TOEFL Exam Research Articles

Efficacy of Mixed Model Instruction to Improve English Language Skills of Business Management Students: An Experimental Study

Aim. The current study explored and compared the efficacy of technology-based instructions, specifically web-mediated, blended, and online instructions, on the enhancement of English language skills among students pursuing Business management (BM) in Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia. Method. A total of two hundred and four participants were chosen randomly and divided into four groups. The control group, comprising 51 individuals, received general English instruction utilizing the communicative language teaching (CLT) approach, and engaged in exercises that focused on developing their general English skills. On the other hand, the web-mediated learning experimental group, also consisting of 51 participants, received general English instruction through the Duolingo educational model. Similarly, the blended experimental group, comprised of 51 individuals, received general English instruction through the Enriched Virtual Blended Learning Model. Lastly, the online learning group, consisting of 51 participants, received general English instruction through the LMS instructional model. Results. Prior to the intervention, all students underwent a pretest, and subsequently, a posttest and a delayed posttest were administered to evaluate their proficiency in standard general English, as measured by the TOEFL exam. The study's results indicated that all groups displayed progress in their English language skills. However, the Duolingo and Enriched Virtual learning models demonstrated superior performance in enhancing English language skills compared to the other groups. Conclusion. These findings hold significant pedagogical implications for curriculum designers, the development of training programs for future HR professionals, material producers, and all stakeholders involved in the field of BM education.

Question Types on Reading Comprehension in TOEFL Test: An Implication in Teaching Reading TOEFL to Students

Reading section in TOEFL is challenging because there are many texts and test items to be completed in a relatively short time. Thus, test-takers should read quickly and precisely. This study describes the types of reading comprehension in Pre-Test and Post-Test TOEFL and its implications in teaching reading TOEFL. This research is descriptive and qualitative. The result analysis shows that several types of reading questions in Pre-Test and Post-Test TOEFL are 1) idea of passage questions, 2) directly answered questions, 3) indirectly answered questions, 4) vocabulary questions, and 5) overall review questions. When teaching TOEFL reading to students, it is important to employ several general strategies. These include introducing the various categories of reading questions, followed by questions that refer to specific sentences in the reading. Additionally, providing explanations on how to answer the questions is essential for effective comprehension. The TOEFL reading teaching strategy involves introducing various types of reading questions, and exercises that refer to certain sentences in the reading, as well as providing explanations on how to answer the questions. Through this approach, students can gain a better understanding of the structure and types of questions that may appear in the TOEFL exam.

The interplay of Students’ Habit On Watching English Movie And Listening In Toefl Test

The habit of watching English movies provides an opportunity to learn language skills. Movies can be difficult for students to understand because they speak more quickly than they do in everyday conversation or English, but they can also be entertaining and help to improve specific English language skills, like listening. To measure English language skills, especially listening, reading, and structure, the English language test or TOEFL has recently become a very important thing to master in facing global competition and has become a prerequisite for graduation on various campuses in Indonesia. The study aimed to determine whether students' habits of watching English-language films and their listening comprehension on the TOEFL were related. The students were members of the English Education Department at UIN Alauddin Makassar.The study design used a quantitative approach and the correlation method. The researcher employed tests and questionnaires to gather data. The study's participants consisted of third-semester English Education Department students at UIN Alauddin Makassar. There were one hundred students in the study's sample. Random sampling was used for this study.The method of using a questionnaire to gather information about students' viewing habits of English-language films. The TOEFL exam was the method used to gather listening data. This data analysis method made use of the Pearson product-moment correlation. The results of the study indicate a significant positive correlation (rxy = 0.826 > rtable = 0.196) between students' listening and watching habits in English during the TOEFL exam at UIN Alauddin Makassar. As a result, the null hypothesis (Ho) is rejected, and the alternative hypothesis (Ha) is accepted. This statement indicates that there is a positive and significant relationship between students' habit of watching English-language movies and their ability to listen on the TOEFL exam.

