TOEFL Young Students

2014

ELL Summer Institute section

TOEFL Young Students

Requirements for saving and submitting documents

1. Filename: Save your document with your first and last name plus the ELL Summer Institute section and the year “2014”.
· Example: Jane Doe TOEFL Young Students 2014.doc
2. Identifying Info: Your name should not appear anywhere inside the document. It should only appear in the filename.
3. Submission Format: After you complete the tasks, delete all of the instructional material. Your document should only contain your responses to the tasks. At the top of the document, please indicate your preference to work on TOEFL Junior or TOEFL Primary (note: we may be unable to honor your preference).

overview

ETS develops various English-language assessments for young students whose first language is not English. Good assessment development for these students includes accurately setting levels of difficulty, determining the depth of knowledge required to respond successfully to test items, and writing engaging material.

Summer interns will develop material for either the TOEFL Junior or the TOEFL Primary tests. Both tests are used internationally to assess students’ ability to comprehend and use English. Interns will work to develop material that tests reading, listening, and editing skills. As time permits, interns may also develop material to assess writing and speaking skills.

The TOEFL Junior test is intended for students 11+ years of age who study English in an international setting. TOEFL Primary is intended for students 8+ years of age studying English in an international setting. TOEFL Primary test takers are generally younger, have studied English for less time, and have more limited vocabularies than TOEFL Junior test takers. More information about these two tests can be found at the following Web sites: http://www.ets.org/toefl_junior and http://www.ets.org/toefl_primary.

Useful Terminology

Set / · A reading or listening stimulus plus the items that go with it
Item / · A test question, including the question itself and the answer choices
Stimulus / · A written or spoken text, such as a reading passage or a lecture, that sets up an item or group of items
Stem / · The part of an item that asks a question, an incomplete statement, or a complete statement that requires interpretation
Key / · The correct answer
Options / · All the answer choices in a multiple-choice item
· There are four options in TOEFL Junior items and three options in TOEFL Primary items
Distracters / · The incorrect options (answers) in an item
· They should be attractive; that is, they should have some appeal as potential answers
Example: / Stem
Key
Distracters / Because the equipment is very delicate, it must be handled with ______.
(A) care
(B) caring
(C) careful Options
(D) carefully

General Guidelines for Writing Good Items

· Each item should have only one key.
· Distracters cannot reasonably be interpreted as a correct answer.
· Distracters should be plausible answers in some context—and grammatically correct—but not true, based on the existing stimulus.
· Avoid inflammatory, controversial, or unpleasant topics.
· Test material should not have a suggestive subtext. Language should be free of racist, sexist, or otherwise potentially offensive, upsetting, or inappropriate content.

Work sample tasks

In the following pages, you will be asked to provide work samples made up of several item-writing tasks and an editing task. Each task is preceded by an example and specific directions.

PART I—Reading

Directions: Part I is comprised of three tasks. First, using the provided source material as a reference, create a reading stimulus for TOEFL Junior. This stimulus should represent a passage likely found in a fourteen-year-old’s class. Second, complete an item-writing task based on your stimulus. Third, create another reading stimulus for TOEFL Primary based on your TOEFL Junior stimulus. Essentially, you will write the passage twice, but for different audiences. This second stimulus is intended to represent a passage likely found in a ten-year-old’s class. There is no item-writing task for the TOEFL Primary stimulus.

A sample TOEFL Junior reading set and items are provided for you below. A few things to note about the sample reading set:

· The level of language and grammar in the stimulus and items is generally accessible to nonnative English speakers of middle school age.

· Vocabulary and ideas in the stimulus that may be unfamiliar to nonnative English speakers are reinforced.

· The main idea item captures the overall gist of the stimulus.

· The detail item tests a salient point from the stimulus.

· The inference item tests a detail or fact that is not explicitly stated in the stimulus.

TOEFL Junior Sample Reading Passage
People build dams across rivers to block water and create lakes to store water. For centuries, dams have helped people by providing water for farms and cities, and more recently, by generating electricity. However, while dams can benefit people, they also can have a very negative impact on the environment. The fate of the Aral Sea is an example of this.
The Aral Sea is in Central Asia. At one time it was the fourth largest body of water in the world. It used to get all its water from the Amu and Syr rivers, which flow through many miles of desert before reaching the Aral Sea. For hundreds of years the Aral Sea was the center of a major fishing industry. It was also home to a large shipping industry that transported goods and people throughout the region.
Starting in the 1960s, several dams were constructed on the Amu and Syr rivers. People wanted to dam these rivers so that they could start growing crops in the desert, such as cotton and rice. They believed they could sell these crops to other countries to earn money and create jobs.
However, blocking the rivers that feed the Aral Sea created an environmental disaster. Since the 1960s the size of the Aral Sea has dropped by almost 90 percent. The water that remains is too salty for fish to live in. This has destroyed the fishing industry. Also, because the lake is now much smaller, port cities that used to be the centers of shipping are now more than 50 kilometers away from the water.
Main Idea Item
What is the passage mainly about?
Key: The effects of building dams in Central Asia.
Detail Item
Why were dams built on the Amu and Syr rivers?
Key: To grow new crops
Inference Item
What can be inferred about shipping in the Aral Sea today?
Key: It no longer exists

Task 1: Write a TOEFL Junior Stimulus

Use the source material below as a reference to create a reading stimulus for the TOEFL Junior test. Your stimulus should be within 200-250 words.

