The TOEFL test in Taiwan | Fili’s World

22 Jun, 2008 in Taiwan by Fili

The TOEFL test in Taiwan

It’s a long story why, but about a month ago I was asked to take the TOEFL test. I managed to get my hands on a preparation book, but because I was too busy (and lazy) I didn’t have a chance to go through it before the test.

It was an interesting experience. Last time I took the TOEFL was when I was 16. Back then it was all with papers and pencils, and my still developing English skills resulted in a ~600 score.

Now they have that Internet Based Test (IBT) which includes a few sections that weren’t there before – Listening and Speaking. You can also get your results online.

I was probably the first foreigner to take the test in the Tainan branch, since the people who run the operation almost refused to believe that I’m there to take the TOEFL test. Since the aircon was down and we were waiting for about an hour before the test for them to fix it, there was some more intriguing interactions with the less-shy Taiwanese who, after staring at me for a while, made the approach.

“Are you really here for the TOEFL test?”

“Yep, just like you”

“That’s not fair, must be very easy for you”

“Why would you say that?”

to which the responses usually were - “All foreigners have excellent English”, “You look like you know English”, “to people from the west English is much easier”.

Feeling uncomfortable with them making less of my insecurity with English and the TOEFL challenge I was about to take, I tried once or twice to explain “But, you know, in Israel we speak Hebrew, not English” and that “Most western countries don’t speak English”. But it was useless.

It was a horrible horrible test. Sitting down for 4 hours in front of a screen, having to answer annoying questions on a time limit is exhausting. It’s almost inhuman.

I must also say that the test took me by complete surprise in the type of questions and time limit they uphold. I used to think TOEFL was no big deal, but while taking the test I was wondering how the hell someone can prepare for this test and whether this test is really a good indicator for a person’s ability to study or work in an English language environment. I seriously doubt that, but since I’m not a professional and I don’t have any other suggestions, I’ll take it as a given.

Anyways, this is what I ended up with…

But the questions posed to me by the other Taiwanese kept haunting me, so I looked at the TOEFL stats.

Here are some interesting stats. Let’s start with native language average scores. Scores by order – reading, listening, speaking, writing, total (source) :

Those with Hebrew and Estonian native language get, on an average, 95-97 on the TOEFL test. Estonia and Israel, together with some northern European countries, are among the world’s top performers for TOEFL, and it would be interesting to try and figure out why. For those whose native language is Chinese the average score is 77. Weird thing is, that for those whose native language is English the score is 86. Hmm…

Let’s look at countries :

It’s no surprise that official English Singapore is ranking quite high, but what is surprising is how low Taiwan and Japan are doing on those tests on average. Recently, Scott Sommers addressed this issue with his “Declining Test Scores Revisited” and “International Comparisons of the IELTS and the iBT TOEFL“:

Let me make this clear - there is no decline in English test scores in Taiwan. Nor are test scores in Taiwan meaningfully different from scores obtained in other Asian nations. […]

I’m not disagreeing with Dan. In fact, my point is that there is simply no data available that meaningfully addresses this point. While there are numerous international comparisons of scores on standardized tests of English proficiency, these comparisons are uninformative. […]

So what does this all mean? Does it mean that we can’t get consistent results from these tests? Not at all. All it means is that the groups of people taking these different tests are different people.

Is it easier for “westerners” to take the TOEFL test? some (/many) would argue that Israel is not a typical western country and that the right-to-left Semite language is as different from English as Chinese is, and yet Israelis seem to perform quite well in English, both in TOEFL and my impressions of their abilities from everyday life. Does it have something to do with local culture? embrace of western (/American or British culture)? global language openness? education standards? I’m honestly not sure.

But perhaps the suggestion by those taking the test with me (whether they intended to suggest it or not) that there is a bias inherent in those tests towards “westerners”, or that it’s “easier” for westerns not only to “know” English but rather to pass an English test with a high score is something that might be worth looking into.

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8 Responses so far | Have Your Say!

Helen | June 22nd, 2008 at 5:47 pm #

Congratulations on the high score!
I believe the trick on these tests is to 1st learn the structure of the test. Just even reviewing the question structure helps a lot. I took TOEFL last time summer of 2005 and prepared for it may-be 1.5 hours the evening before.
When taking GMAT first time I also didn’t have too much time to prepare and lost a lot of time during the test by trying to figure out what is expected of me. 2nd time I was smarter … I did that work at home.
If these tests really measure the knowledge of English (or Math in the case of GMAT)? I doubt also. I think they are about exhausting the test-taker
For whom it is easier to learn English? I am a not a philology specialist. I have seen a lot of Estonians back at home really struggling learning English.
I believe the easiness of learning the language has something to do with the similarities in the structures of language. The sentence structure in Estonian and English is different, so many people still make mistakes about the word order in the sentence because they translate in their head (from Estonian to English). Learning Chinese and learning about the structure of Chinese, I see why native Chinese speakers often speak English the way they do. I believe the amount of mistakes decreases when your language skills reach the level that you don’t have to translate in your head anymore but think in the foreign language.

