Student Test Takers' and Teachers' Perceptions of the TOEFL Junior® Standard Test

Abstract

The broad range of English language teaching and learning contexts present in the world today necessitates high quality assessment instruments that can provide reliable and meaningful information about learners' English proficiency levels to relevant stakeholders. The TOEFL Junior® tests were recently introduced by Educational Testing Service (ETS) to address the assessment needs of educators of young adolescent learners by providing necessary information on their English language proficiency. This study explores the perceptions of key stakeholders (202 student test takers and 9 teachers) of the TOEFL Junior Standard test in an English as a foreign language (EFL) context (an afterschool program in Armenia). The analysis of the data gathered through questionnaires provides insights into the perceptions of test users, suggesting that the test tasks were perceived to be developmentally appropriate for the student test takers and allowed them to demonstrate their English language abilities. The findings of the current study can serve as additional validity evidence for the TOEFL Junior Standard as they reflect the correspondence found between the test construct and test users' perceptions and, thus, support the validity argument for TOEFL Junior Standard score interpretation and use in EFL settings.

Reflecting on assessing young foreign language learners

“…In investigating additional local contexts, much of the research related to YLs' FL learning and assessment over the past 20 years has continued to focus on European settings (see, e.g., Nikolov, 2016). Only recently has the field seen publications featuring YL-related studies in non-European contexts such as North America (Curtain, 2009), Asia (e.g., Butler & Lee, 2010;Galikyan et al, 2019;Kondo-Brown, 2004), and Africa (e.g., Hsieh et al, 2017). Butler and Lee (2010), for instance, investigated the effectiveness of self-assessments among 254 sixth-grade EFL learners in South Korea.…”

“…In Japan, Kondo-Brown ( 2004) examined interactions from an oral proficiency interview conducted by an interlocutor with 30 fourth-graders who had been learning English since kindergarten. In Armenia, Galikyan et al (2019) explored the perceptions of 202 young learners towards the TOEFL Junior Standard test, a large-scale standardized assessment. These students between the ages of 11 and 16 were attending EFL classes as part of an afterschool program.…”

Palestinian EFL University Students’ Problems with the Reading Sections of the TOEFL Internet-based Test and the Revised TOEFL paper-delivered Test

“…The study of Galikyan, Madyarov, and Gasparyan (2019) explored the perceptions of 202 student test takers and nine teachers of the TOEFL Junior Standard test in an afterschool program in Armenia. The study employed questionnaires, and the findings revealed the correspondence between the test construct and test users' perceptions.…”

Online Assessment Effect in EFL Classroom: An Investigation on Students and Teachers’ Perceptions

“…The topic of language assessment has never gone unnoticed by scholars. The impact of assessment on teaching and learning has received much attention in the literature (Furaidah et al, 2015;Galikyan et al, 2019;Johnson & Shaw, 2019;Xu & Liu, 2018). Language evaluation has gained traction in online learning as the development of increasingly sophisticated learning technologies.…”

“…However, the effect of classroom-based assessment cannot be separated from the idea of high-stakes test. How high-stakes test effect, known as washback, on students' learning behaviour have been investigated (Galikyan et al, 2019;Kilickaya, 2016;Zhan & Andrews, 2014). Some other studies put their finding on national exam washback (Furaidah et al, 2015;Sundayana et al, 2018).…”