Caveat: Chicken? Egg? Solved!

In my TOEFL2반 class, I decided to switch things up a bit.

I teach them "Speaking" – which in TOEFL / iBT prep, means getting them to give 45-second or one-minute speeches in response to sample test questions, mostly. It's all about practice, practice, practice. So a normal class involves me getting each of them to answer 2 or 3 questions. We have a routine: I ask the question and randomly choose a student; I hand them my smartphone, which has a countdown timer on the screen, set for e.g. 45 seconds; then I hold my video camera on them – not because I'm going to do anything at all with the result, but merely because it creates an amazing level of "pressure" and focus. And they talk.

Last night, I decided let them ask me questions, instead, following essentially the same routine. I handed the camera to one of the students, sat down at a desk facing them and put my timer down in front of me. They would ask a question, I would have 15 seconds to cogitate on a response, and then I would talk for 45 seconds, with the camera on. Most of the questions they asked were the same typical "made up" iBT Independent Speaking questions (types 1 and 2) that we see in our textbooks. But at the end they threw me a few strange ones, just to see what I'd do. I ran with it, of course.

The final question of the evening was: "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?"

Here is my answer.

I'm not sure I was able to explain it adequately in my alloted 45 seconds, but I think I held my own. When asked to give my response a score on the 4 point iBT speaking scale, my students gave me a 2.9. This seems about right, in my opinion – even native speakers can only do so well on test like the TOEFL, and I always tell my students that a perfect score on the iBT Speaking section is as much about luck on the questions as it is about ability, because even native speakers can easily blow a question or two, ending up tongue-tied or devoid of clear ideas for a response, given the short time-frame.

 

Caveat: 소리 없는 고양이 쥐 잡는다

TOM & JERRY 9This is an aphorism from my aphorism book.
소리    없는              고양이      쥐    잡는다.
so·ri  eops·neun         go·yang·i jwi   jap·neun·da
noise  not-have-PRESPART cat       mouse catch-PRES
The quiet cat catches the mouse.
A quiet person is more successful than a noisy person.
[daily log: walking, 5 km]

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