Socialization on Improving English Language Skills through TOEFL for Grade 12 Students of SMK Swasta HKBP Pematang Siantar

This socialization activity aims to introduce and provide knowledge and insight to students at the SMK Swasta HKBP Pematang Siantar about the TOEFL test. The socialization activity regarding the introduction of TOEFL to vocational school students, was held on December 5, 2023. Participants in this socialization activity were 12 grade vocational school students totaling 20 people. Participants gain new knowledge about the TOEFL test. There were three phases in conducting this socialization, namely preparation, implementation and evaluation. The results obtained from this socialization activity are, they know and understand what the TOEFL test is, types of questions in the TOEFL test, number of questions tested in the TOEFL test, duration and time for completing TOEFL questions, tips & tricks for studying TOEFL and also the importance of TOEFL test. This socialization can also increase student's motivation to study English more seriously. They can view the TOEFL exam as a challenge to overcome and as a first step towards success in their future academic and professional careers. From the results above it can be concluded that this activity gave a positive impact for the students in the future

An Analysis of Civic Education Students’ Perception Toward Their Needs in Learning English for Specific Purpose in University of Mataram

This study, aim to examine civic students’ necessities, lacks, and wants in learning English & Analyze civic students’ perception toward the ESP program in fulfilling their lacks and wants in learning English. This research descriptive qualitative researcher. The population of this study was 160 of civic education students ‘who were studying in University Of Mataram academic year 2021-2022. The number of samples used was 30 students who were taken using purposive sampling techniques. In gathering the data, this study used a questionnaire and an interview. The questionnaire consists of questions related to demographic information, necessities, wants, lacks, and perceptions toward the English program in fulfilling the students' wants. Meanwhile, a semi-structured interview was used to strengthen the data from the questionnaire. The research data show that civic education students needed English to pass the TOEFL exam, which 43.3% did, followed by learning it for future careers, which accounted for 40% of their responses. Furthermore, most of the students wanted to be able to master vocabulary in English related to citizenship studies, listen to speeches and other spoken resources in English, write civic documents in English, and be able to read English civic documents at the end of the English course. Furthermore, it was discovered that the majority of them lacked speaking and listening skills. In terms of student perception, it was discovered that civic education students perceived the English program as fulfilling their wants because they were provided with learning techniques to satisfy their wants and lacks

Difficulties of Non-English Study Program Students in Carrying Out the Institutional TOEFL Test

This study aims to provide an analysis of TOEFL results and examine the challenges faced by non-English study program students when tackling TOEFL exam questions. The study adopts a descriptive qualitative approach, with a sample size of 30 students selected through purposive sampling from a larger population of 100 students. Data collection involved the administration of TOEFL tests and conducting interviews. The findings indicate that among the different sections of the TOEFL, Listening Comprehension posed the greatest difficulty for the participants, followed by Reading Comprehension and Structure and Written Expression. Based on the conclusions drawn from the data and explanations, it can be inferred that participants encountered the most challenges in the Listening Comprehension section of the TOEFL exam. Specifically, they struggled with long conversations, spoken passages, and short conversations in sequential order. The second most challenging section for students was Structure and Written Expression. Furthermore, the analysis reveals that within the three TOEFL sections, Structure was perceived as more difficult than Written Expression. In contrast, Reading Comprehension appeared to be the easiest section. The findings suggest that identifying difficult words presented the most significant challenge in Reading Comprehension, while identifying topics, explanatory sentences, and references were considered relatively easier. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the specific difficulties faced by non-English study program students when attempting TOEFL exam questions, highlighting the areas that require further attention and support in their language learning journey

Training on TOEFL Exam Success Strategy for PPG Teachers of English Subject in Central Java

This Community Service activity aims to increase the proficiency of PPG English teachers in finishing the TOEFL-based English test questions. To achieve this goal the methods in implementing this activity is through Webinar and training with a combination of theory and practice as well as discussion and performance of the results of the training at the end of the activity. The result of implementing this activity is that TOEFL-based English training is one of the efforts that can be made to improve English mastery skills for teachers, participants benefit from knowledge about the theoretical basis, principles, and strategies of the TOEFL test and its grid so that it better equips the students' teachers in dealing with TOEFL-based English questions, as well as improving the English language skills of teachers in general. Moreover, the results of this activity can be used as material for consideration in making policies related to improving the quality of teachers in their respective schools

Training untuk Mencapai Nilai TOEFL Ideal di Masa Pandemi bagi Mahasiswa Universitas Bumigora

This community service aims to provide not only knowledge but also readiness to face the TOEFL exam for Bumigora University students. This community service is carried out at Bumigora University for one month. The target community is the campus community, namely students. The method used in this community service is to provide tips and strategies in answering the TOEFL test to UBG students. The cost of this community service activity is fully sourced from the community service implementation team.
 After the implementation of community service activities in the form of English language training, students have sufficient ability and readiness to take the actual TOEFL test.

Toward a sociocultural approach to computerized dynamic assessment of the TOEFL iBT listening comprehension test.

