Some Good TOEFL Books!

[serey]

Dear all,

How are you all doing?
I have bought a good TOEFL book. It is all about TOEFL.

It is "BARRON'S: HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE TOEFL: Test of English As Foreign Language With CD-ROM; 11th Edition" By "Pamela J. Sharpe, Ph.D.", and published in 2004.

I find it interesting, and it is good for those who want to know more about English and those who interested in taking TOEFL test. Hope it might be useful for you all. But please do not mind me if the book is too old or out of date!

SEREY.

[jupiter]

Hi Serey,

Personally, I'm doing more than happy 'cause as you know we have a few-day holiday. I hope all you guys enjoy your day!

Anyway, it's nice that you share us what you did. I don't think your new TOEFL book is out of date at all. Even though TOEFL has been reformed from difficult to more difficult, we still need PBT or CBT TOEFL book to enhance our English knowledge and prepare ourselves for IBT TOEFL.

Hope you enjoy working with your new book.

Jupiter

[Paul Brown (MA CELTA)]

Hey guys,

 It is great that you are preparing for TOEFL, but please know that it is now iBT, internet based and it has changed completely.

 If you have any book other than TOEFL published by ETS in 2006 this year, you will be preparing for a different test. The Listening is NOT the same skills and is totally different. There is NO sentence correction on iBT, and there are 2 writing tasks, one is an essay, same as TWE, and the other is an itegrated task, which requires you to read, listen and write! Finally there is a Speaking section, which is NOT on the old TOEFL.

 So even all the old TOEFL books are now are out of date, and you must make sure you have the very latest book. I have it, if anyone would be interested to borrow it. THis is TOEFL iBT published by ETS, the administrators of the test.

 Also make sure that any preparation course you take is following the updated test rubric. Otherwise you will be preparing for one test and doing another on the day Make sure that the teacher is a qualified test preparation teacher, as now TOEFL is very very academic in nature and it has  become much more important than before to get a good teacher.

 5steps are preparing some stategies for the new iBT toefl and they will be available shortly on www.5steps2toefl.com.

 Need more information go to www.ets.org/toefl for all the update on the iBT from a reliable source.

 Have fun,

 Paul

[Keo Somala]

Oh, that sounds really nice, Paul. The only important thing is how the distribution can happen.

[serey]

Dear Paul and all friends,

Thank you, Paul, for your good advices and comments about TOEFL.

I understand that the new TOEFL test style is not the same as before, and that we all should prepare more in the new way for the test. However, the book I suggested last time is still useful in some ways for some students, especially for those who want to try to improve their English and/or want to try taking TOEFL test. I know that the book may be out-of-date, but I have read and learnt that it has some good advices and strategy for students who want to learn about TOEFL. It is good that you point out the new TOEFL style and some good advices to prepare for that new TOEFL style. However, I still suggest that some of you, especially new English students who want to improve their English, should read it for some ideas.

I hope you, Paul, don't mind this little idea of mine, and hope to get more ideas, comments, and advices from you. And please don't mind my bad writing because it's worse than before.

Regards,
SEREY.

[Paul Brown (MA CELTA)]

Hey Serey,  :lol:

 The old TOEFL books are useful as English language study books now, but NOT for iBT TOEFL. There is NO sentence correction on the new test, so that would only now be useful for studying grammar for writing, but cannot really be justified as study for specific iBTTOEFL strategy any more. Also the new Listening is completely different, there has been a move away from idiomatic usage to more academic style in the new iBT. However, the Writing may be useful to some extent as may the reading. Though, both the writing and reading are slightly reformatted in the new iBT.

 All I want to make students aware of is that the test has totally changed as well as the way you take it. The skills are now very difficult to master and will require training from only the most upto date materials. The new ETS book is the only book at the moment, which is useful. If you need more information go to www.ets.org/toefl.

 From a teachers point of view, I do strongly feel that unless you are an experienced test preparation ESL specialist, it is going to be very hard to effectively teach the new integrated tasks. THis is because they are very academic and not so much English language skill based in nature. EAP ( English for Academic Purposes ) is a very skilled area of English language teaching and the new iBT TOEFL has tasks which are essentially EAP or at least pre EAP in nature.

 I would also say that there is not much practice material out there yet, so until the new test is fully implemented and we have more information, caution is the best policy. Even teachers and schools are still learning about the test and the best ways to teach it, so it really is early days all round.

 By the way, it is great that you have the old TOEFL books and of course they will be great for learning some English. However, I personally feel that studying from old books in test prep leads to more confusion than clarity on behalf of the students, who need to be clear on what they have to do and what they need to do to be able to do it!

 Just a few thoughts,  

 Have fun,  :wink:

 Paul

[serey]

Dear Paul,

Thank you, Paul, so much for your good advices, and sorry to all FRIENDS about my mistake in introducing the old book to you all!

