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( despite the fact that it has simplistically been labeled the British equivalent of the TOEFL). The listening component is a good example of this: " the passages in [ it ] are intentionally a mix of styles of what might be used at universities in Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States "( Jaschik). On the other hand, In the listening component of the TOEFL test, candidates are exposed almost exclusively to American accents. Another example relates to spelling on the writing paper. IELTS permits the use of both British and American spelling, as long as it is used consistently. One TOEFL website, however, advises students that " it is important to know the American English spellings of words because the TOEFL is an American test " [ original use of italics ]. British spelling would thus be considered incorrect.( Can you find the spelling " mistakes " in this article?) In a world where more and more young people are choosing to study at English-speaking universities, either outside their own borders or at branches in their own countries affiliated with internationally established higher education organizations, such a US-centric approach does not seem especially wise.
Although the two tests look very similar, IELTS is slightly more demanding. As the Education USA website points out, " IELTS uses many different question types [ on the reading and listening papers ] and the instructions are often slightly different every time. That makes it harder to prepare for." Many students, of course, would consider this a point in TOEFL ' s favour, but for educational institutions serious about finding the best talent, IELTS is the test that most accurately and reliably reflects a prospective student ' s language ability. More
accurate, firstly, because having to copy down or write short answers that will be evaluated in terms of grammar and spelling has more validity than choosing between A, B, C or D( the TOEFL listening and reading papers consist of multiple choice questions throughout). More reliably, secondly, because more preparation is required, making it harder to coach students in " various less-thaneducational ways to inflate their scores beyond their actual skill levels "( Jaschik), a frequent criticism of the old, paper-based version of the TOEFL.
Another failure of the old TOEFL test is the lack of a speaking component. One was added recently, with the introduction of the internet-based( iBT) tests, but it assessed speaking in a way that is vastly different from IELTS. In the iBT speaking test, students answer a number of questions into a microphone, their answers are recorded, and their performance evaluated by a panel of assessors. The IELTS speaking test, by contrast, consists of a face-toface interview with a trained examiner. According to Peterson ' s, expert in all matters related to higher education in the US, "[ w ] ith its live, one-on-one component, the IELTS has been viewed by many as a superior exam for evaluating the spoken English skills of potential students." It is true that some students may prefer the format of the TOEFL because it is less nerve-wracking, but others claim that attempting to converse with a computer is actually a lot more challenging as it is not natural. As far as assessment is concerned, the IELTS test is likely to provide a more accurate reflection of a candidate ' s true abilities simply because the test better reflects reality. An admissions director for the University of Minnesota also makes the point that "[ i ] n IELTS, the [ assessor ] is trained to gauge the student ' s ability, and to increase or decrease the difficulty of the conversation to tell more "( qtd in Jaschik). Beryl Meiron, the executive director of IELTS international, adds: " You really need to be able to manipulate the language well to do well on our test "( qtd in Jaschik).
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