Case Study of the TOEFL iBT Preparation Course: Teacher’s perspective Jie Chen UWO

Outline of the Presentation Introduction Literature Review Methodology Findings & Discussions Implications & Suggestions

Introduction Background of the Study What is the TOEFL test? How significant is the TOEFL test? How many versions of the TOEFL test? TOEFL PBT TOEFL CBT TOEFL iBT

Introduction Summary of Most Significant Changes Speaking section is added Grammar section is removed Integrated tasks are included One more task in Writing section Passages in Reading and Listening sections are longer Test time is longer

Introduction Research Question How do native English speaking teachers instruct the TOEFL iBT preparation course?

Introduction Sub- Questions  What are their attitudes toward those changes that occurred in the TOEFL test?  What preparation materials do they use?  What kind of classroom activities do they employ?  What kind of challenges do they face?  What kind of adjustments do they make in teaching the prep course?

Literature Review Communicative Competence Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) Culture and language Washback studies Language test validity

Methodology  Overall Approach Qualitative Case Study Research  Research Settings Three schools; six teacher participants  Data Collection Instruments Individual interviews Classroom observations Survey Document analysis

Major Findings [General Attitudes] All teachers welcomed the changes that had occurred in the TOEFL test. They agreed that the difficulty level of the TOEFL iBT has increased and the score could better reflect the language proficiency of the test-takers.

Major Findings [Teaching Practice] All teachers relied heavily on commercial preparation books Reading and listening classes were still conducted in a teacher-centered manner and teachers focused on building vocabulary and note-taking skill Students got more involved in Speaking class and the feedbacks given by the teachers were addressed more on the format rather than the content

Major Findings [Teaching Practice] Teachers had problems evaluating the oral responses by using the ETS speaking rubrics In Writing class, all teachers introduced the basic elements for essay writing and they stuck to the essay topics in the commercial prep books

Major Findings [Challenges and Washback]  The biggest challenge faced by teachers was to teach a class with diverse language levels and cultural backgrounds  Two teachers claimed that their teaching approach has shifted from grammar-based toward more communication-oriented  Other teachers commented that the changes have more impacts on what they teach rather than how they teach.

Discussions Particular issues arising from this study The lack of first-hand resources and limited training opportunities on teaching the TOEFL class explains the reason why teachers totally relied on commercial prep books and had difficulty in using Speaking rubrics Teachers need to break the general skills demanded in the test to teachable and effective sub-skills The self- study teaching approach has potential but is also problematic

Implications  For teachers take the test in person be sensitive to cultural backgrounds of students  For school administrators & ETS implement placement tests seriously provide proper training for TOEFL teachers

Suggestions for future research  Conduct longitudinal research  Select participants with different criteria (i.e. non-native speaking teachers)  Explore the applications of the self-study teaching approach in the TOEFL iBT preparation class

Thank You!