The official guide to the new toefl ibt part 26

Speaking is a key communication skill, along with listening, reading, and writing, and has an important place in the TOEFL iBT assessment.. Why are the answers for some of the question

TOEFL iBT Speaking Scoring Rubric Integrated Tasks (Questions 3, 4, 5 & 6)

Score General Đescription "` TẾ UA(C Topic Development

- pauses and low-level hesitations responses

may rely on isolated words _or short

utterances to

commiuinicate

ideas

0 Speaker makes no attempt to respond OR response is unrelated to the topic

Frequently Asked Questions about TOEFL Speaking

1 Why does the TOEFL iBT include a Speaking section?

The focus of the TOEFL iBT is on communicative competence and tests your ability to use English to communicate effectively in an academic setting Speaking

is a key communication skill, along with listening, reading, and writing, and has an important place in the TOEFL iBT assessment

2 Why are the answers for some of the questions in the TOEFL iBT Speaking section based on reading and/or listening passages?

Speaking tasks that combine reading and/or listening passages with speaking are called integrated tasks They are included in the TOEFL iBT in recognition of the fact that to succeed academically in English-speaking colleges and universities, students need to be able to combine all their English-language skills—in reading, listening, and speaking, as well as writing—inside and outside the classroom

3 How much reading and listening will I have to do for the TOEFL iBT Speaking section?

The reading and listening passages that are associated with the integrated tasks vary

in length but are all quite brief Reading passages range from approximately

75 to 100 words, and the listening passages are generally between 60 and 90 seconds long In addition to being short, the listening and reading passages are not intended

to be difficult They are designed to provide you with clear and accessible informa-

tion to use in answering the speaking questions

4 May I take notes at all times during the Speaking section?

Yes You may take notes at any time during the Speaking section—while reading the written passages, listening to the spoken dialogues or lectures, and preparing your responses While you listen to the dialogues or lectures and take notes, you should not try to write down word for word everything you hear If you try to do this, you will probably miss hearing important information Similarly, while preparing your

246 THE OFFICIAL GUIDE TO THE NEW TOEFL

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spoken response, do not try to write out an answer that you will then try to speak You will not have enough time to write out a full response, and raters will be rating you on your ability to speak, not on your ability to read aloud from a text that you have written Instead, you should use your preparation to review whatever notes you have taken and to organize your ideas

5 How will my responses be rated?

Each of the six tasks on the TOEFL iBT is rated by human scorers who will assign ratings ranging from 0 to 4 for each response The scorers will evaluate your responses for the ability they display in topic development, delivery, and language use, and assign an overall score for each response, based on these three factors

6 How will the total Speaking score be determined?

The scores on your individual speaking tasks are added up, with each individual task score carrying the same weight The sum of these individual scores is converted into

a scaled score of 0 to 30, and that is the Speaking score that will be reported to the

institutions you request

7 How will mistakes affect my score?

Raters will not focus on the number of errors you make They will score the response based on the overall performance A response that contains minor or occasional errors may still be scored at the highest level

8 What happens if I do not have time to finish my answer?

You may find that for some tasks, you are not able to include in your answer all the information you would like to The time allotted for each speaking response is con- sidered sufficient for you to give a complete answer, and you should try to give as thorough an answer as possible However, the raters who evaluate your responses recognize that it may not always be possible for you to anticipate precisely how much

of what you want to say will fit into the amount of time provided Keep in mind that how clearly and coherently you convey information is as important as how much information you convey Therefore, you should avoid speaking at an unnaturally rapid pace if you see that time is going to run out before you say everything you have planned to say You may find it useful to time yourself when practicing the speaking tasks This will help you get an idea of how much can be said in the allotted time

9 What happens if I finish my response before time runs out?

If you finish your answer before time runs out, you may want to consider what addi- tional information you could add that make your answer more complete If you find yourself with extra time, it may not be a good idea for you to merely repeat what vou have already said Rather, ask yourself what else you could say to clarity, elaborate on, or otherwise develop your response more fully Timing yourself when practicing the speaking tasks should help you get accustomed to the time allowances

10 May I go back and change an answer?

No Each of your spoken responses is recorded, and it is not possible to go back and re-record what you have said For each question, you will be given some time to pre- pare your answer, and this should help you plan ahead of time what you want to say

