A Weakness in English Language Learnersʼ Approach to TOEFL Independent Speaking Paired-Choice Response Tasks

Abstract

The learning objectives for the TOEFL iBT independent speaking tasks, as described by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), and the inclusion of a paired-response task indicate that an essential skill to be tested in the iBT is the ability to verbally compare and contrast. Anecdotal evidence suggests that language learners are poor at using the key grammatical structures used to compare and contrast effectively. By recording and analyzing both native speakers’ and English language learners’ attempts to address TOEFL iBT speaking task topics, this study seeks to identify how native speakers approach such tasks, and whether language learners approach the same tasks in the same way. Results show that an inability to use key grammatical structures when comparing and contrasting is less of an issue than lack of awareness of what the speaking task requires. This directly affects how instruction relating to paired-choice speaking tasks should be structured. The advent of the new TOEFL iBT (Internet-based test) into Japan in the autumn of 2006 presented TOEFL instructors with a radically altered test that included, for the first time, numerous speaking tasks. These were divided into two broad groups: integrated and independent speaking. The independent speaking tasks fell into the two categories of “free response” and “paired-choice response,” and it is with the latter of these that this paper is concerned. In the paired-choice response, the examinees are given two choices, one of which they have to support or explain a preference for. At a workshop held to introduce the new testing regime in early 2005, the instructional materials provided, produced by the ETS (ETS, 2004, p. 4), stated that the learning objectives of the independent speaking tasks include: • Express and justify likes, dislikes, values, preferences • Take a position and defend it • Make a recommendation and justify it All three of these learning objectives, in the context of the paired-choice response, seem to indicate a need for examinees to show competence in comparing and contrasting the choices offered. In a TOEFL class which dealt with the new iBT at a Japanese university, it became apparent that the students were not displaying what a TOEFL instructor would consider a necessary level of competence in this area. Students addressed this type of speaking task by simply concentrating on one side of the argument and extolling its virtues. This was a very Language Education in Asia, 2010, 1(1), 99-111. http://dx.doi.org/10.5746/LEiA/10/V1/A09/Chirnside