Speaking Responses: Formal or Informal? A TOEFL TIGER VISITOR WROTE: Dear Toefl tiger, Hi my name is Samarth and I have just recently started reading your blog and find it very helpful in my preparation for the toefl. What I wanted to know was : on the speaking section is it okay if our responses are filled with some colloquial terms such as " uh mean.you know" and " you wouldn’t want to.." Or should we stick to a slightly more academic way of speaking? Secondly, should we restate our position a couple of times during the 45 seconds to remind the listener, or not risk doing that at all? Thank you for your help. Sorry for the inconvenience. Thanks, Samarth. TOEFL TIGER RESPONSE: I’m pleased that we’re helping you on your TOEFL quest! This is an important question. Speaking responses need to be given in what ETS calls a "natural speaking voice". While this might seem to mean that you can say "uh" whenever you want, I advise you to take a different approach. If you get to comfortable, I think the response will suffer in many categories. Firstly, it will seem too informal, this is a test after all. Secondly, it might encourage you to make more mistakes because you’re not on guard (formal). Thirdly, it’s an easy way to waste time and graders know this. Most importantly, it will not result in the most specific response possible. My opinion is that if you want a top score then you need to separate yourself from the crowd. One way to do this is to perfect your speech. You don’t have to speak without error. That’s impossible. However, it should be clear that you’re speaking as well as you can. Any beginner can use these phrases, but not anyone can elevate their speech. Remember, when you’re giving a response, you’re proving yourself to the grader. If this is challenging, record your response and then write down every single word and sound that you said. Then edit that response and try to say it again within the time limit. This will help reduce any bad habits. Now, the second question wants to know if we should restate in question one and two. When the time limit is forty-five seconds, this time is too short to bother with restating unless if you ran out of things to say. Ideally, state the topic within five seconds and spend the remaining forty on reasons and examples. Thanks for the insightful questions and feedback!