TOEFL stands for Test of English as a Foreign Language. It is a standardized test that evaluates the English language ability of non-native speakers wishing to enroll in English-speaking universities. There are many academic and professional institutions across the world that accepts this test. TOEFL is also one of the two major English-language tests in the world, the other being the IELTS.
TOEFL is a trademark of the Educational Testing Service (ETS) which is a private non-profit organization involved in the design and the administration of these tests. ETS issues official score reports, sent independently to institutions, for two years following the test.
TOEFL Centers in Nigeria: The Full List
The origin can be traced to 1962 when a national council made up of representatives of thirty government and private organizations were formed to address the problem of ensuring English language proficiency for non-native speakers wishing to study at U.S. universities. This led to the recommendation of the development and administration of the TOEFL exam.
The current format is a computer-adaptive computer adaptive test that can be taken all round the year.
It is an internet-based test that was introduced in late 2005, the TOEFL Internet-based Test (iBT) format has progressively replaced the computer-based tests (CBT) and paper-based tests (PBT), although paper-based testing is still used in select areas.
The TOEFL iBT test has been introduced in phases, with the United States, Canada, France, Germany, and Italy in 2005 and the rest of the world in 2006, with test centres added regularly.
The aspects of the TOEFL exam include Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing.
Reading
The Reading section consists of questions on 3-4 passages, each approximately 700 words in length. The passages are on academic topics; they are the kind of material that might be found in an undergraduate university textbook. Passages require an understanding of rhetorical functions such as cause-effect, compare-contrast and argumentation. Students answer questions about main ideas, details, inferences, essential information, sentence insertion, vocabulary, rhetorical purpose and overall ideas. New types of questions in the TOEFL iBT test require filling out tables or completing summaries. Prior knowledge of the subject under discussion is not necessary to come to the correct answer.
Listening
The Listening section consists of questions on 6-9 passages, each 3–5 minutes in length. These passages include two student conversations and four academic lectures or discussions. The conversations involve a student and either a professor or a campus service provider. The lectures are a self-contained portion of an academic lecture, which may involve student participation and does not assume specialized background knowledge in the subject area. Each conversation and lecture passage is heard only once. Test-takers may take notes while they listen and they may refer to their notes when they answer the questions. Each conversation is associated with five questions and each lecture with six. The questions are meant to measure the ability to understand main ideas, important details, implications, relationships between ideas, organization of information, speaker purpose and speaker attitude.
Speaking
The Speaking section consists of six tasks: two independent and four integrated. In the two independent tasks, test-takers answer opinion questions on familiar topics. They are evaluated on their ability to speak spontaneously and convey their ideas clearly and coherently. In two of the integrated tasks, test-takers read a short passage, listen to an academic course lecture or a conversation about campus life and answer a question by combining appropriate information from the text and the talk. In the two remaining integrated tasks, test-takers listen to an academic course lecture or a conversation about campus life and then respond to a question about what they heard. In the integrated tasks, test-takers are evaluated on their ability to appropriately synthesize and effectively convey information from the reading and listening material. Test-takers may take notes as they read and listen and may use their notes to help prepare their responses. Test-takers are given a short preparation time before they have to begin speaking. The responses are digitally recorded, sent to ETS’s Online Scoring Network (OSN), and evaluated by three to six raters.
Writing
The Writing section measures a test taker’s ability to write in an academic setting and consists of two tasks: one integrated and one independent. In the integrated task, test-takers read a passage on an academic topic and then listen to a speaker discuss it. The test-taker then writes a summary of the important points in the listening passage and explains how these relate to the key points of the reading passage. In the independent task, the test-taker must write an essay that states their opinion or choice, and then explain it, rather than simply listing personal preferences or choices. Responses are sent to the ETS OSN and evaluated by at least 3 different raters.
Below is an overview of the exam
Task / Description / Approximate time
Reading / 3–4 passages, each containing 12–14 questions / 60–80 minutes
Listening / 6–9 passages, each containing 5–6 questions / 60–90 minutes
Break Mandatory break 10 minutes
Speaking / 6 tasks / 20 minutes
Writing / 2 tasks / 50 minutes
One of the sections of the test will include extra, uncounted material. Educational Testing Service includes extra material to pilot test questions for future test forms. When test-takers are given a longer section, they should give equal effort to all of the questions because they do not know which question will count and which will be considered extra. For example, if there are four reading passages instead of three, then one of the passages will not be counted. Any of the four could be the uncounted one.
Below is a list of the TOEFL centres in Nigeria
Region / Testing Format / Fee
Aba (Code: D002) / TOEFL Paper Testing / $180
Abuja / TOEFL iBT / $195
Asaba TOEFL / iBT / $195
Benin City / TOEFL iBT
Enugu / TOEFL iBT / $195
Ibadan / TOEFL iBT / $195
Jos / TOEFL iBT / $195
Lagos / TOEFL iBT / $195
Owerri / TOEFL iBT / $195
Port Harcourt / TOEFL iBT / $195
Registration can be done on the TOEFL website or by using a third party registration agent.
Nice compilation.