You have probably noticed that translating from one language to another is pretty complicated. If you take a sentence in French (for example) and replace every word with the equivalent English word, the new sentence in English will not make much sense. First, there often isn’t an “equivalent” English word. You also need to consider the structure of sentences: Every language builds sentences from words in a slightly different way.
You don’t have to become a professional linguist—someone who studies languages—to succeed on the TOEFL. However, knowing a little bit about linguistics—specifically, the ways in which some languages are different from other languages—can help you avoid mistakes or misunderstandings. Here are some common differences among languages that can help you to take the TOEFL.
Your native language might use sounds that are not used in English, and vice versa. Unfortunately, unless you learned English as a very young child, you will probably always have a “foreign accent” while speaking English. That’s okay! Your pronunciation does not have to be perfect. It just has to be clear and understandable.
Pronunciation is only a problem when it makes it hard for English speakers to understand you. For instance, if certain English sounds are not used in your native language, then you might have trouble producing those sounds. Working with a native English speaker can help you learn about these sounds. Ask a friend to show you how to produce certain sounds that are difficult for you.
You can also learn a bit about phonetics. Phonetics is the scientific study of how people produce different speech sounds. Studying phonetics can help you understand how to position your tongue, lips, and teeth in order to produce different sounds more effectively. MIT’s OpenCourseWare website (ocw.mit.edu) has a number of free resources that you may find helpful, including a course called “Listening, Speaking, and Pronunciation.” This course focuses on using pronunciation to help you speak English more clearly and to help you better comprehend rapidly-spoken English.
One specific problem occurs when English makes a distinction that your native language doesn’t make. In Japanese, the English sounds “l” and “r” are considered the same sound. That makes it hard for Japanese speakers to hear the difference between these sounds in English words. If English has distinctions that your native language doesn’t have, then you might need to work on pronouncing those sounds differently, in order to avoid confusing the English speakers who score your TOEFL.
Finally, if you know there are certain words that are especially hard for you to pronounce, it’s okay to avoid using those words.
Sometimes, your native language makes it harder for you to learn specific English vocabulary words or grammar structures. Here are some situations to be aware of.
Distinctions: The vocabularies of different languages don’t match each other perfectly. For instance, you might use the English verb went in this sentence:
My mother went to the store.
In Russian, however, you couldn’t translate this sentence exactly. Russian doesn’t have a single verb for “to go”—you’d have to specify whether your mother walked to the store or whether she drove there, for example.
Your native language might have other situations like this. Some of them, unfortunately, can be confusing or amusing to native English speakers. For instance, if your native language uses the same word for both “like” and “love,” you might accidentally use the stronger word, love, where like would be more appropriate. This can make you sound too enthusiastic. You likely already know some of these situations because of your previous English studies. Stay aware of them, and write down any new ones that you notice as you study for the TOEFL.
False friends: Be cautious with words that you are not entirely sure how to translate. There may be words in your native language that sound similar to English words but mean very different things. These types of words are called “false cognates” or “false friends.” An example is the word intoxicado, in Spanish. The English word intoxicated usually describes someone who has intentionally used alcohol or drugs. The Spanish word intoxicado, however, can also refer to somebody who has been poisoned. That can be an important distinction! As you encounter words like these, note them down so that you don’t misuse them on the TOEFL.
Connotations: Vocabulary words have both a literal meaning and a connotation. The connotation of a word is the “feeling” of that word—whether it’s positive or negative, formal or casual, polite or vulgar. For instance, thrifty and miserly have the same meaning in English—they both refer to a person who avoids spending money—but thrifty is a positive word and miserly is a negative one. A good dictionary can help you to learn about the connotations of your vocabulary words, as can searching for sentences that use those words.
Nouns and verbs: English may deal with the distinction between singular and plural words differently from your native language. In this case, it’s easy to mistakenly use a singular noun or verb instead of a plural one. Some languages also leave out verbs such as is or are. Leaving these verbs out in English, however, will confuse English speakers. Use flash cards to help you remember when you make mistakes with nouns or verbs.