Big news . . . An English Test Is Changed, and Some Foreign Students Worry. Of course, the headline is wrong . . . a lot of foreign students in Asia as well as their parents, teachers and the administrators of programs specifically geared towards teaching students strategies for passing the TOEFL are worried. The addition of a speaking component to the TOEFL calls for very pervasive changes in how English is taught in Asia. This also means that bushibans (cram schools) that guarantee test scores will have to change how they teach the TOEFL, relying more on actual language skills instead of on test-breaking strategies aimed at the multiple choice test format.

For American students, tests like the SAT, ACT and Graduate Record Examination mark the path to college and graduate school. But for hundreds of thousands of international students hoping to study in the United States, a major concern is proving their language skills on the Test of English as a Foreign Language, or Toefl. Now that test has undergone major changes. And as the new test made its debut on Saturday, some students, particularly Asians, were worried that they would be disadvantaged because of how they were taught English in school. In recent years, many of the 5,200 English-speaking colleges and universities that use the exam have become concerned that the test fails to identify those students who have mastered only “textbook” English. And some undergraduates have complained that they cannot understand foreign graduate students teaching their classes. So after a decade’s research, the Educational Testing Service, which developed the exam, has shifted the test’s focus to how well students read, write and speak in combination. Students may be asked to listen to a recording and read a passage, then speak about both. Their responses will be digitally recorded, then downloaded for grading. Perhaps the biggest change is the new speaking component; previously, the testing company offered a separate speaking test, but few students took it. The company was giving the new English test, which is Internet-based, this weekend in American test centers. The exam will phase in worldwide over the next year. Last year, 750,000 students took the old test, which was mostly multiple choice. In school “you’re always using a combination of skills,” said Mari Pearlman, a senior vice president of the testing company. “When you read, you take notes. When you’re in a classroom, you’re also speaking and writing.” Students need all three skills outside the classroom, too, whether to find housing or figure out the washing machine. The reworking of the test is more substantial than the recent makeover of the SAT. And the changes have some students nervous, particularly those from Asia, where schools generally emphasize vocabulary and grammar over speaking. “Most Asians, especially Japan, Korea, Taiwan, love reading, structure, grammar,” Yoshihiko Iwasaki, a Japanese student hoping to attend business school, said while on break from a test-preparation class in Boston earlier this week. “Speaking is weak, because sometimes, it’s impolite to speak out, to describe an opinion or talk to the teacher. When we take a class, we just sit and take notes and memorize.” Emily Pierre, who manages English programs at Kaplan, the test-preparation company, said, “We’re all kind of thinking this is going to be more of a challenge to Asian students.” Ms. Pearlman said pre-testing did not suggest that students from particular countries would suffer disproportionately. She acknowledged that Asian students might have disadvantages, but said they would make up for them because “they are ferociously capable and determined.” Educators hope the change will improve the teaching of English worldwide. When the testing company added writing to the English test in the 1970’s, curriculums around the world were adjusted. The company predicts that the new speaking section will have a similar effect. It also hopes that administering the test by the Internet will improve access to it, giving more students a chance at studying abroad, be it in the United States or elsewhere.

The changes will also filter into universities where language skills have become secondary to critical background and the like. Programs that have slowly been de-emphasizing speaking components will have to rethink strategies . . . particularly as the number of young people falls and competition for students becomes much more keen within the next few years (we are looking at a number of universities and colleges failing within the next decade because of over saturation of schools and a vastly declining number of students).