You should also remember that your speaking responses are not expected to be per- fect If in the course of giving your spoken response, you realize that you should have said something differently, you should feel free to correct your mistake if you wish, just as you would if you had made a mistake while speaking in your native

language and wanted to correct it Otherwise you may want to simply ignore an error

and continue with your response, making sure that the remainder of what you say is

as intelligible, coherent, and accurate as possible

11 How will my accent and pronunciation affect my score?

All TOEFL iBT test takers will have speech that is accented to some degree

or another, and your score will not be affected by your accent, unless your accent interferes with the intelligibility of your response Minor and/or occasional pronun- ciation mistakes are also expected, even among the most proficient test takers, and, here again, as long as pronunciation mistakes do not interfere with the intelligibility

of your response, they will not count against your score

248 THE OFFICIAL GUIDE TO THE NEW TOEFL iBT

CHAPTER 5

na

TOEFL iBT Writing

READ THIS CHAPTER TO FIND OU

Introduction to the Writing Section

There are two tasks in the Writing section of the TOEFL iBT: an Integrated Writing Task and an Independent Writing Task

The Integrated Writing task comes first because it involves some listening, and when you are taking the real TOEFL iBT you will wear your headphones When you are finished with the Integrated Writing Task, which takes about 20 minutes, you will

be free to take your headphones off to work on the Independent Writing Task You will have 30 minutes to complete the Independent Writing Task

This chapter discusses each of the writing tasks in detail and the scoring criteria that readers will use to evaluate your writing It includes samples of each task, sample responses to each task, and specific advice on how to approach writing your own response

For both the writing tasks on the TOEFL iBT, the people evaluating your writing recognize that your response is a first draft You are not expected to produce a well-researched, comprehensive essay about a highly specific, specialized topic You can earn a high score with an essay that contains some errors

The Integrated Writing Task

You will read a passage about an academic topic for three minutes, and then you will hear a lecture related to the topic Then you will be asked to summarize the points in the listening passage and explain how they relate to specific points in the reading passage

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This task gives you the opportunity to demonstrate your ability to show that you can communicate in writing about academic information you have read and listened to

Example

A reading passage like the following will appear on your computer screen You will have 3 minutes

to read the passage

In many organizations, perhaps the best way to approach certain new projects is to assemble

a group of people into a team Having a team of people attack a project offers several advantages First of all, a group of people has a wider range of knowledge, expertise, and skills than any single individual is likely to possess Also, because of the numbers of people involved and the greater resources they possess, a group can work more quickly in

response to the task assigned to it and can come up with highly creative solutions to problems

and issues Sometimes these creative solutions come about because a group is more likely

to make risky decisions that an individual might not undertake This is because the group

spreads responsibility for a decision to all the members and thus no single individual can be

held accountable if the decision turns out to be wrong

Taking part in a group process can be very rewarding for members of the team Team members who have a voice in making a decision will no doubt feel better about carrying out the work

that is entailed by that decision than they might doing work that is imposed on them by others

Also, the individual team member has a much better chance to “shine,” to get his or her

contributions and ideas not only recognized but recognized as highly significant, because a team’s overall results can be more far-reaching and have greater impact than what might

have otherwise been possible for the person to accomplish or contribute working alone

Then you will hear:

Narrator Now listen to part of a lecture on the topic you just read about

Professor

Now | want to tell you about what one company found when it decided that it would turn over some of its new projects to teams of people, and make the team responsible for planning the projects and getting the work done After about six months, the company took a look at how well the teams performed

On virtually every team, some members got almost a “free ride” they didn’t contribute much

at all, but if their team did a good job, they nevertheless benefited from the recognition the team got And what about group members who worked especially well and who provided a lot of insight

on problems and issues? Well the recognition for a job well done went to the group as a whole, no names were named So it won’t surprise you to learn that when the real contributors

were asked how they felt about the group process, their attitude was just the opposite of what the

reading predicts

Another finding was that some projects just didn’t move very quickly Why? Because it took so long to reach consensus; it took many, many meetings to build the agreement among group members about how they would move the project along On the other hand, there were other instances where one or two people managed to become very influential over what their group did Sometimes when those influencers said “That will never work” about an idea the group was developing, the idea was quickly dropped instead of being further discussed And then there was another occasion when a couple influencers convinced the group that a plan of theirs was “highly creative.” And even though some members tried to warn the rest of the group that the project was moving in directions that might not work, they were basically ignored by other group members Can you guess the ending to *this* story? When the project failed, the blame was placed on ail the members of the group

