This is certainly a welcomed question aspiring migrants seeking to get over the language hurdle can ponder on nowadays given the acceptance of more than one English language test under the migration regulations.

Australia’s immigration department began accepting TOEFL scores (amongst others) for student visa purposes in late 2011, ending a 20 year monopoly enjoyed by the rival International English Language Testing System.

More recently, TOEFL together with several tests have been accepted by the department of immigration for various other visa subclasses. The sc457 visa is the latest visa subclass to allow these new tests and with lower requirements indicating that the government has finally taken a more practical and flexible approach to English-language requirements for migration purposes, after a long review of the issue which started with the labour government back in 2008.

TOEFL is now a sponsor of the Migration Alliance. Several prominent RMAs have commented on this news and shared interesting comments on what they thought of the rival tests – the blog comments are certainly worth a read.

TOEFL is run by the US-based non-profit organisation ETS. Helen Cook, ETS Australasia Associate Director, said that accepting the TOEFL iBT test for 457 visas will help Australian businesses remain globally competitive, given the need to attract skills necessary for economic growth and improved productivity.

“This decision is a recognition of the successful transition to the multiple-provider approach in student migration; and completes the Government’s earlier decision to allow permanent skilled migrants to demonstrate their English-language competence with the TOEFL iBT test” said Ms Cook.

TOEFL’s says its key advantage is that the TOEFL iBT test is “the most accessible English-language proficiency test, delivered at thousands of test centres in more than 165 countries”
and “test takers can view their scores online 10 days after the test.”

The test can be taken at test centres across Australia, including centres in Adelaide, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney — and more are planned. Find a location near you at www.ets.org/toefl/register.

For more information about the TOEFL test, and to access a free toolkit of TOEFL resources for you and your clients, visit http://www.ets.org/toefl/teachers_advisors.

As to the question of which English test is the best of all, please feel free to post your comments here.