PS. Why such threatening copyright remarks at the end ?
fiLi | June 23rd, 2008 at 9:34 pm #

Helen - thanks for the long comment.

I agree regarding test preparation. For those with good English skills all you need to do is practice the structure of the test once and you’re done.

Hebrew and English are worlds apart, which makes me question the assumption of language similarity. I thought maybe it’s western attitude (my sister has great English just from watching American British TV and cinema all her childhood), but I doubt that would be true for Estonia or northern Europe. Is is the education system? something else?
It’s a real mystery.
Helen | June 23rd, 2008 at 10:56 pm #

Well for me it is partly my father, who forced me to really learn English when I was 9 I think. Even if I was crying he made sure I had the words memorized and the pronunciation was good. I was also lucky to have amazing English teachers throughout my school years (of Estonian nationality). When I was a little older I started reading National Geographic … and then later on, it was practice. I got a part-time job as a translator.
I don’t have an answer to this mystery … I think it is a little bit of everything. I believe practice plays a big role (in your sisters case, watching TV in English counts as practice or in my case reading). But I also believe that there is a little bit of talent in it and quite a lot of hard work. But true some may have a better starting point than others (language similarities/differences).
yijung | June 25th, 2008 at 11:49 pm #

Wow, yuor test score is pretty high. I took it a month ago, but the score was pretty similiar to the average score of Chinese speaker. I just went to test center and took the test. It’s a nighmare for me because the test’s time was “too” long and I couldn’t pay my full attention on the computer screen for 4 .5 hours. It’s a torture for someone like me, who English is not good enough and didn’t focus on preparing for the test. Now I change my strategy, I plan to focus more on the test preparing.

I’m not sure whether TOEFL test is a good indicator to evaulate one’s English ability or not, but it gives me a direction that which part is my weakest.

I have browsed some China’s test preparing websites. It seems that Chinese speakers who can score above 100, most of them get 22 in the speaking part, probably the speaking part is the most difficult for Chinese speaker.

One English teacher suggests me to talk to ourself…I felt strange about it. Have you ever tried this way? How do you improve your English speaking? Will Israelis use English rather than Hebrew to communicate?
Scott Sommers | June 26th, 2008 at 8:58 am #

I can understand your feeling when looking at these numbers. My point is that the test is not administered in a way that makes ‘national’ comparisons meaningful. for example, my guess is that many serious students in Israel would take the IETSL aimed at attending school in Britain. That’s why I compared national patterns of scores on both the IESTL and the TOEFL.
fiLi | June 26th, 2008 at 1:18 pm #

Scott - yeah, I believe I understood your point. I disagree with your guess regarding Israeli behavior but would agree that some countries have different attitudes towards the different English tests which would create a difference in the national average. With that said, I do think the differences in average between northern Europe (/Israel) and Asia are very significant to suggest that there might be a cultural bias inherent in those tests or what they measure. I emphasize “might”, this could happen for a number of other reasons.
fiLi | June 26th, 2008 at 1:26 pm #

yijung - I agree. I find the speaking part to be the hardest too. Having 15 seconds to prepare and 45 seconds to respond is very difficult for a non-native speaker. I’m used to really take my time answering things and I’ve adopted methods of speaking relatively slow to allow myself to catch up with internal translation. It gets better with time.

Talk to yourself? maybe to remember words better but not as ways of practicing speech. What I would suggest, though, and this has helped me a great deal is transfer your whole environment to English. You have a book in Chinese and English - read the English version. Using a computer ? choose an English interface. Send Emails and SMS to your friends in English. See movies with no dubbing and subtitles. Got a blog? I know it’s hard - but write it in English. I’ve made this change 3-4 years ago and it has revolutionize my English. Hopefully, I’ll be able to do that with Chinese some day soon.

Israelis will always use Hebrew to communicate, unless abroad. But culturally, I would say that the Israeli stereotype is being very outgoing about practicing English and not caring about making mistakes. So, an Israeli might have a vocabulary of 5 words but he wouldn’t mind using that vocabulary to try and express himself even if to others that would look a bit funny. Needless to say, the Taiwanese stereotype is exactly the opposite.
Scott Sommers | June 26th, 2008 at 1:31 pm #

I don’t doubt the possibility of some sort of bias in construction. My problem with these comparisons is that they presume the student’s being compared are equivilant. This is ridiculous.

While ETS provides numbers on this property of their test, it is not a problem that professional test designers spend a lot of time on. The widespread discussion of this issue takes place almost exclusively in the mass media, particularly newspapers and TV. While this makes great newspaper reading, there’s not very science in it.

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