The reading passage will then reappear on your computer screen, along with the following directions and writing task:

You have 20 minutes to plan and write your response Your response will be judged on the basis of the quality of your writing and on how well your response presents the points in

the lecture and their relationship to the reading passage Typically, an effective response

will be 150 to 225 words

Summarize the points made in the lecture you just heard, explaining how they cast doubt

on points made in the reading

The writing clock will then start a countdown for 20 minutes of writing time

HOW THE TASK IS PHRASED

If the lecture challenges the information in the reading passage, the writing task will usually be phrased in one of the following ways:

> Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they cast doubt on specific points made in the reading passage

>» Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they challenge specific claims/arguments made in the reading passage

> Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to specifically explain how they answer the problems raised in the reading passage

If the lecture supports or strengthens the information in the reading passage, the writing task will usually be phrased in one of the following ways:

» Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to specifically explain how they support the explanations in the reading passage

»> Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to specifically explain how they strengthen specific points made in the reading passage

TOEFL iBT WRITING 251

STRATEGIES FOR RAISING YOUR SCORE ON THE INTEGRATED

WRITING TASK

As you read:

>» Take notes on your scratch paper

> Look for the main idea of the reading passage The main idea often has to do with

some policy or practice or some position on an issue Or it may have to do with

proposing some overall hypothesis about the way some process or procedure works or should work or how some natural phenomenon is believed to work

» See how this main idea is evaluated or developed Usually it will be developed in one of two ways:

1 Arguments or explanations are presented that support the main position, for

example, why there are good reasons to believe that some policy or practice will

be beneficial or prove useful or advisable or perhaps why it has been a good thing in the past

2 Arguments or explanations or problems are brought up concerning why some policy or practice or position or hypothesis will not or does not work or will not

be useful or advisable

» Don’t worry about forgetting the reading passage It will reappear on your computer screen when it is time to write

» Note points in the passage that either support the main idea or provide reasons to doubt the main idea Typically the main idea will be developed with three points

As you listen:

» Take notes on your scratch paper

» Listen for information, examples, or explanations that make points in the reading

passage seem wrong or less convincing or even untrue For instance, in the example

just given, the reading passage says that working in teams is a good thing because

it gives individuals a chance to stand out But the lecture says that often everyone gets equal credit for the work of a team, even if some people do not do any work

at all The reading says that work proceeds quickly on a team because there are more people involved who each brings his or her expertise But the lecture completely contradicts this claim by stating that it may take a long time for the group to reach consensus The lecture brings up the idea that the whole team can be blamed for a failure when the fault lies with only a few team members This casts doubt on the claim in the reading that teams can take risks and be creative because no one individual is held accountable

As you write your response:

» You may take off your headset if you wish You will not need your headset for the remainder of the TOEFL iBT test

» Before you start writing, briefly reread the passage, consult your notes, and make

a very brief outline of the points you wish to make You can write this outline on your scratch paper or draw lines between the notes you took on the reading and the notes you took on the lecture You can even type your outline and notes right into the answer area and then replace these by sentences and paragraphs as you compose your response

252 THE OFFICIAL GUIDE TO THE NEW TOEFL iBT

» Remember that you are NOT being asked for your opinion You ARE being asked

to explain how the points in the listening relate to points in the reading

» Write in full English sentences You can write either one long paragraph or a series of short paragraphs listing the points of opposition between the reading and the lecture Occasional language errors will not count against you as long as they do not cause you to misrepresent the meaning of points from the reading and the lecture

» Remember that your job is to select the important information from the lecture and coherently and accurately present this information in relation to the relevant information from the reading Your response should contain the following:

1 The specific ideas, explanations, and arguments in the lecture that oppose or challenge points in the reading

2 Coherent and accurate presentations of each point that you make; that is, the language you use should make sense and should accurately reflect the ideas presented in the lecture and the reading

3.A clear, coherent structure that enables the reader to understand what

points in the lecture relate to what points in the reading

» Suggested length is between 150 and 225 words You will not be penalized if you write more, so long as what you write answers the question

» CAUTION: You will receive a score of zero if all you do is copy words from the reading passage You will receive a score of 1 if you write ONLY about the reading passage To respond successfully, you must do your best to write about the ways the points in the lecture are related to specific points in the reading

