TOEFL PROGRAM
The TOEFL is the Test of English as a Foreign Language. More
than 12,500 educational institutions and agencies in over 160
countries accept TOEFL scores to evaluate the English proficiency
of people whose native language is not English. The admissions
committees of colleges and universities in the United States,
Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and a large
number of other countries require that foreign applicants submit
TOEFL scores along with transcripts and recommendations to be
considered for admission. In addition, many government,
licensing, and certification agencies and exchange and
scholarship programs worldwide use TOEFL scores to assess the
English language skills of people for whom English is not their
native language. Finally, many companies, multinational
corporations, and even those Moldovan businesses that work with
foreign partners would like to see the TOEFL scores of their job
applicants in order to measure the ability of the latter to use
and understand English. The TOEFL iBT is the most accessible test
in the world, with testing available in more than 200 countries
and territories. The TOEFL iBT Home Edition is available
everywhere that TOEFL testing is normally available, except Iran.
The TOEFL iBT Paper Edition is currently offered 1-2 times a
month at authorized test centers in Colombia, India, Mexico, and
the United States. Almost one million people register to take the
TOEFL every year.
The TOEFL Program was launched in 1962, when the National Council
on the Testing of English as a Foreign Language was formed. The
council members represented more than 30 private organizations
and government agencies concerned with the English proficiency of
nonnative speakers of English who wished to study at colleges and
universities in the U.S. The council supported the development of
the TOEFL at the Center for Applied Linguistics under the
direction of Stanford University applied linguistics professor
Dr. Charles A. Ferguson. The TOEFL was first administered in 1964
by the Modern Language Association, financed by grants from the
Ford Foundation and the Danforth Foundation. In 1965, Educational
Testing Service (ETS) and the College Board assumed joint
responsibility for the program. Because many TOEFL takers are
potential graduate students, a cooperative arrangement for the
operation of the program was entered into by ETS, the College
Board, and the Graduate Record Examinations Board in 1973. Under
this arrangement, ETS has been responsible for administering the
TOEFL Program with guidance from the TOEFL Board.
The TOEFL test originally contained 5 multiple-choice sections:
listening comprehension, structure, writing ability, reading
comprehension, and vocabulary. As a result of extensive research,
a 3-section, multiple-choice test measuring listening
comprehension, structure and written expression, and reading
comprehension was developed and introduced in 1976. In July 1995,
the test was modified within the same 3-section structure.
In the 1970s, attention turned to the expansion of the TOEFL
construct to include speaking and writing. In recognition of the
need to assess an actual ability to communicate in English, ETS
developed separate tests of speaking and writing. Initially,
these tests were taken by smaller numbers of applicants to
fulfill the requirements of specific institutions. Developed
primarily to assess the oral skills of international graduate
students who were being considered for positions as teaching
assistants, the TSE test, originally known as the Test of Spoken
English, was introduced in 1979. On the TSE test, examinees
tape-recorded oral responses to prerecorded questions that
targeted specific language functions, and their responses were
later scored by trained raters using the TSE rating rubric. The
TWE test, originally known as the Test of Written English, was
introduced in 1986 and consisted of a single essay written in
response to a brief question or topic. The TWE test required test
takers to develop and organize ideas and express these ideas
using appropriate English vocabulary and grammar. Initially, the
TWE test was administered as a required component of the TOEFL
test but only offered at five select administrations per year. In
the mid-2000s, both tests were discontinued.
Throughout the 1990s, various constituencies called for a new
TOEFL that would (1) be more reflective of communicative
competence models; (2) include more constructed-response tasks
and direct measures of writing and speaking; (3) include tasks
that integrate the language modalities tested; and (4) provide
more information than the paper-based TOEFL (TOEFL PBT) about the
ability of international students to use English in an academic
environment. The introduction of the computer-based TOEFL (TOEFL
CBT) in July 1998 was the first incremental step in the broad
test-improvement effort initiated by the TOEFL Board. The TOEFL
CBT included a mandatory essay component for all test takers.
The next step was the introduction of an Internet-based version
of the TOEFL (TOEFL iBT) in September 2005. The test was first
administered in the United States on September 24, 2005. In
October 2005, it began in Canada, France, Germany, and Italy.
Since then, the TOEFL iBT has been rolled out worldwide. The test
assesses all 4 language skills that are important for effective
communication: reading, listening, speaking, and writing. The
TOEFL iBT emphasizes integrated skills and provides better
information to institutions about students' ability to
communicate in an academic setting and their readiness for
academic coursework. As the TOEFL iBT was introduced in an area,
the TOEFL CBT was discontinued after a period of overlap in order
to ensure a smooth transition to the TOEFL iBT. The last TOEFL
CBT was administered in September 2006. The TOEFL PBT continued
to be offered on a limited basis to support the TOEFL iBT testing
network.
