TOEFL PROGRAM

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.