italki - Is the TOEFL course BS? I've been thinking about this topic for a while. The question is this

Roman Y

Is the TOEFL course BS? I've been thinking about this topic for a while. The question is this - Does the TOEFL score proof anything? To answer this question I had a short conversation with a friend of mine who also lives in Ukraine but she took the TOEFL exam and got a great score. So, I walked up to her and asked - Listen Maria, did you really memorize all those 'must-have' words for the TOEFL exam? - Yeah, I made it. She told me proudly. - Ok, and now you feel confident when talking with a native English speaker? - No, I don't. I really feel that my english level is quite low, and I need to improve it. I was kind of shocked by her answer because she wanted to study/work abroad and to make her dreams become a reality. . And here she was with a fake certificate that proofs that she took some kind of exam, and she has memorized a lot of 'academic' words and phrases and she can't speak or understand spoken English very well. That's kind of a sad situation because if she came to the US then she'd probably have a hard time communicating with locals. I thought about what would be a better way to test people's English ability? My assumption is this: 1) we have 5 native English speakers with different accents 2) a student has to talk with each 'judge' for about 5 mins about different topics 3) writing practice. . the point is, we pay so much attantion to almost any aspect of the language but rarely, almost never test out speaking (which is probably pretty terrible) later

Jul 2, 2015 4:02 PM

Corrections · 2

Hi Roman, The test is required to be accepted into university programs in the US and Britain. You can't get away from that. Both the TOEFL and the IELTS have a section on speaking and listening to native speakers in each of the 3 English accents (American, British, and Australian). The score is an average of the 4 sections. You can do poorly in speaking and listening and still pass if you do well in the reading and writing sections. Maybe the score to 'pass' is not that high.... It is just a basic test! Maybe that is why your friend passed.

July 3, 2015

This is a funny thought Romen, it seems like you've already made up your mind. I have very little experience training students for these types of tests. I had this discussion with another student of mine and he felt the same way, the test proves.... that you can pass the test and little else. One teacher from the language school I used to work at was frustrated that her student failed... I think the IELTS. The student also felt she had a hard time communicating, however when I spoke with her I understood her very well.

July 2, 2015

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