The current study addressed the impact of computerized dynamic assessment (C-DA) on the TOEFL iBT listening comprehension test administered to Iranian EFL learners (n = 185) who took part in preparation courses on the TOEFL exam in some language centres in Iran. To mediate the test-takers with hints to process the listening questions, a computer software program was developed, and it was meant to produce the following: Actual, mediated, and learning potential scores. Findings of the study indicated that the actual and mediated scores led to significant different mean scores in various listening ability levels in almost all question types. Generally, results highlighted the significant positive impact of C-DA on improving EFL test-takers’ performances in the monologue and dialogue tasks. Teachers were recommended to implement C-DA since the information gained from this sociocultural assessment mode empowers them to provide learners with more individualized and accordingly more effective teaching and assessment strategies.

The Students’ Ability in Reading Comprehension in Narrative Text

Reading skill plays an important role in English learning process, especially when student have to deal with TOEFL Exam which includes reading and writing skill. The writer observed that the process of comprehending a reading text was still a serious problem for the students. The writer applied a qualitative method in this research with descriptive approach. The subject of the study was the first semester students class E of Universitas Prima Indonesia Medan. The instrument of data collecting was multiple choice test. The mean score of the students’ in comprehending narrative text was 77. It shown that their comprehension narrative text was average to good. There was 12 students (48%) was classified as Excellent, 12 students (48%) was classified as Good and there was 1 students (4%) was classified as Average whereas no student (0%) was classified as poor to comprehending narrative text. Therefore, the writer hopes that the other English lecturer should always try to create an interesting text and media for their teaching.

Rekayasa Perangkat Lunak Sistem Ujian TOEFL Menggunakan PHP & MySQL Berbasis Framework CodeIgniter

Abstract – Nowadays TOEFL score is often used as a requirement by universities that have an international curriculum base in the process of admitting new students and requires all students to understand English as a communication tool in the learning process. A large number of prospective students as examinees and the use of written examinations often results in loss and damage to exam data, plus a process of correction of exam results that takes a long time, causing information from various data to be obtained longer. To overcome this problem, a TOEFL exam system software needs to be made. The flow and stages made in software engineering include requirements planning, software design, and software implementation. The use of PHP and My SQL based on framework C odeIgniter on the TOEFL exam has provided convenience to an institution or agency, the positive results in its application took the form of time savings of 3,440 minutes or around 92.5% and reduced stages in the test from 9 stages to only 2 stages. So that the resources, infrastructure, and costs needed in the examination process are reduced .

The Role of Attachment, Travel Experiences and English Proficiency in International Students’ Acculturative Stress and Depressive Symptoms

This study examined the relationship between attachment, travel experiences, and English proficiency and international students’ acculturative stress and depressive symptoms. A total of 91 graduate international students completed online surveys. Pearson correlations showed that both attachment anxiety and avoidance were positively correlated with depressive symptoms, while only attachment anxiety was positively correlated with acculturative stress. Acculturative stress was significantly higher for those participants who never traveled abroad prior to moving to the US. Additionally, lower scores on the speaking section of the TOEFL exam were related to more acculturative stress. Implications for outreach, counseling, and future research are discussed.

Pelatihan Bahasa Inggris Berekuivalen Toefl terhadap Mahasiswa Universitas Muhammadiyah Palangkaraya

Community service aims to provide not only knowledge but also the readiness to face the TOEFL exam required as a condition of graduation for students of Muhammadiyah University of Palangkaraya. Community service is carried on in a university environment in six meetings for three weeks, the target communities are communities such as students of Muhammadiyah University. The method used in this service is to provide training to students. Cost of service activities is entirely sourced from Muhammadiyah University of Palangkaraya from APBU Year 2015. After the implementation of English training activities, the students have sufficient readiness to take the TOEFL test became a graduation requirement for students of Muhammadiyah University of Palangkaraya .

An investigation into the impact of reflective teaching on EFL learners autonomy and intrinsic motivation

This study has sought to explore the effect of reflective teaching on learner autonomy and the intrinsic motivation of Iranian upper-intermediate female learners. The subjects included 60 adult upper-intermediate EFL learners chosen out of ninety, based on the scores obtained through administration of the TOEFL exam. They were randomly assigned to two groups: a) the experimental group - taught by a reflective teacher - and b) the control group instructed by an unreflective teacher. The motivation questionnaire and the autonomy questionnaire were administered to both groups to make sure that the two groups were not significantly different in terms of the level of motivation and autonomy. The experimental group was then taught by the reflective teacher and the control group was taught by the unreflective teacher who adopted no tangible reflective actions. Finally, both groups sat for motivation and autonomy questionnaires. The results indicate that reflective teaching leads to the enhancement of both learners’ autonomy and the intrinsic motivation level. Keywords: reflective teaching, intrinsic motivation, learner autonomy.