On November 1, 2011, ETS introduced timing and navigation
enhancements to the TOEFL iBT Reading section. ETS decreased the
maximum number of reading passages from 5 to 4. Test takers now
had either 60 minutes to complete 3 reading passages and
questions or 80 minutes to complete 4 reading passages and
questions. In addition, the Reading section was no longer divided
into separately timed parts. This change allowed test takers to
pace themselves throughout the entire Reading section. It also
allowed navigating within the entire Reading section so that test
takers could skip questions, go back to review and change
responses, or respond to questions that they might have
skipped.
Beginning in March 2013, the Listening and Speaking sections of
the TOEFL iBT test may include other native-speaker English
accents in addition to accents from North America. In the
Speaking section, only question 1 of the 4 tasks, which is the
only Independent Speaking question, may have accented speech.
Test takers may hear accents from the United Kingdom, New
Zealand, or Australia.
In 2017, the TOEFL PBT was discontinued and replaced by the
revised TOEFL Paper-delivered Test, which was offered up to 4
times a year in areas where testing via the Internet was not
available. The first revised test was administered on October 14,
2017. The revised test measured 3 skills using the same types of
questions as on the TOEFL iBT test: Reading, Listening, and
Writing. Speaking was not measured because it could not be
accommodated on a paper-delivered test. The revised
paper-delivered scores were reported on the TOEFL iBT score
scale, eliminating the previous TOEFL PBT score scale of 310-677.
The scores were reported 5 weeks after the test date. Effective
April 11, 2021, the revised TOEFL Paper-delivered Test is no
longer offered.
On August 1, 2019, ETS started to administer a shorter TOEFL iBT
test, enhanced score reporting, and made the registration process
easier. The test time was shortened by 30 minutes, to just 3
hours, with no changes to the overall test format or question
types. The shorter test had fewer questions in the Reading,
Listening, and Speaking sections. In the Reading section, the
number of questions per passage was reduced from 12-14 to 10. The
Listening section lost 1 or 2 lectures, depending on the format.
Independent question #1 and integrated question #5 were removed
from the Speaking section. The remaining questions were
renumbered 1 to 4.
On August 1, 2019, ETS also introduced a new feature called
MyBest scores, which combines test takers' best scores for each
section from all of their valid TOEFL iBT scores in the last 2
years. Everyone has a bad day once in a while, and MyBest scores
give test takers a way to show their best overall test
performance. Test takers do not have to do anything to take
advantage of this feature. All TOEFL iBT score reports sent after
August 1, 2019, regardless of the test administration date,
automatically include MyBest scores along with the traditional
scores from selected test dates.
On March 23, 2020, ETS launched the TOEFL iBT Home Edition in
selected countries in response to the test center closures caused
by the coronavirus outbreak. It is currently available everywhere
that TOEFL testing is normally available. Monitoring of the test
is conducted using live remote proctors and artificial
intelligence technology by ProctorU, the leading proctoring
solution for online testing.
On August 21, 2021, ETS launched the TOEFL Essentials test, which
measures the core language skills of listening, reading, writing,
and speaking in a wide variety of environments, beyond just
academic, employing a multistage adaptive design, in about 1.5
hours. TOEFL Essentials scores are reported as band scores from 1
to 12 and are valid for 2 years after the test date. The TOEFL
Essentials test is offered worldwide in every country. You take
the test at home using your own computer and a proctor monitors
your session through an online video camera. The test fee for the
TOEFL Essentials test varies from U.S. $100 to $120, depending on
your location. The fee for testing in the Republic of Moldova is
U.S. $120. Many institutions are still making their decisions
about accepting the TOEFL Essentials test and setting score
requirements.
On October 12, 2021, ETS launched the TOEFL iBT Paper Edition. It
is the same pre-July 2023 TOEFL iBT test, just delivered on paper
and given in 2 testing sessions. The Reading, Listening, and
Writing sections are taken on paper at an ETS-authorized test
center. The Speaking section is taken at home on your computer
monitored online by a human proctor within 3 days after the test
center appointment. The TOEFL iBT Paper Edition is currently
available in Colombia, India, Mexico, and the United States. A
unique feature of the TOEFL iBT Paper Edition is that all score
reports, even those requested after taking the test, are sent
free of charge. The first administrations began on December 11,
2022. The test is offered 1 to 2 times a month. The test fee is
the same as that of the other formats of the TOEFL iBT test.
On July 26, 2023, TOEFL iBT test time was shortened to just 2
hours. ETS introduced streamlined instructions and navigation,
removed all unscored test questions, shortened the Reading
section to only 2 passages, and replaced the Independent Writing
task with the Writing for an Academic Discussion task. In the
enhanced TOEFL iBT, all question types remained the same, except
for one Writing task. The procedures to register for the test,
the test score scale, and CEFR level cut scores remained
unchanged.