INTEGRATED WRITING SCORING RUBRIC

Here is the official Scoring Guide used by raters when they read the Integrated Writing Task

E TASK DESCRIPTION —_

A response at this level successfully selects the important information from the lecture and coherently and accurately presents this information in relation to

5 the relevant information presented in the reading The response is well organized,

and occasional language errors that are present do not result in inaccurate or

imprecise presentation of content or connections

A response at this level is generally good in selecting the important information from the lecture and in coherently and accurately presenting this information in relation 10.the relevant information inthe reading, but itmay have minor omission, inaccuracy, vagueness, or imprecision of some content from the

4 lecture or in connection to points made in the reading A response is also scored

at-this level if it has more frequent-or noticeable minor language errors; as long

as such usage and grammatical structures do not result in anything more than

an occasional lapse of clarity or in the connection of ideas

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A response at this level contains some important information from the lecture and conveys some relevant connection to the reading, but it is marked by one or more of the following:

» Although the overall response is definitely oriented to the task, it conveys only vague, global, unclear, or somewhat imprecise connection of the points made

in the lecture to points made in the reading

» The response may omit one major key point made in the lecture

» Some key points made in the lecture or the reading, or connections between the two, may be incomplete, inaccurate, or imprecise

» Errors of usage and/or grammar may be more frequent or may result in noticeably vague expressions or obscured meanings in conveying ideas and

connections

A response at this level contains some relevant information from the lecture, but

is marked by significant language difficulties or by significant omission or

inaccuracy of important ideas from the lecture or in the connections between the lecture and the reading; a response at this level is marked by one or more of the following:

» The response significantly misrepresents or completely omits the overall connection between the lecture and the reading

» The response significantly omits or significantly misrepresents important points made in the lecture

» The response contains language errors or expressions that largely obscure connections or meaning at key junctures, or that would likely obscure understanding of key ideas for a reader not already familiar with the reading and the lecture

A response at this level is marked by one or more of the following:

» The response provides little or no meaningful or relevant coherent content from the lecture

» The language level of the response is so low that it is difficult to derive

meaning

A response at this level merely copies sentences from the reading, rejects the topic or is otherwise not connected to the topic, is written in a foreign language, consists of keystroke characters, or is blank

SAMPLE SCORED RESPONSES FOR THE INTEGRATED WRITING TASK

The following were written in response to the task “Working in Teams” shown in the example above Score 5 Response

The lecturer talks about research conducted by a firm that used the group system to handle their work He says that the theory stated in the passage was very different and

somewhat inaccurate when compared to what happened for real

First, some members got free rides That is, some didn’t work hard but gotrecognition for

the success nontheless This also indicates that people who worked hard was not given

recognition they should have got in other words, they weren’t given the oppotunity to

“shine.” This derectly contradicts what the passage indicates

Second, groups were slow in progress The passage says that groups are nore responsive

than individuals because of the number of people involved and their aggregated resources

However, the speaker taiks about how the firm found out that groups were slower than

individuals in dicision making Groups needed more time for meetings, which are neccesary procceedures in decision making This was another part where experience contradicted theory Third, influetial people might emerge, and lead the group towards glory or failure If the influent people are going in the right direction there would be no problem But in cases where they go

in the wrong direction, there is nobody that has enough influence to counter the decision made

In other words, the group might turn into a dictatorship, with the influential party as the leader, and might be less flexible in thinking They might become one-sided, and thus fail to succeed

Rater’s Comments

There are several errors of spelling, word formation, and subject-verb agreement in this response; however, most of these errors seem to be the result of typing errors common to first

drafts This writer does an excellent job of presenting lecturer’s points that contradict the argu- ments made in reading passage The writer is very specific and has organized his points so that

they are parallel with one another: in each of the supporting paragraphs, the lecturers observation

of what really happened is given first, then explicitly connected to a theoretical point from the reading The final paragraph contains one noticeable error (“influent”), which is then used correctly two sentences later (“influential”) Overall, this is a successful response and earns a score of 5

Score 4 Response

The lecture that followed the paragraph on the team work in organizations, gave some negative views of the team work itself

Firstly, though it was said in the paragraph that the whole team idea would probably be

faster than the individual work, it was said in the lecture just the opposite: it could actually

TOEFL iBT WRITING 255