Next May, internet-based TOEFL (Test of English as
a Foreign Language) exams will start to replace the existing
written test introduced to China 25 years ago, the National
Education Examinations Authority (NEEA) and
US-based Educational Testing Service (ETS) announced in Beijing on
Monday.
"The technology used in the internet-based test
(iBT) permits test items to be delivered over the internet
simultaneously in all time zones, thus increasing our already high
test security," said Paul Ramsey, senior vice president in charge
of ETS' global business.
"It also ensures unbiased testing by recording
responses electronically and sending them to a network of ETS human
raters who objectively score the responses for maximum
reliability," he added.
He was speaking at the signing ceremony of an
agreement with the NEEA to promote the new online exam on the
mainland, provide customer services, collect exam registration
fees, recruit staff and deliver results online over the next seven
years.
The NEEA already helps ETS administer TOEFL and GRE
(Graduate Record Examination) tests in China.
The TOEFL iBT, already launched in North America
and part of Europe in September, is widely believed to be more
challenging for Chinese students due to a new 20-minute speaking
section.
Examinees use earphones and microphones to answer
questions, recordings of which are assessed by three to six
examiners. It aims to help gauge the comprehensive abilities of
examinees in listening, speaking, reading and writing, and to make
the exam more reliable, impartial, convenient and secure.
Final results of exams can be accessed online after
15 days.
"The speaking section is generally considered the
Achilles' heel of Chinese students," said Li Ding, a teacher at New
Oriental School, China's biggest English training institute. "And
the new test no longer has grammatical items that Chinese students
are usually strong in. So it could be expected that the number of
TOEFL examinees will reach a peak before next May."
ETS also said its internet-based GRE, an entrance
requirement for postgraduate studies in many English-speaking
countries, will be delivered worldwide from next October.
Li said the new GRE will be easier because its
vocabulary section, the biggest headache for Chinese examinees,
will no longer be included.
The NEEA said the changes will affect about 70,000
TOEFL and 14,000 GRE examinees in China every year.
(China Daily, China.org.cn November
15, 2005)