Now, write your TOEFL Junior stimulus.

Task 2: Item-Writing Task Based on Your Stimulus

Question #1: Main Idea

Write a key (correct answer) for the following stem:

What is the passage mainly about?

Question #2: Detail Item

Write a stem (a question) and a key (correct answer) about an explicitly stated detail in your stimulus.

Question #3: Inference Item

Write a stem (a question) and a key (correct answer) about a fact that is not explicitly stated in your stimulus.

Task 3: Write a TOEFL Primary Stimulus

Use the passage you wrote above to create a reading stimulus intended for the TOEFL Primary test. Your stimulus should be a maximum of 100 words. You do not need to complete any item-writing tasks based on this stimulus. Please keep in mind that this passage should be intended for younger nonnative speakers of English.

Now, write your TOEFL Primary stimulus.

PART II—Listening

Directions: In Part II, you will create a listening set for the TOEFL Junior test with a stimulus and 3 non-overlapping items based on the stimulus. The following steps will guide you through the process.

REVIEW A SAMPLE LISTENING SET:

First, READ the source material below.

A bombardier beetle under attack has a deadly revenge. It squirts a chemical out of its rear end at high speed and at a temperature of nearly 100°C! The pressure in the reaction chamber builds up and up until it escapes from the animal through small openings at the tip of the abdomen with ferocious speed in a series of around 70 fast explosions, the popping sounds of which are audible to the human ear. The pulsing effect is due to the build-up of pressure in the reaction chamber, closing off the one-way valve into the reservoir. Only when the contents of the reaction chamber have reacted and shot out of the back end of the animal can more chemicals flow in via the valve.
--From Eye Wonder: Bugs by Paul Pierce-Kelly, DK Publishing (2002)
They are all ground beetles (carabids), but they are not all closely related to one another; therefore, this amazing defensive mechanism must have evolved independently in several different types of ground beetle. One possible driving force for the development of this adaptation is that bombardier beetles cannot fly, and taking to the air is a very handy way of evading those animals that would eat a tasty beetle. An explosive pulse of nasty chemicals shot from the behind is an excellent solution to the problem of defense in a flightless insect.
--From Extraordinary Animals: An Encyclopedia of Curious and Unusual Animals by Ross Piper, Greenwood Publishing Group (2007)

Now LISTEN to a sample stimulus that is based on the above source material. The audio file and the written script have been posted. Listen to the stimulus and try to key the items below prior to reading the script.

· The stimulus is intended to represent a lesson presented by a middle school science teacher.

· Test-takers do not read the stimulus; they only hear it.

· The stimulus is structured to sound like spoken language.

Now REVIEW the items. An option followed by an asterisk is the key.

What is the main topic of the talk? (This item tests the main idea presented in the talk.)

(A) Recent research on a species of beetle

(B) How a species of beetle defends itself *

(D) How beetles communicate with one another

What does the bombardier beetle do when an enemy is near?

(This item tests an important detail from the talk.)

(A) Call other beetles for a group attack

(B) Fly away to safety

(D) Spray hot gas*

What point does the teacher make about the sounds made by the bombardier beetle?

(This item tests an important detail from the talk.)

(A) They are very loud. *

(B) They are used to call for help.

(D) They resemble sounds made by other animals.

TASK 2: WRITE A TOEFL JR. LISTENING SET

First, read the source material below.

Like the skin of an animal, the skin of a tree–its bark–makes a watertight boat. Bark boats have been made in many places, but they were perfected by the people living in the forests of North America. This land is criss-crossed by a vast network of rivers and lakes which holds half of the fresh water in the world. The people here built canoes for gathering wild rice, hunting, transport, and for waging war. The rivers have many rapids, and bark canoes are strong enough to ride rough water. They are also light enough to be carried around waterfalls and really wild stretches. The best bark came from the white paper birch tree, but some canoes were made of elm, chestnut, and even sticky spruce bark. The Europeans who colonized North America were quick to realize the value of the bark canoe for exploration and the fur trade. At first they imitated the native tradition, though these days the art of building in bark is almost dead. But the shape lives on in thousands of canoes mass produced in plastic and fiberglass.
--From Eyewitness: Boats by Eric Kentley, Knopf (1992).

Now, use the above source material to craft a listening stimulus and 3 questions. Use the sample as a model—create a script for a lecture presented by a middle school social studies teacher. Like in the example set, the items that follow should be a mix of main idea, and detail questions. Your stimulus should be within 200-250 words.

Note that in a listening item, a proficient listener should be able to identify the correct answer without seeing all the options. When you have finished creating your stimulus and items, read the stimulus to a friend, and then ask the friend to answer the questions. If your friend can answer all of the questions without looking at the options, you have created a good set.

Now, write your stimulus and items.

Part III—Editing Task

Directions: Read the passage below adapted from a textbook for middle school art teachers. Note that the text is intended for an adult audience. The passage has approximately ten problems. The problems fall into one of the following categories: grammar, punctuation, or lack of focus. The problems could be related to one word or a group of words. Your task is to Strikethrough the text that you think should be rewritten, and type your edit in red following the strikethrough. Indicate a reason for your change in parentheses at the end of the relevant sentence.