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jurassic5
Joined: 02 Apr 2003
Location: PA
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 Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2005 8:27 pm Post subject: Testing hurdle for international students: the new TOEFL |
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looks like some students are screwed...
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BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- For American students, tests like the SAT, ACT and GRE mark the path to college and graduate school. But for hundreds of thousands of international students hoping to study in the United States, a major concern is proving their language skills on the TOEFL -- the Test of English as a Foreign Language.
Now that test has undergone a major makeover, aimed at better evaluating how well applicants can communicate in English. As the test debuts Saturday, some students, particularly Asians, are worried they'll be disadvantaged because of how they were taught English in school.
Last year, 750,000 students took the old, mostly multiple-choice TOEFL. But in recent years, many of the 5,200 English-speaking colleges and universities that use the exam have grown concerned the test fails to identify students who master only "textbook" English. There have also been complaints from undergraduates who can't understand the foreign graduate students teaching their classes.
After a decade's research, the Educational Testing Services will be giving the new TOEFL "iBT" (Internet-based test) this weekend in U.S. test centers. The exam will phase in worldwide over the next year.
Perhaps the biggest change is a new speaking component; previously, ETS offered a separate speaking test, but few students took it. More broadly, the focus shifts to how well students read, write and speak in combination. Students may be asked to listen to a recording and read a passage, then to speak about both. Their responses will be digitally recorded, then downloaded by experts to grade.
In school, "you're always using a combination of skills," said ETS senior vice president Mari Pearlman. "When you read, you take notes. When you're in a classroom, you're also speaking and writing." Students need all three skills outside the classroom, too, whether it's finding housing or figuring out the washing machine.
It's a much more significant reworking than the recent makeover of the SAT. And the changes have some students nervous, particularly those from Asia, where schools generally emphasize vocabulary and grammar over speaking.
"Most Asians, especially (from) Japan, Korea, Taiwan, love reading, structure, grammar," Yoshihiko Iwasaki, a Japanese student hoping to attend business school, said while on break from a Kaplan TOEFL test-prep class in Boston earlier this week. "(Our) speaking is weak, because sometimes, it's impolite to speak out, to describe an opinion, or talk to the teacher. When we take a class, we just sit and take notes and memorize."
Both Asian and non-Asian students at the Kaplan Center said they were nervous about the test. But Emily Pierre, who manages English programs there, said "we're all kind of thinking this is going to be more of a challenge to Asian students." Natawan Umnahanant, a student from Thailand hoping to study food science at an American university, laughed that classmates and teachers chide her for "iBT-phobia."
Pearlman said pre-testing does not suggest students from particular countries will suffer. She acknowledged Asian students may have disadvantages, but said they will make up for them because "they are ferociously capable and determined."
Educators hope the change will improve English teaching worldwide. When ETS added writing to the TOEFL in the 1970s, curricula around the world adjusted. Now, ETS predicts the new speaking section will have a similar effect.
It also hopes administering the test via the Internet will improve access to it, giving more international students a shot at studying abroad, be it in the United States or elsewhere. The change will let ETS expand the number of test sites from 500 to 3,000 by 2007. |
http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/09/23/english.test.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest |
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Wrench
Joined: 07 Apr 2005
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| Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2005 11:16 pm Post subject: |
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| Its about time. |
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guangho
Joined: 19 Jan 2005
Location: a spot full of deception, stupidity, and public micturation and thus unfit for longterm residency
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| Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2005 8:06 am Post subject: |
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| Wrench wrote: |
| Its about time. |
Yup. |
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joe_doufu
Joined: 09 May 2005
Location: Elsewhere
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| Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2005 8:49 am Post subject: |
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thank heavens!
this is an opportunity for us... you know all those Koreans who spent ten years studying English and didn't learn anything? some of them are going to be starting over from page 1 -- that means more jobs for us. |
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peppermint
Joined: 13 May 2003
Location: traversing the minefields of caddishness.
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| Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2005 3:19 pm Post subject: |
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| Have you ever tried telling someone they have to unlearn everything they think they know? It's certainly not my idea of a fun time |
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joe_doufu
Joined: 09 May 2005
Location: Elsewhere
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| Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2005 4:51 pm Post subject: |
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| peppermint wrote: |
| Have you ever tried telling someone they have to unlearn everything they think they know? It's certainly not my idea of a fun time |
The good news is, the newspaper will tell them, so we don't have to. We just collect the money and teach. |
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dulouz
Joined: 04 Feb 2003
Location: Uranus
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| Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2005 8:21 pm Post subject: |
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| Taiwan - Japan - Korea. The big dumb three or rather the big dumb rich three. These folks would never ever take advice on how to learn English from the lowly Poles or Filipinos, just more of the familiar ca-ching sound more arguments. |
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teachmeenglish
Joined: 14 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 6:35 am Post subject: |
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Actually this is nothing new. This was originally supost to come as TOFEL 2000, about 5 years ago and just got mired down. Last I heard it will begin in Korea in March, but could also be put off. Right now TOFEL is running full tests 10 times more often than a year ago. THe demand is really high to score high before the new test ciomes in.
Also TOEIC is changing in the spring also.
