Frequently
Asked Questions about TOEFL® Practice Online
Automated
Scoring for Speaking
How were my responses scored?
Your responses were scored by a computer using a
program specifically designed as an automated scoring system for the TOEFL
Practice Online Speaking test. The SpeechRater™ computer program uses speech
recognition and analysis technology to analyze your responses. The important
features of your spoken responses that are analyzed to produce your scores are
Pronunciation, Fluency, Vocabulary, and Grammar.
Why are responses to the TOEFL Practice
Online Speaking test rated by a computer?
Using a computer instead of a human rater allows ETS
to report your score on the Practice test within minutes.
How is my TOEFL Practice Online
Speaking test score different from a TOEFL iBT Speaking score?
Both
the TOEFL Practice Online Speaking test and TOEFL iBT Speaking report your
score on a scale of 0 to 30. However, the scores differ in two distinct ways:
(1) the Practice test was scored by a computer rather than by a human rater and
(2) the Practice test was scored by evaluating some, but not all, of the
features evaluated by human raters for the TOEFL iBT Speaking test.
How is SpeechRater automated scoring
different from human rater scoring?
SpeechRater
scoring is an automated prediction of a score a human rater would assign for
the same response. The score is produced by combining the evaluation of
several important features of each response (pronunciation, fluency,
vocabulary, and grammar.) Together these
features cover part of the scoring criteria used by human raters to score TOEFL
iBT Speaking test. Human raters scoring TOEFL iBT evaluate each response in the
areas of Delivery (pronunciation, rhythm, intonation, rate of speech, pause
structure, fluidity), Language Use (vocabulary and grammar), and Topic Development
(content and coherence.)* While SpeechRater
analyzes features of Delivery and Language Use, it is currently limited in its
evaluation of Topic Development features. In general, SpeechRater scoring is
based on a subset of the criteria currently evaluated by human raters for TOEFL
iBT Speaking test.
How do I get the most benefit from my TOEFL Practice
Online Speaking score?
A number of circumstances
could cause this score to be a poor predictor of the scores human raters would
have assigned your responses. Speakers who respond casually or carelessly to
the speaking tasks, such as by responding with rehearsed speech that is not
based on the speaking task, by responding in your native language, by reading
from texts or notes, or by providing partial or incomplete responses are more
likely to receive inaccurate scores. On
the other hand, speakers who respond to the tasks seriously, as they would
during a TOEFL iBT testing situation, are more likely to obtain a score
reflecting their performance on practice speaking tasks that are similar to
TOEFL iBT tasks.
How does computer scoring work?
Your responses to each of the six speaking questions
are recorded and sent to ETS where they are analyzed by SpeechRater, the
automated speech recognition and analysis software system designed especially
for TOEFL Speaking Practice test scoring. In developing the system, numerous
responses to TOEFL Speaking Practice test questions were processed to establish
a scoring model that defined the relationship between scores by human raters
and the features of your responses (Pronunciation, Fluency, Vocabulary and
Grammar) that are analyzed by SpeechRater. This scoring model was then slightly
modified to reflect language experts’ judgments about how the score and
important features of a response should be related. This modified scoring model
is used to determine your score on each of the six tasks, which are then added
together. The final score is converted to a 0-30 scale.
Has the computer scoring been reviewed by experts?
Language learning
specialists and testing experts, both internal and external to ETS, were
invited to advise and participate in selecting the speech features used to
compute automated scores. The features currently used in the computer scoring
were determined by these experts to represent important aspects of the scoring
rubrics used by the TOEFL iBT Speaking test. The resulting combination of
features was determined to provide an acceptable overall evaluation of spoken
responses for use in the TOEFL Practice test.
Is my TOEFL Speaking Practice test
score a prediction of my score on TOEFL iBT Speaking?
While these practice materials are designed to help you better prepare for the TOEFL iBT Speaking, the score you receive on the practice materials may not be the same as what you would receive on the TOEFL iBT Speaking. Studies have not yet been completed to compare performance on the TOEFL Practice test and the TOEFL iBT Speaking test. Until such studies are completed it will not be known how closely TOEFL Speaking Practice scores predict TOEFL iBT Speaking scores.