water, moved on to the second step. In the next few days, after she could do both, continued teaching her step three, then step 4, until finally she learnt the whole process of washing hands. This example has very clearly demonstrated the theory of chaining behavior in the reading passage.
這樣的敘述盡管對(duì)閱讀非常忽略，但是假如你閱讀能力比較差,或是某次考試閱讀特別麻煩,這樣做也是不得已而為之。不過(guò)，假如閱讀不是太差的話，在開(kāi)頭的時(shí)候最好對(duì)聽(tīng)力和閱讀作一個(gè)比較綜合的integrated summary. 比如說(shuō)，當(dāng)你說(shuō)完了“In the lecture, the psychology professor uses her daughter as an example to explain the academic concept of chaining behavior，”之后，后面可以接一個(gè)定語(yǔ)從句，對(duì)“chaining behavior” 下一個(gè)定義。這個(gè)定義來(lái)源于閱讀，但是不等于照抄照搬，應(yīng)該是對(duì)原文的paraphrase. 然后繼續(xù)聽(tīng)力的例證描述。這樣這個(gè)表達(dá)就更精煉、更緊湊。
當(dāng)然，除了第1-2題之外，其余四題，特別是3，4，6題，切忌“憑空捏造”或“胡說(shuō)八道”。假如你們讀過(guò)OG的口語(yǔ)sample評(píng)分，所有的 fair level中，都有一項(xiàng)這樣的評(píng)語(yǔ)：“The speaker identifies the concept and the two examples, but with inaccuracies. Instead of sum marizing each experiment, he combines the summary of both experiments. This causes him to incorrectly conclude that you make more mistakes when you are being watched while tying your shoes.
所以，我的看法是：表達(dá)不準(zhǔn)確是第3-6題的第一大忌。
表達(dá)不連貫是3-6的第二大忌。
語(yǔ)音語(yǔ)調(diào)不地道是第三大忌。
語(yǔ)法錯(cuò)誤和發(fā)音錯(cuò)誤是第四大忌。
我認(rèn)為假如大家有時(shí)間，應(yīng)該按照以上的順序依次解決問(wèn)題。
最后，談?wù)効谡Z(yǔ)材料問(wèn)題。畢竟不是有很多人跟我一樣，可以用真題操練的。一般來(lái)說(shuō)，口語(yǔ)的第1，2， 3， 5題任何一本教材都可以。但是注意，Barron提供的答案太夸張了。 答案應(yīng)該以O(shè)G提供的Sample為藍(lán)本，進(jìn)行練習(xí)?；蛘呒偃缒銈兊睦蠋煴容^優(yōu)秀的話，以老師的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)要求自己。