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.