Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.4.01.9901211225560.18192-100000@library.wustl.edu> Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1999 12:39:49 -0600 From: Jeff Huestis <mailto:Jeff-Huestis@library.wustl.edu> Subject: African Students Losing Access to TOEFL (fwd) To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
I'm forwarding the attached note because it seems to bear on computer systems penetration in Africa, as well as other less developed areas. For background on the issue ETS has a news item on their website at:http://www.ets.org/aboutets/zgmattfl.html
Assuming that their news announcement will go away, and for the benefit of the Devel-L archive, I'm attaching a copy of ETS' announcement text at the bottom of the forwarded message.
Jeff Huestis
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1999 11:11:01 -0500 (EST) From: laura wendell <mailto:wendell@acpub.duke.edu> Reply-To: mailto:peacecorps@ala.org To: Returned Peace Corps Volunteers <mailto:peacecorps@ala.org> Subject: African Students Losing Access to TOEFL
I found this message about ETS's plans to computerize TOEFL testing in Africa so disturbing that I HAD to send an email to ETS. I think people should know what's going on and express their opinion. Here is the orginal message from a professor at Wesleyan that I received via a UNC listserve:
ALERT: African Students Losing Access to TOEFL
Date: Fri, 25 Dec 1998 From: Peter Mark, Wesleyan University <mailto:pmark@wesleyan.edu>
Friends,
I write as a Professor of African Studies at Wesleyan University and as a former test specialist (test writer) for ETS. The news that ETS plans to subcontract out TOEFL exams to Sylan and that these exams will now be on computer is lamentable for two reasons. First, it will restrict access to the exams for the vast majority of African students. ETS has always treated African test examiners and test takers as if they were simply Americans. Where in the US one can require students to travel long distances on appointed schedules to take exams, in Africa, transportation is unreliable and relatively expensive. This will create insurmountable obstacles for some students. More importantly, to require that students who have never worked on -- indeed, perhaps never seen -- a computer, that they take an important foreign language exam on computer, is to create a totally unfair and insurmountalbe obstacle that has nothing to do with their knowledge of English. I have worked extensively with African students who, in preparing for the TOEFL exam, were confronted for the first time in their lives with the American version of standardized testing....fill in a series of tiny rectangles to answer the questions. This 'fill-in-the-blanks' testing is a form of cultural encoding that is incomprehensible to one who has never experienced it. Americans learn to fill in the blanks with a number two pencil almost before they learn to write. I have known intelligent university students who had trouble figuring out how to enter their names and birth dates by this strange and culturally specific system. They were not tested on their knowledge of English, but rather, on their knowledge of America's standardized testing system. On the other hand, some of these same students write better English essays than their American counterparts. During my time working at ETS I was amazed and distressed at the lack of intercultural sensitivity shown by ETS as an organization. Interns from Africa were treated as if they had lived their whole lives in US culture; they were, so far as I could see, expected to reproduce ETS-style tests for their home nations, without regard for any cultural differences...including precisely the problems I enumerate above. I am not surprised, though I am saddeneed , to learn that ETS and Sylvan are now inflicting computerized exams on Africa. Sadly, it would appear that the ultimate aim for ETS is not to assess accurately the level of proficiency in English of African students. Rather, their aiam is to maximize their own profitability as a business. I call on all Africanists and other educators to oppose the imposition of computerized TOEFL exams in Africa.
p.s. please forward a copy to the President of ETS.
[Editor's Note: The e-mail for the corporate headquarters of ETS is: mailto:etsinfo@ets.org
The e-mail specifically for the TOEFL exam is: mailto:toefl@ets.org ]
I was very distressed by an email I recently received from a colleague at UNC describing ETS's plans to initiate computerized testing in Africa. As the current Executive Director of the World Library Partnership and a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, I have extensive experience working with information provision in Africa.