An Investigation into the Impact of Reflective Teaching on EFL Learners’ Autonomy and Intrinsic Motivation

<p>This study sought to explore the effect of reflective teaching on learner autonomy and intrinsic motivation of Iranian upper-intermediate female learners. The subjects included 60 adult upper-intermediate EFL learners chosen out of ninety based on the scores obtained through administration of the TOEFL exam. They were randomly assigned to two groups: a) the experimental group- taught by a reflective teacher- and b) the control group instructed by an unreflective teacher. The motivation questionnaire and the autonomy questionnaire were administered to both groups to make sure that two groups were not significantly different in terms of the level of motivation and autonomy. Then, the experimental group was taught by the reflective teacher and the control group was taught by the unreflective teacher who adopted no tangible reflective actions. Finally, both groups sat for motivation and autonomy questionnaires. The results indicated that reflective teaching led to the enhancement of both learners’ autonomy and intrinsic motivation level.</p><p><strong>Key Words:</strong> Reflective Teaching; Intrinsic Motivation; Learner Autonomy</p>

Editors Message and Referees Index

From the EditorsHuseyin Uzunboylu, Cigdem HursenIt is an honor for us to welcome you as Editors of Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences which has accepted publications indexed in qualified databases since 2006. We are ready to publish the new studies of Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences which has 5 full length articles written by authors from, Cyprus, Iran and Turkey.The aim of this issue is to give the researchers an opportunity to share their academic studies. First of all, I would like to thank all who have contributed to this issue. There are different focuses. For example, Cihat Demir, Burhan Sincar and Rıdvan Çelik explored to specify the matters encountered by science teachers during the teaching of physics and to provide them with solutions. The study group consisted of 50 science teachers who worked in Diyarbakır and Batman over the period of 2014 - 2015. This research is a descriptive study carried out by content analysis. According to the research findings, the top problems that the physics teachers encountered in physics lesson while processing the topics were laboratory problems. Some solutions have been introduced for science teachers in order to help them provide a better physics education.On the other hand, Parisa Abdolrezapour and Elahe Fallah explored the effect of reflective teaching on learner autonomy and the intrinsic motivation of Iranian upper-intermediate female learners. The subjects included 60 adult upper-intermediate EFL learners chosen out of ninety, based on the scores obtained through administration of the TOEFL exam. They were randomly assigned to two groups: a) the experimental group - taught by a reflective teacher - and b) the control group instructed by an unreflective teacher. The experimental group was then taught by the reflective teacher and the control group was taught by the unreflective teacher who adopted no tangible reflective actions. Finally, both groups sat for motivation and autonomy questionnaires. The results indicate that reflective teaching leads to the enhancement of both learners’ autonomy and the intrinsic motivation level.In addition to these, Nazım Kaşot and Serap Özbaş aimed in their study to assess the egoistic, altruistic and biospheric awareness of the consequence of high school students regarding the loss of bio-diversity, then comparing the results on the basis of some independent variables (gender, class and family income). According to the outcome of the research, students believed in biospheric, egoistic and altruistic results at the similar levels. While the impact of gender and family income on biospheric, altruistic and egoistic awareness of consequence is not so significant, the impact of class is significant on biospheric and altruistic awareness of consequence.Also Nazım Kaşot and Mete Özsezer studied historical environment subjects in elementary school social sciences textbooks. They focused on the 4th and 5th Grades in the context of both content and visuals. The method of the study analysed has been organised in accordance with the qualitative research. The population was not indicated pursuant to qualitative research and so purposive sampling was implemented. The textbooks used were mainly selected from the afore-mentioned grades and classes. All the data collected were based on the textbooks used during the assessment process. The data was gathered in accordance with the document analysis technique and everything was analysed in detail. The categories used were generated after the authors performed analysis by utilising textbooks. To ensure the validity of the categories, literature scanning was undertaken and expert opinion was taken. The category definitions were written for public access. Finally, Hakan Sarıcam and Üzeyir Ogurlu carried out a study on gifted students. Authors examined the relationships between metacognitive awareness and maths anxiety in gifted students. The second aim was to compare with gifted and non-gifted students’ metacognitive awareness and maths anxiety levels. According to the findings; firstly, gifted students’ metacognitive awareness scores were higher than those of non-gifted students. On the other hand, non-gifted students’ maths anxiety levels were higher than those of gifted students. Secondly, there was negative correlation between metacognitive awareness and math anxiety.I would like to express my thanks to all authors preferring Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences to make their articles published, all reviewers working seriously in the process of publishing, and also quest editors supporting us in this process.Best regards,Prof. Dr. Huseyin Uzunboylu, Editor-in-ChiefAssist. Prof. Dr. Cigdem Hursen, Executive Editor

