Australian Immigration Daily News

If your clients are taking the TOEFL iBT^® test for skilled migration or other visas, they need to know what to expect on the test, especially the Speaking section. 

What is the Speaking section like?

The Speaking section is approximately 20 minutes long and includes 6 questions. For each response, the test taker will speak into the microphone on their headset.

• The first 2 questions are called "independent” speaking tasks because they require test takers to draw entirely on their own ideas, opinions and experiences when they respond.
• The other 4 questions are called "integrated” speaking tasks because they require test takers to integrate their English-language skills — listening and speaking or listening, reading and speaking — just as they would in the real world.

How are Speaking responses scored?

• Recorded responses are sent to ETS, where 3 to 6 trained human assessors score them holistically on a scale of 0 to 4. Responses are not scored at the test site, for security and validity purposes.
• The scoring guide is publicly available and can be viewed here: http://www.ets.org/Media/Tests/TOEFL/pdf/Speaking_Rubrics.pdf 
• When scoring holistically, scorers do not expect responses to be perfect, and even high-scoring responses may contain occasional errors. Pronunciation does not need to sound like that of a native English speaker. The assessors are listening for the effectiveness of communication and test takers’ ability to accomplish the tasks they are given.
• Speaking scores for the six tasks are combined and converted to a scaled score from 0–30.

Learn more about the content and scoring of the TOEFL iBT Speaking questions by watching the Inside the TOEFL Test videos here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL499345C34BF71B4C

More info and a free toolkit of TOEFL resources here: http://www.ets.org/toefl/teachers_advisors.