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wylies99
Joined: 13 May 2006
Location: I'm one cool cat!
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 Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 10:38 pm Post subject: TOEFL in Korea- what's happening? |
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| Why the flurry of news reports? |
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gsxr750r
Joined: 29 Jan 2007
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| Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 10:41 pm Post subject: |
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| Aren't they considering dropping one test in favor of another, for whatever reason? |
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vox
Joined: 13 Feb 2005
Location: Jeollabukdo
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| Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 10:59 pm Post subject: |
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| gsxr750r wrote: |
| Aren't they considering dropping one test in favor of another, for whatever reason? |
iBT TOEFL is supposed to replace the old test. No explicit grammar test, and an added spoken component. The spoken answers are recorded on computer, and sent via internet to six judges. Totally different.
Also can't be aced by grammar wizards who can't compose English.
Maybe that has something to do with it. |
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gsxr750r
Joined: 29 Jan 2007
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| Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 11:06 pm Post subject: |
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Yeah, I'm not sure what's happening... all I know is that the recent changes in tests to make them as mentioned above is really killing a lot of students. It's a serious issue.
Is this a situation where the test might be thrown out because it has now become too difficult? |
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T-dot
Joined: 16 May 2004
Location: bundang
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| Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 11:14 pm Post subject: |
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There are more people wanting to take the TOEFL test than there are available seats.
Korea and Japan moved to the PBT from the IBT for this occasion. There were 8000 seats put up for registration yesterday. |
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gsxr750r
Joined: 29 Jan 2007
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| Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 11:22 pm Post subject: |
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I have no idea what the timeline is for these changes. Aren't they already reality?
If not, could this huge influx of people wanting to take the TOEFL be due to worries that it may become much more difficult in the future? |
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wylies99
Joined: 13 May 2006
Location: I'm one cool cat!
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| Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 11:23 pm Post subject: |
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| So, they're making it more difficult to cheat? |
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gsxr750r
Joined: 29 Jan 2007
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| Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 11:27 pm Post subject: |
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Well, if I understand it right, they're making it include a lot more essay and speaking.
I could be wrong on that.
Billions of won are spent each year on "cram schools" which teach how to do well on the TOEIC. The situation was becoming so bad that university professors in the USA were complaining that too many Korean (and students from other countries, presumably) students couldn't communicate in English, yet were accepted into classes.
Something had to be done. |
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vox
Joined: 13 Feb 2005
Location: Jeollabukdo
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| Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 11:45 pm Post subject: |
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| gsxr750r wrote: |
Yeah, I'm not sure what's happening... all I know is that the recent changes in tests to make them as mentioned above is really killing a lot of students. It's a serious issue.
Is this a situation where the test might be thrown out because it has now become too difficult? |
If I may be so bold, no. It isn't.
The switch over to iBT TOEFL is a direct response to address the problematic trend that many foreign students (particularly students from China) were acing the grammar component of the old test and failing Western university courses because they couldn't keep up in the lectures.
The fact that the tide has rolled back now to Korean TOEFL test takers is not surprising. It should be but only the first of many waves. I don't doubt that the deficit between Korean investment and return on English proficiency will only become more scrutinized as more and more Korean students are forced to deal with this test, especially the speaking component, in order to get into western universities.
But the test is doing them a big favor. Better they find out in the hagwon than in the first five minutes of their first Harvard lecture class. |
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Missile Command Kid
Joined: 17 Jul 2006
Location: Daegu
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| Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 12:11 am Post subject: |
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I've been teaching iBT TOEFL here for about seven months, and during that time several of my students have taken the exam. Even if students can take the CBT version, the old version has no spoken component and North American universities already require iBT scores.
It's tough, even perhaps for native speakers. The speaking section is six different questions, each requiring from 15 to 30 seconds to compose an answer and 45-60 seconds to speak. It really tests your ability to think quickly *in English*. So what's all the hub-bub? |
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vox
Joined: 13 Feb 2005
Location: Jeollabukdo
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| Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 12:14 am Post subject: |
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| Missile Command Kid wrote: |
I've been teaching iBT TOEFL here for about seven months, and during that time several of my students have taken the exam. Even if students can take the CBT version, the old version has no spoken component and North American universities already require iBT scores.
It's tough, even perhaps for native speakers. The speaking section is six different questions, each requiring from 15 to 30 seconds to compose an answer and 45-60 seconds to speak. It really tests your ability to think quickly *in English*. So what's all the hub-bub? |
I taught that iBT course back home last year. I have a hunch you may have even taken the job I turned down in Seoul. If so, I hope you're doing well at it.
I think the hub bub is probably about the requirement to speak. Speaking was the single most arresting factor for all of my Asian students in the language schools back home. Now that it's a requirement on the test, I could see it justifiably soiling a lot of Christian Dior underwear simultaneously.
D*mn it, I should've bought shares! |
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pkang0202
Joined: 09 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 12:32 am Post subject: |
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Great. Now all the focus will be on speaking and not on writing.
I'll tell you one thing that I learned in University. I didn't care if the person in my project couldn't speak English. If they could write English and hand me their portion of the paper with proper grammar then I'll take that.
Seriously, I've been the team leader for numerous research projects and I the people that frustrated me the most weren't the ones that couldn't speak English, it were the ones that couldn't write worth a damn. |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 12:50 am Post subject: |
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The iBT testing, especially if it includes both a written and speaking component, is the best thing that could have happened to the EFL industry in Korea.
And it's a serious issue. It will put many people out of work and employ many others. It will kill some businesses and offer a huge opening to others. I think it's fantastic. |
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pkang0202
Joined: 09 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 12:56 am Post subject: |
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| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
The iBT testing, especially if it includes both a written and speaking component, is the best thing that could have happened to the EFL industry in Korea.
And it's a serious issue. It will put many people out of work and employ many others. It will kill some businesses and offer a huge opening to others. I think it's fantastic. |
I"m tempted to take it just to see how I do. I scored 80% on my GMAT verbal section. Back in the day before they changed the SAT's, I scored 720 out of 800 on verbal. |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 12:59 am Post subject: |
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| pkang0202 wrote: |
| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
The iBT testing, especially if it includes both a written and speaking component, is the best thing that could have happened to the EFL industry in Korea.
And it's a serious issue. It will put many people out of work and employ many others. It will kill some businesses and offer a huge opening to others. I think it's fantastic. |
I"m tempted to take it just to see how I do. I scored 80% on my GMAT verbal section. Back in the day before they changed the SAT's, I scored 720 out of 800 on verbal. |
Me too! I scored 89th percentile. I won't mention what my score was on the logic section (which I think they've since removed), but the unis viewing my applications must have wondered 'why the difference?'.
But the test questions, from what I've seen, are very, very different. |
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