Pragmatics in ESL classroom: its importance in listening skills

This article aims at discussing the importance of Pragmatics in ESL classroom, more specifically in listening tasks. In order to base our study, we present an overview of some pragmatic theories which relies on the notion of inference, like Grice (1975) and Sperber and Wilson (1995). Then, we discuss about the importance of Pragmatics among language teaching and listening skill. In this section, we highlight some important aspects that have to be considered in teaching a second language focusing in listening activities. Finally, we analyze the listening section of TOEFL exam. Here, we show how Pragmatics is present and its importance to the students who take this specific test.

Trilingualism and Foreign Language Proficiency

The delicate issue of the development of the monolingual, bilingual, and trilingual speakers learning English as a foreign language was considered in this study. The idea of learning a foreign language and the preparation for participating in the TOEFL test was combined to determine the degree of achievement and progress between monolingual, bilingual and trilingual speakers. Consequently, proposals to integrate the study of foreign language learning and trilingualism have been made as a means of describing some of the ways in which monolingual, bilingual, and trilingual speakers differ in their progress of mastering a foreign language which lead to their success in the TOEFL exam. This study was mainly carried out to test this presupposition that those who have acquired more than one native language might be more successful in learning another one after puberty. The subjects of the study consist of sixty-four students: thirty monolingual, sixteen bilingual, and sixteen trilingual students studying English as a foreign language with the aim of passing the TOEFL test. Their native languages were Persian, Persian and Kurdish or Turkish, Persian and Kurdish and Turkish. The subjects were randomly placed into two groups. The lecturers were the same. The covered topics were grammar, listening and reading comprehension. A pre-test was carried out before the intensive course and a TOEFL test was the final step of the instruction period. The teaching period was four months full-time instruction. The findings did not show the superiority of bilingual and trilingual speakers over the monolingual ones. In fact, the monolingual subjects did slightly better than the other groups. However, the t-test and other statistical analysis proved that the difference is not significant. Consequently, it is possible to infer that after the age of puberty having more than one native like language cannot be of great help in learning a foreign language. The implications of the results might be in methodology addressed in terms of appropriate training content, and the needs for an educationally and linguistically methodology as effective means in teaching English as a foreign language.

Design of an Automated Essay Grading (AEG) System in Indian Context

Automated Essay Grading (AEG) or scoring systems are not more a myth they are reality. These AI systems are blessings to the educational community where teachers normally face lots of problem while correcting studentspsila essays. Valuation of huge amount of student essays within stipulated time frame, with feed back is a real challenge. But today, the human written (not hand written) essays easily evaluated by AEG systems easily. The TOEFL exam is one of the best examples of this application. The studentspsila essays are evaluated both by human and automated essay grading system. Then the average is taken. AEG might provide precisely the platform we need to explicate many of the features those characterize good and bad writing and many of the linguistic, cognitive and other skills those underline the human capability for both reading and writing. They can also provide time-to-time feedback to the writers/students by using that the people can improve their writing skill. A meticulous research of last couple of years has helped us to understand the existing systems which are based on AI & Machine Learning techniques and finding the loopholes and at the end to propose a system, which will work under Indian context, presently for English language influenced by local languages. Currently most of the essay grading systems is used for grading pure English essays or essays written in pure European languages. In India we have almost 21 recognized languages and influence of these local languages, in English, is very much here. Due to the influence of local languages and English written by nonnative English speakers (ie. Indians) the result of TOEFL exams has shown lower scores against Indian students (also Asian students). This paper focuses on the existing automated essay grading systems, basic technologies behind them and proposes a new framework to over come the problems of influence of local Indian languages in English essays while correcting and by providing proper feedback to the writers.

The role of learning styles in second language learning among distance education students

This paper reports on a research done to study learning styles and their roles on the second language learning of the students of Payame Noor University (PNU), Ardabli center, Iran. The statistical population involved all of the Ardabil Payame Noor University English language students (N=457). From these, 112 students are selected as sample via random sampling. The questionnaire memletics is used to collect data about learning styles with using Cronbach's alpha (α=0.81). Students’ scores in TOEFL exam including 4 sections (listening, writing, structure, reading) are taken as a criterion for second language learning. Data analyzed by using ANOVA test. Findings showed that: Listening, writing, structure and reading mean scores of students with different learning styles was different significantly.