Paul, I really appreciate your great advices about the new TOEFL test. I really feel ashamed of myself not knowing about this. I want to take a TOEFL test, but I think I am not good enough to do it. I need to prepare for this new kind of test. From what you told me, I need to learn from the most up-to-date TOEFL book and understand more about the new test. But I don't think I can find the most up-to-date TOEFL book at the market. Could you suggest some good books? and some good schools? And Please advise me some more about HOW to prepare for this new TOEFL test!!! I am looking forward to your great advices.

Regards,
SEREY.

[lg_makara]

I think that the book, you are mentioned about, is not clear in expression. I have an interested book for you. It's '' Arco english work book for toefl exam ''. It had not only grammar but also exerice.

bye ...
 
have a good study


makara

[smsilu]

Hello every brothers and sisters! i am very very new in here and i was reading about what you were discussing about TOEFL but i don't understand what is it all about. i am an english student from one of the pagoda in Battambong. i heard people in PP said about taking TOEFL test long time ago but i didn't pay attention on that. when i heard you guys discussed about it right here, it made me feel that it is good tobe known. So, Can you tell me the basic thing about TOEFL test? Why we need to take TOEFL test? what is it for? if i want to take TOEFL test also, what should i do? DO i need to pay for taking the test? If i need to pay, How much is it? after the test, if i pass, what will happen to me and if i fail, what will happen to me? And where can i study for the preparation before i step in the examination hall? Oppss, Forgot to Introduce myself for the first time. I am nO body but my nick name is "smsilu" I am a 23 year old guy who came from Battambong and basically i studied english in one of the Pagodas in BB. i have learned most of the english words, speaking skills and listening skills from different forieners like africans, asians and few white guys who came for tourise. i like speaking nonsense and i do speak a lot but sometimes i found my words were ignored by a lot of listeners. anyway, it's my own way but i will find a new way to force the audiences to listen to what i gotta say 

all the best
smsilu

P.s.....Do reply me

[Paul Brown (MA CELTA)]

 Hey Smsilu,

 A very warm welcome to the forum from the 5steps team, we are very happy to have you with us in Battambang province. It is great that you have joined this free online community of English language learners in Cambodia. I can see that your English is already of a good standard and you already have some good vocabulary and phrases. 

I am sure you can speak quite well and you have a lot of good experience practising speaking English with foreigners. A lot of students sometimes have a problem when they talk to foreigners, so maybe you can share with us how you became confident and improved your speaking skills? We would love to know how you have managed to be so confident when dealing with foreigners and have improved your spoken English at the same time.

 The TOEFL test is a test of English language proficiency and it stands for the 'Test of English as a Foreign Language'. It is a popular test, especially for students who intend to study abroad in the USA. It is currently available as a test via the internet as the iBT ( internet based test ) and there are several test centres here in Phnom Penh. It is a good idea to do a lot of practice to prepare yourself for the test as it can be a bit difficult if you have no preparation. The best way to prepare is by studying yourself and getting some advice from us here on the forum. Then nearer the time, when you feel like you have some familiarity with the test, it is good to follow a preparation course with a qualified test trainer.

 I hope that helps, 

 Have fun,

 Paul

[Borak]

Dear all,

Thanks for your viewing and comments. I really appreciate your ideas and advices, and I am so sorry if my suggestion about TOEFL book is wrong. I think nothing is perfect, and that book is just a TOEFL book.

Nowadays, I am studying a TOEFL Paper/Computer - Based Preparation course, and I see that it is good. If any of you haven't taken a TOEFL Prep course yet and think that your English is enough for the TOEFL Prep Course, Please register to study now. It will help you more about English Usage in the right way. And there are some more new TOEFL Internet-Based Test (IBT) Preparation Books available at book stores in PP. It is worth spending your money in Books rather than spending in some way.

That's all for my little ideas. I hope that it will be useful to some of you (as a student of English like me), and hope that you all don't mind my ideas.

All the best,
SEREY.

[Meas Mab]

Thank you for bringing up sharing good books. I, too, have a Baron TOEFL.
That's really a good idea, and i hope we're going to share other invaluable stuffs other than TOEFL Books, both in Khmer and foreign languages.
yet, for the topic is about studying English, I'd like to share some English books I've ever encountered. It's a series of "Vocabulary in Use" and "Grammar in Use", Cambridge University Press (illegally published in here).

Mab

[saosoraya]

hey all guys here!

as a guy here stated that a good book for the new ibt test is BARRON'S with CD-rom, are u sure? as i know, with BARRON'S book, there's only audio cd not really cd-rom. n i used to see it; i don't think it's a good book at all. i think that a good ibt book is longman trademark with its cd-rom. i have it n found it very useful n it did help me alot before i took ibt test. on its cd-rom, u can find a practice program that u are likely to see on the real test. with it, u can practice the skills and calculate ur score in listening and reading as the one on the real test. with speaking, u also can record ur voice and evaluate after that. i like that cd-rom very much. however, it cannot be bought in cambodia yet, but u can buy it in thailand or order it from other countries. hey all friends if  u want, i can burn one from mine for u!

email me at saosoraya@yahoo.com if u like to have a longman ibt cd-rom!