New TOEFL exam may place local students at a disadvantage: China Post 2005/10/1

The American International Education Foundation (AIEF) yesterday declared that a new version of TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) will be administered in Taiwan by ETS (Educational Testing Services) as early as next April.

Most colleges and universities in the U.S. use the TOEFL test to evaluate the English proficiency of potential students. The academic institutions also base their admission decisions on the test scores.

The newer version of the TOEFL will abandon the structure (grammar) section and insert a 20-minute oral section. According to AIEF, the new test will focus more on the students' aural and oral skills, which might place Taiwan test takers at a disadvantage.

AIEF pointed out that students in Taiwan, who often excel in English writing and grammar, are still able to do well on the TOEFL even if they lacked the necessary aural skills.

The new test, which places significant emphasis upon listening and speaking, will take away the students' advantage.

ETS stated that the new TOEFL iBT (Internet Based Test) "makes it possible to capture and score test-taker speech in the most efficient, standardized, and objective manner." The new method of testing will also be convenient for students because it allows the possibility of installing more test centers around the world.

The grammar section of the test is being taken out to make room for a listening section, which requires students to answer questions based on conversations or lectures on a prerecorded tape. In order to simulate natural environments, some of the taped conversations will involve individuals with British or Australian accents, said ETS.

Another change to the test includes new questions that ask test takers to categorize information and fill in a chart or complete a summary, said ETS.

There will be 120 possible points on the new TOEFL, as opposed to 300 on the older version. The total time needed to finish the test will be increased to four hours with a 10- minute break period. Students that have taken mock tests for the new TOEFL said that the difficulty level has increased drastically, stated AIEF. The majority of the exam takers (75 percent) said that the newly added oral section is very difficult.