Testing Thoughts for TOEFL

Educational Testing Service, of Princeton NJ (ETS) recently announced that the International TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) would be computerized in all but fourteen Asian countries by July 1998.

The announcement has been met with a degree of concern by some teachers as it becomes more obvious that the new test is so different from the familiar paper-based test. Changes have been made to the format, environment, and scoring system of the test, and even to the nature of the questions.

The test has the same three sections that it had previously: Listening, Structure and written Expression, and Reading. However, the nature of the questions has changed (they are intended to be more performance-based than in the previous paper version). The Listening section of the test is presented with some visual context; because of the computer, the examinee can also control the volume and the speed of the test. The Structure and Written Expression includes some questions in the traditional format, but also includes an essay, which the examinee may write at the computer, and which is to be graded later. In the Reading section, the computerized test might require the examinee to drag words around, put them in order, match them by clicking on the correct choice, or carry out other computer operations; to some questions two answers are required, both of which must be correct for credit to be given. Both the Listening and Structure sections have been changed to computer adaptive testing (CAT). With this system the computer will find the examinee's relative range and give the examinee questions in that range, thus saving time by not giving questions which are too far below or above the examinee's ability level. Fears that examinees will be punished by a poor start, or thrown into the wrong range by an unusually lucky start, have been addressed by ETS, who say that the system will work in all cases and will ultimately provide a more accurate score. CAT also eliminates the concept of guessing the answers to final questions or unknown questions if the examinee is running out of time.

New to the computer? A tutorial is provided to teach the examinee how to use the mouse and the computer, but it can add almost an hour to a test that is already over three hours long. ETS maintains that the computerized test will not change the relationship between an examinee's English ability and the corresponding score. Skeptics, however, point out that reading on the computer, for example, is quite different from reading on paper. To the skills of skimming and scanning, we must add scrolling, because scrolling skills will definitely be necessary on the new test. Scores on the new TOEFL will be divided evenly between the three sections, each receiving 30 points, which will be converted to a scale of 0-300. A paper TOEFL score of 550, good enough for most academic programs, will be equivalent to a score of 213 on the computerized version, according to recently developed concordance tables. The computer will calculate the examinee's score (except for the essay section) at the end of the test, so the examinee can choose immediately whether to forward the score to appropriate universities.

Finally, the registration system has changed. Sylvan Learning Centers has acquired a near monopoly on the testing in the U.S., as it was in the best position to take on the operation in most regions, although in some areas universities got the contract. Sylvan runs other tests concurrently, and does not always have spaces. For example, in our town, Sylvan tests a large number of nurses in July, so students will be pressed to find a slot in July without advanced planning. When Sylvan took over GMAT testing recently, a similar rush occurred and left many people frustrated. Also, the cost of the computerized TOEFL is almost doubled, to $100 in the U.S. What about the publishing industry? With this move to computerized testing, ETS has rendered a generation of TOEFL preparation books less useful as publishers struggle, with very few clues, to come out with new materials.

ETS has released some materials that help explain the new test, but in general, the publishing industry does not have enough information to begin making preparation materials, and when they do, it will take them several years to get them on the shelves.

Many intensive English programs will be relying on the Institutional TOEFL, which is still on paper, for a couple of years, so the old TOEFL preparation material will be useful for students within those systems. Some changes are good, some bad; many are causing uncertainty and confusion.

ETS is willing to answer your questions, on the web, at http://www.toefl.org. They will even send you a TOEFL Sampler, a tutorial CD-rom, for the cost of postage. ETS does assure you that the conversion will be natural, almost effortless but there are still some pockets of resistance in the ESL/EFL community.