Page 34 - ELG2503 March Issue 493

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COMMENT

Assessing the test

How does the new TOEFL Writing assess test-takers’ use of grammar?

Joanna Buckle examines the test and gives her take.

he TOEFL has gone from being a test
with an extremely heavy grammar
content—in fact, a grammar test that
Tseemed almost impossible to all but
the trained linguist or near-native speaker—
to one with very little explicit assessment of
test-takers’ ability to use English grammar
accurately.
The feedback to teachers and test-takers
that is given is non-specific and extremely
brief. For example, an essay that scores a
three or ‘low-Intermediate’, which is given to
mean ‘good’, is described as a piece of writing
that: ‘may demonstrate inconsistent facility
in sentence formation and word choice that
may result in lack of clarity and occasionally
obscure meaning; may display accurate but
limited range of syntactic structures and
vocabulary’.
However, it is very difficult to find an
answer to the question of whether a score
of three will get you onto an undergraduate
course. Guesswork may lead you to the
conclusion that a ‘four’ is the minimum.
To add to the confusion, there are
two differing sets of writing descriptors
currently available on the ETS website.
The alternative set of marking criteria reads
that a low-intermediate scorer can ‘write
with limited facility, with language errors
obscuring connections or meaning at key
junctures between ideas in the text’. Instead
of scores 1-5, this set of descriptors is scored
from 0-30.
This seems designed to cause confusion
and conflict between teachers and learners.
Which set of scores and descriptors should
the teacher explain to their TOEFL class?
Should they tell their learners that they have
received a low-intermediate, or a ‘good’ score?
What does ‘good’ mean? Will this score gain
the learner access to a pre-sessional course,
or not?
To add to the confusion, the threshold
for acceptance onto undergraduate and
postgraduate courses varies from institution
to institution in the US, the UK and
Australia. For example, a prestigious
British institution such as The University
of Bristol accepts a score of 70, whereas
The University of Cambridge asks for a
score of 100. planning in terms of university application for For example, we might take the TOEFL
It is very time-consuming, and ultimately a course in a foreign country. three to be roughly equivalent to an IELTS
confusing, to find out how the TOEFL While it is a good thing to focus more on five, the standard for admission to an English
Writing is marked. Adult learners do not the content of a foreign language learners’ language university preparation course for
usually appreciate it when the teacher cannot writing, there needs to be a more specific way undergraduates.
give a definitive answer to such questions. to assess grammar that is not debatable. The For the IELTS, we can see that marking
This is a high-stakes test that determines TOEFL descriptors are very much open to will be more consistent, as more specific detail
their future and requires a lot of financial interpretation. is given: ‘The range of structures is limited
34 March 2025