TOEFL is The Test of English as a Foreign
Language, or TOEFL, is
a test which measures people’s English language skills to see if they are good enough
to take a course at university or graduate school in English-speaking
countries. It is for people whose native language is not English. It measures
how well a person uses listening, reading, speaking and writing skills to
perform academic tasks. This test is accepted by more than 7,500 colleges,
universities, and agencies in more than 130 countries; which means it is the
most widely recognized English test in the world.
Fungctions of the TOEFL
·
Entrance or graduation requirements at the level
of institutions of higher education in Indonesia .
·
Placement test and evaluation test in language
institutions .
·
Requirements for a list of scholarship programs
such as : Australian Development Scholarships , StuNed , DAAD ( German Academic
Exchange Service ) , ACHIEVEMENT , Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Program and
programs of government agencies such as the Ministry of Communication and
Information .
·
Part of the program of education, training and
career development of government institutions such as Depantemen Overseas
Education and Training Center , Bappenas , BKPM , the Ministry of Commerce and
Bank Indonesia.
1.
Reading
The Reading section consists of
questions on 3-5 passages, each approximately 700 words in length. The passages
are on academic topics; they are the kind of material that might be found in an
undergraduate university textbook. Passages require understanding of rhetorical
functions such as cause-effect, compare-contrast and argumentation. Students
answer questions about main ideas, details, inferences, essential information,
sentence insertion, vocabulary, rhetorical purpose and overall ideas. New types
of questions in the TOEFL iBT test require filling out tables or completing
summaries. Prior knowledge of the subject under discussion is not necessary to
come to the correct answer.
2.
Listening
The Listening section consists of
questions on six passages, each 3–5 minutes in length. These passages include
two student conversations and four academic lectures or discussions. The
conversations involve a student and either a professor or a campus service
provider. The lectures are a self-contained portion of an academic lecture,
which may involve student participation and does not assume specialized
background knowledge in the subject area. Each conversation and lecture passage
is heard only once. Test-takers may take notes while they listen and they may
refer to their notes when they answer the questions. Each conversation is
associated with five questions and each lecture with six. The questions are
meant to measure the ability to understand main ideas, important details,
implications, relationships between ideas, organization of information, speaker
purpose and speaker attitude.
3.
Speaking
The Speaking section consists of six
tasks: two independent and four integrated. In the two independent tasks,
test-takers answer opinion questions on familiar topics. They are evaluated on
their ability to speak spontaneously and convey their ideas clearly and coherently.
In two of the integrated tasks, test-takers read a short passage, listen to an
academic course lecture or a conversation about campus life and answer a
question by combining appropriate information from the text and the talk. In
the two remaining integrated tasks, test-takers listen to an academic course
lecture or a conversation about campus life and then respond to a question
about what they heard. In the integrated tasks, test-takers are evaluated on
their ability to appropriately synthesize and effectively convey information
from the reading and listening material. Test-takers may take notes as they
read and listen and may use their notes to help prepare their responses.
Test-takers are given a short preparation time before they have to begin
speaking. The responses are digitally recorded, sent to ETS’s Online Scoring
Network (OSN), and evaluated by three to six raters.
4.
Writing
The Writing section measures a test
taker's ability to write in an academic setting and consists of two tasks: one
integrated and one independent. In the integrated task, test-takers read a
passage on an academic topic and then listen to a speaker discuss it. The
test-taker then writes a summary about the important points in the listening
passage and explains how these relate to the key points of the reading passage.
In the independent task, the test-taker must write an essay that states their
opinion or choice, and then explain it, rather than simply listing personal
preferences or choices. Responses are sent to the ETS OSN and evaluated by at
least 3 different raters.