In my experience, the obstacles to African students who wish to study in the US are already outrageous. As it is, only an elite few are able to navigate the complex application process and mounds of paperwork required by American universities and the government. Your initiative will only throw an additional and unnecessary hurdle in the face of students who have little or no experience with computers (the vast majority in Africa).
Is your goal to accurately asses the English competency of African students or simply to make the application process for American universities even more elitist? If you are truly interested in fair testing, please continue to provide the option of taking your tests on paper and work harder to make the tests more culturally appropriate.
I strongly feel that your current system tests the ability of African students to take American standardized tests far more than it tests their English competency. Thankfully, I was never asked to fill in a box with a number two pencil after I was admitted to college, and I don't think that students should be discriminated against because they are unfamiliar with this ridiculous task. Laura Wendell Executive Director The World Library Partnership 1028 Bahama Rd. Bahama, NC 27503 (919) 479-0163 mailto:wendell@acpub.duke.edu http://rtpnet.org/~wlp
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ETS Announcement:
Computer-based GMAT and TOEFL introduced as computer power continues to improve testing
Consistent with its continued support of computerized testing, ETS introduced the computer-adaptive Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) last fall and is preparing to phase in a computerized Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) this summer.
A candidate in Auckland, New Zealand, was the first of 1,500 who took the computer-adaptive GMAT when it debuted internationally, Oct. 11. The new GMAT replaces the paper-and-pencil test in the United States and most other countries. Over the next two years, the paper test will be completely phased out, says Frederick McHale, executive director of the GMAT program.
And beginning in July, TOEFL examinees from around the world will start taking computer-based tests. ETS will first introduce the computerized TOEFL in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australia, and selected countries in Asia. Other countries will be added over the next three years, with plans to completely replace the paper test by the year 2001.
Student friendly features
Computer-based testing benefits students, who can sit in their own workstations, receive scores faster, and schedule tests -- which can be offered year-round and in many locations -- with more flexibility. In addition, questions can be tailored to each test taker's ability level, so examinees end up spending less time answering questions that are too easy or too difficult.
"The goal is to use technology to enhance or improve assessments," McHale says. "That's why we're moving to computer-based tests."
GMAT candidates receive unofficial scores on the verbal and quantitative sections as soon as they complete the exam. The official scores, including those for the analytical portion, are sent out approximately two weeks later, McHale says.
The computer-based TOEFL will share the GMAT's benefits and will also contain some new question types. "We're trying to provide the platform from which we can start to do some more interesting item types and integrated types of assessment," says Pat Santiago, director of the International Language Programs.
Initial changes to the current TOEFL include simultaneously using context-setting color photos and graphics with the audio stimulus in the Listening Comprehension section. Test takers will also be given individual headsets and be able to control the pace of questions in this section. The Reading Comprehension section is more interactive as well, making use of item types that allow manipulation of text and direct interaction with passages in response to test questions.
On all but the essay-writing section, TOEFL test takers, like GMAT examinees, will receive immediate scores on their screens, with official scores mailed out about two weeks later.
New tutorials and testing centers
Seven short tutorials provide animated instruction at the beginning of the computerized TOEFL. Designed to provide people with practice questions and the necessary computer skills to take the new exam, the tutorials are part of the TOEFL Sampler computerized tutorial package as well. This package also contains a revised and expanded edition of the "TOEFL Test Preparation Kit."
To prepare for the GMAT, candidates can practice on computer-adaptive tests found on "Test Preparation for the Computer-Adaptive GMAT: POWERPREP Software." Examinees can also purchase "The Official Guide for GMAT Review," which contains sample GMAT questions, and schedule appointments for "The Official GMAT Practice Test," which allows them to take a practice test in an actual test center.
Both the computer-based GMAT and TOEFL will be administered at computerized test centers, designated universities, ETS field offices, and Sylvan Technology Centers around the world. The new GMAT is offered three weeks of every month, and as with the GRE, candidates in the United States and Canada can schedule an appointment to take the test by calling a local testing center. Overseas candidates wanting to take the computer-based TOEFL can contact one of 12 regional registration centers for appointments.