Test off English ace has Foreign Language

TOEFL (pronounce " tofeul") mean Test English ace Off has Foreign Language or Test of English as a Foreign language . It is a standardized test which aims at evaluating the aptitude to use and include/understand the English language in a university context for those of which it is not the Native tongue. He is comparable with other standardized English tests, like TOEIC or IELTS.

It is in 1964 that the TOEFL was created by Educational Testing Service (ETS), a private organization based with Princeton, New Jersey with the the United States. It is estimated that twenty million people already passed this test which can proceed in approximately 180 countries. TOEFL is a registered trademark by Educational Testing Service, the examination is paying and costs approximately 155 US Dollar in 2007.

The majority of the American universities , Canadian or English recognize or require the TOEFL for the admission of foreign students. It is also more and more used by undertaken French to evaluate the English level of their recruits not-english-speaking.

In France, many Universities now conditions the delivery of their diploma to obtaining a correct note with the TOEFL. Indeed, the Commission of the Titles of Engineers requires that the standard English level be validated by obtaining a certain number of points to the TOEFL or to TOEIC.

It is possible to prepare the TOEFL in many schools of language abroad, which propose a drive and practice tests within the framework of a Language course abroad. The quality of these drives is subjected to guarantee because each candidate very formally commits himself not revealing any detail on the test before reaching the room of examination.

The tests of the TOEFL were declined in three forms:

the version paper ( PBT or P aper- B ased T OEFL - from 310 to 677 points),
the version computer ( CBT or C omputer- B ased T OEFL),
version Internet ( iBT or I nternet- B ased T OEFL - from 0 to 120 points).

The version paper of the test is noted on 677 points, the version " Based" computer; on 300 and the version " Internet Based" on 120 points. The test is founded on the principle of the Multiple-choice questionnaire in time limited for grammar, listening and the reading. Competences with the writing as for them are tested in a drafting.

Since September 2005 for the the USA and October 2005 for the Germany, the France and the Italy, a new version of the test is available on Internet at official sessions in an organizing center. It is the TOEFL iBT ( TOEFL I nternet- B ased T is). This version breaks up into four parts: reading, listening, oral examination, drafting (in English: Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing). This version replaces the others gradually.

In all the cases, the organizer Educational Testing Service provides official copies of the result only during one limited time: two years. After this period, it will have to be passed by again the test so that it is recognized like valid by the organizations requiring the results of test TOEFL.

The test (paper or computer) is composed of four sections:

Section I: Oral comprehension
Section II: Structure and written Expression
Section III: Written comprehension and Vocabulary
Section IV: Drafting

Sections

Oral comprehension

Objective : To test the capacities of comprehension of the candidate.
Standard of questions: Conversations between two people or more in one university environment who can be short dialogs between students or of the recordings of course, questions which are often of the " type; who said what? ".
Lasted : 45-70 minutes

Structure and Written Expression

Objective : To test knowledge in English grammar of the candidate.
Standard of questions: To identify erroneous words or structures in sentences, to fill of the white with the suitable word.
Lasted : 15-20 minutes

Written comprehension and vocabulary

Objective : To test the level in reading and knowledge in vocabulary of the candidate.
Standard of questions: Three or four passages a length of approximately 300 words to reading, questions on the contents, the intentions of the author or the ideas implied in the passage. No precise knowledge on the tackled subject is necessary.
Lasted : 70-90 minutes

Drafting (Test Off Written English)

Objective : To test the written level of the Standard candidate
of questions: To develop and present its arguments in answer to a short open-ended question which can be of the type: " Certain people like to live in big cities, of other prefer the small towns in the countryside. To deliver your opinion and argumenter"
Lasted : 30 minutes.

Currently, the TOEFL does not include an oral test. But in 2005 TAST ( T OEFL has cademic S peaking T is) will mitigate this lack. It will be included with the TOEFL and will replace the section " Structure". For the moment, the TAST is only at one experimental stage. When the new TOEFL including the TAST is set up, one will ask the candidate to speak in a microphone and the recording thus obtained will be noted. The goal of the TAST is to check the possibilities of the student of usually speaking in English.

Criticisms

The TOEFL, like much of standardized tests, was criticized many times. One often wondered whether the principle of questions to multiple choices were really ready to test the capacities of an English individual. A growing number of anglophone universities henceforth refuse this test with the profit of other tests of language or impose their own evaluation of an anglophone candidate. The principal reproaches made with the TOEFL are the following:

English knows many “logical” rules (the use of - ing at the end of a verb for example). A candidate with the test can thus guess an answer in grammar without to include/understand the precise point of grammar subjacent.
the people whose English is the native tongue often find with rather poor results. In theory, an English test should be obvious for an english-speaking of birth but makes the test of it concentrates on precise points of grammar or “official” uses of the language. For example, the use of may and edge are governed by precise rules and the english-speaking of birth is unaware of often the “traditional” use of it but has for as much never difficulties of comprehension when its interlocutor reverses the two forms.
the TOEFL does not test the oral practice of English whereas within the framework of an admission in an anglophone university, the capacity of usually speaking is vital. This essential aspect of the practice of English is perhaps then neglected by those which pass the test and which concentrate only on what will be evaluated.

Equivalence of the scores

The following conversion chart makes it possible to transform the score of the tests on paper towards the score obtained on computer .

See too

Other English tests:

TOEIC (Test off International English for Communication)
IELTS (International English Language Testing System)
BULAT (Business Language Testing)
the University off Cambridge ESOL Examination

# KET - Key English Test

FART - Preliminary English Test

FCE - First Certificate in English

CAE - Certificate in Advanced English

CPE - Certificate off Proficiency in English

External bonds

Official site of the TOEFL

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