Lesson 23 of 41 in the Test Ninjas TOEFL course: Listen to an Academic Talk, Listening. In Listen to an Academic Talk, most questions are about facts.
Test Ninjas Research · Updated October 1, 2026
Lesson at a glance
Detail
This lesson
Module
Listen to an Academic Talk (Listening)
English focus
Stance and attitude language: stance adverbs (surprisingly, admittedly, unfortunately, remarkably, frankly), evaluative words (clever, elegant, crude, a bit of a stretch), stance frames (what's remarkable is, the clever part is, I'm not convinced that, admittedly … but) and hedges (probably, may, it seems)
Task skill
The speaker's attitude (the stance word, and what it describes); answering all four questions of a talk from one set of notes
Time
About 60 minutes
Access
Included in the TOEFL plan
What this lesson teaches
In Listen to an Academic Talk, most questions are about facts. Sometimes one asks what the professor thinks: “What is the professor’s attitude toward X?”
The answer sits in a few words:
- stance adverbs (surprisingly, admittedly, frankly)
- evaluative words (clever, crude)
- frames (What’s remarkable is…, I’m not convinced…)
This lesson teaches you to catch those words and to tell the professor’s own view from a view she only reports. Then you’ll answer all four questions of a full talk from one page of notes.
By the end of the lesson, you can
Recognize stance adverbs and evaluative words (surprisingly, admittedly, unfortunately, remarkably, frankly; clever, elegant, crude, a bit of a stretch), say what feeling or judgment each one carries, and use them in your own sentences.
Recognize stance frames (What’s remarkable is…, I’m not convinced that…, I’d be careful with…), concession (Admittedly X, but Y) and hedges (probably, may, it seems), and tell the professor’s own view from a view she reports (Some people say…).
Answer attitude questions from the stance word and what it describes, and answer all four questions of a one-minute talk (main idea, why mention, attitude, what next) from one page of notes.
What’s inside
Around the 3 teaching cycles below, the lesson opens with a quick check and closes with applied practice, a Check and a debrief. How every course lesson is built.
Teaching cycles in lesson 23
Cycle
Focus
What it teaches
Drills
Cycle 1
English
Stance adverbs and evaluative words
6
Cycle 2
English
Stance frames, concession and hedges
6
Cycle 3
Task skill
Attitude questions and the whole four-question talk
6
Word bank
The 10 words and phrases this lesson teaches. They come from the real course questions you practice on in the Apply step, so you meet each one again in context.
faint adjective
not strong or clear; hard to see or hear
Through the wall, we could hear a faint hum from the server room.
Goes with:
faint traces; a faint sound; a faint chance
Word family:
faintly (adverb); faintness (noun); faint (verb): to lose consciousness for a moment, a different meaning
stand out phrasal verb
to be easy to notice because it is different
Her poster stood out because she used only two bold colors.
Goes with:
stand out from the crowd; stand out against the background
Word family:
outstanding (adjective): excellent; standout (noun): the best one in a group
pick up phrasal verb (science sense: detect)
to detect or receive a signal or change
The weather station picks up even small changes in wind speed.
Goes with:
pick up a signal / a sound / a smell
Word family:
pickup (noun): a collection, as in a package pickup; pick up also means collect, lift, or learn: pick up a skill
wavelength noun
the distance between two waves of light, sound or radio
Radio stations use different wavelengths so their signals don’t mix.
Goes with:
a longer / shorter wavelength; on the same wavelength
Word family:
wave (noun); length (noun); on the same wavelength (idiom): thinking in the same way
costly adjective
expensive; costing a lot of money
Printing the posters in color turned out to be costly, so the club switched to email.
Goes with:
costly to produce; a costly mistake
Word family:
cost (noun / verb); costliness (noun)
technique noun (stress: tech-NIQUE)
a particular way of doing something that needs skill
Our tennis coach taught us a new technique for serving into the wind.
Trust is a key ingredient in any good study group.
Goes with:
the main ingredients of; a key ingredient in
Word family:
ingredients (plural noun); a key ingredient (figurative): an important part of something
far worse phrase
much worse
The traffic was bad on Friday, but on Monday it was far worse.
Goes with:
far worse than; far better than; far more difficult
Word family:
far better (phrase): the positive partner; much worse (phrase): a close synonym; bad → worse → worst
manage to verb + to-infinitive
to succeed in doing something difficult
Olu managed to finish the lab report an hour before the deadline.
Goes with:
manage to finish / find / fix; just managed to
Word family:
manageable (adjective): possible to deal with; management (noun); manager (noun)
take apart phrasal verb
to separate something into its pieces
Hassan took the old radio apart to see how it worked.
Goes with:
take a machine / a bike / an engine apart
Word family:
take something apart: a noun can go before or after apart, but a pronoun goes in the middle (take it apart); come apart (phrasal verb): to separate into pieces
The takeaway: Attitude lives in a few words: find the stance word, check what it describes, and after admittedly… but, trust the but.
In the full course
The speaker's attitude and full talks is part of the full TOEFL course
Unlock all 41 lessons with the TOEFL plan, or try one of the free lessons first.
✓All 3 teaching cycles of this lesson, with 18 drills and feedback on every answer
✓The 10-word bank, each word with a recall drill
✓A walk-through, guided practice and a Check on Listen to an Academic Talk