New TOEFL Exam Crash Course (with MP3)

Author: Beijing New Oriental School TOEFL Research Center
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-04-01
Features: The purpose of the TOEFL test is to assess candidates' adaptability to life and study in North American campuses, making it a comprehensive test that covers Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing. It evaluates true English proficiency. In the past, TOEFL had also offered individual tests, such as TWE (Test of Written English) for writing and TSE (Test of Spoken English) for speaking. These individual tests were not conducted holistically and lacked unified standards, making it difficult to truly and comprehensively reflect candidates' language abilities. The reformed TOEFL now encompasses four skills, emphasizing their integrated application, which holds significant historical importance. The TOEFL exam will be conducted globally through the Internet at designated test centers. Facing something new like iBT, candidates not only need to communicate in English but also need to work in harmony with computers: Listening requires wearing headphones; Speaking requires speaking into a microphone; Reading requires staring at the screen; Writing requires typing on the keyboard. Among these, the integrated tasks for Speaking and Writing also require candidates to engage in Listening, Reading, Speaking (Writing) simultaneously, with their brains working rapidly and hands and eyes coordinating effectively. In the Communication with computers, achieving "human-machine unity and seamless cooperation" indeed poses challenges to candidates' four English skills, as well as their logical thinking and computer operation abilities.