Job Discussion Forums

[mejms]

As a few of us have mentioned, there�s no lack of standarized testing out there. Let me state up front that I�m not interested in making this just another thread on the value of standarized testing. That can be rehashed somewhere else.

Who has experience preparing students for at least one of these exams? What differences do you see between them? TOEFL of course is academic, meant for college students. TOEIC is meant for professionals. I�m familiar with both of them, as I�ve (gulp) tried my hands at preparing students for them. How do Cambridge, IELTS, and Trinity compare to ETS? Any advantages, disadvantages, etc?

Frankly, I get lost between all the organizations, tests, and acronyms. All feedback is appreciated (as long as it�s on topic).

[gregd75]

I am an oral examiner for IELTS. I would point students towards this test because it seems to me to be a more realistic exam.

I mean that, for example, students will read a text, listen to a professor speaking then they have to write an essay comparing and contrasting the two different viewpoints.

The oral exam grades candidates on fluency, lexical range, grammar and finally pronunciation. I think this shows an insight into the importance placed by the exam on language acquisition.

IELTS differs from the ToEFL (I dont know the others) because it uses English in real life situations whereas the ToEFL exam needs students to identify the subordinate clause in a sentence etc etc. For me this is very grammatical and students won't need to do this in the real world.

The would ned to make notes, listen to talks, read, construct an essay plan and develop an argument in their academic work.

A big disadvantage of IELTS is the cost. Its a lot more expensive than the ToEFL. BUT it has overtaken the ToEFL as the number one English language test in the world, as of 2010--- so I'm told (interestingly, Mexico is the last place in the WORLD where ToEFL is more widely taken)

[Guy Courchesne]

I've done a lot of TOEFL prep over the years, mostly for the paper based test used in Mexico and some for the iBT.

Neither form of the test I find very good in demonstrating or teaching communicative abilities. I do however use some TOEFL reading strategies in teacher training and some grammar prep sections from a particular Barron's TOEFL prep issue.

[Dragonlady]

[gregd75]

[mejms]

[Dragonlady]

[Enchilada Potosina]

I've done a lot of KET, PET, FCE and CAE prep as well as Toefl. By far the biggest hurdle is getting the students away from that study the exam by sheer volume of repetition in order to pass it mentality. The trick is to improve their level of English, accomplishing it is another matter entirely but students need to understand this first and foremost. If they don't have the level, they're not going to get there by repeating the exam to death.

[mejms]

Thanks for everyone's responses. Looks like this thread has died out.

It's amazing to me that thread after thread has been started and continued regarding the state of EFL in Mexico and the poor job opportunities and lack of professionalism. But when it comes to saying some constructive things about something more than just the ABCs of teaching English, something that requires specific knowledge and professional experience, there's just silence for the most part.

If there's this little said about the international standard exams that help define the EFL market, whether you like them or not, maybe there's not a lot of EFL teachers that are that invested in their field.

Anyways, let's move on to another thread just one more time about the lousy pay of language schools...

[Enchilada Potosina]

[Isla Guapa]

[Professor]

[Professor]

[Professor]

[Enchilada Potosina]