Lets have a good laugh... |
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Manner of Speaking
Joined: 09 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 5:02 pm Post subject: |
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When I first heard about this more than a year ago, I heard that one of the reasons why it was planned was that there were a large number of Chinese students coming to the US, who had scored well on the TOEFL but were flunking out in US universities, because they couldn't communicate with their professors. Apparently in China there are a large number of cram schools that teach students to "bust" tests like the TOEFL.
It's unfortunate that a large number of Asian students will be inconvenienced by the new test format, but A) ETS did not "spring" the new format on the world, the proposed changes were announced more than a year ago, and B) it's better to have students struggle with the new TOEFL in their home countries first, rather than going overseas and flunking out. |
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just because
Joined: 01 Aug 2003
Location: Changwon - 4964
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| Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 6:00 pm Post subject: |
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Fantastic idea...
Does that mean that they will actually have to talk to us now????  |
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Hollywoodaction
Joined: 02 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 6:48 pm Post subject: Re: Testing hurdle for international students: the new TOEFL |
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| jurassic5 wrote: |
looks like some students are screwed...
| Quote: |
BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- For American students, tests like the SAT, ACT and GRE mark the path to college and graduate school. But for hundreds of thousands of international students hoping to study in the United States, a major concern is proving their language skills on the TOEFL -- the Test of English as a Foreign Language.
Now that test has undergone a major makeover, aimed at better evaluating how well applicants can communicate in English. As the test debuts Saturday, some students, particularly Asians, are worried they'll be disadvantaged because of how they were taught English in school.
Last year, 750,000 students took the old, mostly multiple-choice TOEFL. But in recent years, many of the 5,200 English-speaking colleges and universities that use the exam have grown concerned the test fails to identify students who master only "textbook" English. There have also been complaints from undergraduates who can't understand the foreign graduate students teaching their classes.
After a decade's research, the Educational Testing Services will be giving the new TOEFL "iBT" (Internet-based test) this weekend in U.S. test centers. The exam will phase in worldwide over the next year.
Perhaps the biggest change is a new speaking component; previously, ETS offered a separate speaking test, but few students took it. More broadly, the focus shifts to how well students read, write and speak in combination. Students may be asked to listen to a recording and read a passage, then to speak about both. Their responses will be digitally recorded, then downloaded by experts to grade.
In school, "you're always using a combination of skills," said ETS senior vice president Mari Pearlman. "When you read, you take notes. When you're in a classroom, you're also speaking and writing." Students need all three skills outside the classroom, too, whether it's finding housing or figuring out the washing machine.
It's a much more significant reworking than the recent makeover of the SAT. And the changes have some students nervous, particularly those from Asia, where schools generally emphasize vocabulary and grammar over speaking.
"Most Asians, especially (from) Japan, Korea, Taiwan, love reading, structure, grammar," Yoshihiko Iwasaki, a Japanese student hoping to attend business school, said while on break from a Kaplan TOEFL test-prep class in Boston earlier this week. "(Our) speaking is weak, because sometimes, it's impolite to speak out, to describe an opinion, or talk to the teacher. When we take a class, we just sit and take notes and memorize."
Both Asian and non-Asian students at the Kaplan Center said they were nervous about the test. But Emily Pierre, who manages English programs there, said "we're all kind of thinking this is going to be more of a challenge to Asian students." Natawan Umnahanant, a student from Thailand hoping to study food science at an American university, laughed that classmates and teachers chide her for "iBT-phobia."
Pearlman said pre-testing does not suggest students from particular countries will suffer. She acknowledged Asian students may have disadvantages, but said they will make up for them because "they are ferociously capable and determined."
Educators hope the change will improve English teaching worldwide. When ETS added writing to the TOEFL in the 1970s, curricula around the world adjusted. Now, ETS predicts the new speaking section will have a similar effect.
It also hopes administering the test via the Internet will improve access to it, giving more international students a shot at studying abroad, be it in the United States or elsewhere. The change will let ETS expand the number of test sites from 500 to 3,000 by 2007. |
http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/09/23/english.test.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest |
...hence the popularity of TOEIC in Korea. |
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dulouz
Joined: 04 Feb 2003
Location: Uranus
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| Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 7:24 pm Post subject: |
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"(Our) speaking is weak, because sometimes, it's impolite to speak out, to describe an opinion, or talk to the teacher. When we take a class, we just sit and take notes and memorize."
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Or else we just don't like talking to people that are different from us and and when we say different we really mean troglodytes and then we can't even overcome this disdain enough to converse at any level and generally speaking we really resent having to come out of our holes for any reason. |
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joe_doufu
Joined: 09 May 2005
Location: Elsewhere
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| Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 8:44 pm Post subject: |
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| just because wrote: |
Fantastic idea...
Does that mean that they will actually have to talk to us now???? |
I'm looking forward to that, it might be an interesting change. |
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guangho
Joined: 19 Jan 2005
Location: a spot full of deception, stupidity, and public micturation and thus unfit for longterm residency
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| Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2005 7:51 am Post subject: |
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| dulouz wrote: |
Or else we just don't like talking to people that are different from us and and when we say different we really mean troglodytes and then we can't even overcome this disdain enough to converse at any level and generally speaking we really resent having to come out of our holes for any reason. |
Well, there is that...so...yeah. |
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