Browsing by Subject "TOEFL"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    An ESP Reading Course: Methods and Materials
    (2008-10-13T19:29:42Z) Kiefer, Marvin R.; Connor, Ulla, 1948-; Duerksen, Aye Nu E.; Orlando, Honnor
    This research project evaluated four reading projects and their authentic materials. The projects were used in a U.S. university ESP program for post-bachelor Afghan students. By utilizing field-related American biographies, online academic articles, various news articles, field-specific article databases, and short fiction for in-depth reading and writing projects, the Afghan students’ reading performances proved and disproved the relevance and importance of these authentic materials as ways to improve their IBT TOEFL reading scores and academic reading proficiencies related to their future work at a U.S. graduate school. Data were collected and evaluated from three TOEFL scores and an in-depth, post program survey.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    'I want to go back to the text': Response Strategies on the Reading Subtest of the New TOEFL
    (Publisher of previously issued instance of this item: Copyright © 2007 SAGE Publications., 2007-04) Cohen, Andrew D.; Upton, Thomas A. (Thomas Albin)
    This study describes the reading and test-taking strategies that test takers used on the ‘Reading’ section of the LanguEdge Courseware (2002) materials developed to familiarize prospective respondents with the new TOEFL. The investigation focused on strategies used to respond to more traditional ‘single selection’ multiple-choice formats (i.e., Basic Comprehension and Inferencing questions) and the new selected-response (multiple selection, drag-and-drop) Reading to Learn items. The latter were designed to simulate the academic skill of forming a comprehensive and coherent representation of an entire text, rather than focusing on discrete points in the text. Verbal report data were collected from 32 students, representing four language groups (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and ‘Other’) doing the Reading section tasks from the LanguEdge Courseware materials. Students were randomly assigned to two of the six reading subtests, each consisting of a 600–700 word text with 12–13 items, and subjects’ verbal reports accompanying items representing each of the ten item types were evaluated to determine strategy use. The findings provide insights into the response behaviors prompted by the reading tasks on the new TOEFL.