Developing Reading Listening Speaking and Writing Skills for

Developing Reading, Listening, Speaking, and Writing Skills for TOEFL: A Task-based Approach Focusing on Organization Writing Demo Lesson Gao Lan

ß ß Learner Population: High school and college students who are preparing for TOEFL (Test of English for Foreign Learners) in China. Lesson aim: The writing lesson will create an environment that takes into consideration not only sentence structure but also structural differences in discourse across languages, which eventually turns the focus of learning and teaching in L 2 writing class from sentence level to the discourse level.

Topic Will college athletes be successful in their academic performance?

ß College academics require students study hard to achieve their goal to graduate; therefore, they have a bunch of books to read, a series of assignment to finish, and some study activities to do. If they haven’t finished on time, they will not achieve academic success. Moreover, they are not qualified to graduate. Instead, college students have lots of unstructured social time, such as… In contrast, college students have hours of daily practice. This hectic schedule forces athletes to manage their time better.

ß We all understand that often the truth is offending and may not be a very nice thing to both hear or say. Lies or white lies often have their advantages. The manipulation of white lies is most obvious in the business world. How many times have we heard that some product is “the finest” or “the cheapest”? How many times have we heard that products have such and such “magical functions”? Advertising is about persuasion, and many would agree that if a company is to tell the absolute truth about it’s products, no one would be interested in even having a look at the products. (From TOEFL OG)

Debriefing statement: In terms of organization, English tends to be linear in writing, while Chinese tends to be circular. The circular writing style manifests itself in its indirect way of presenting ideas without a thesis statement in the Western sense, which makes it more difficult for Western readers to understand the author’s intention. Therefore, the analysis of Chinese and English rhetorical differences will help Chinese language learners who are preparing TOEFL adopt a more holistic and clear perspective in writing so as to have better performance in the writing section.

All-purpose five-paragraph ß ß ß Introduction: Establish position Body Topic sentence Concession statementsboth sides of the statement is analyzed details/examples summarizing sentence Conclusion : Develop introduction

Debriefing ß Organization is the structural framework for writing. Organization is important to effective writing because it provides readers with a framework to help them fulfill their expectations for the text. A wellorganized piece of writing supports readers by making it easy for them to follow, while a poorly organized piece leads readers through a maze of confusion and confounded or unmet expectations.

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