ETS has shared some TOEFL speaking responses and the scores they received. In this blog post we’re going to look at some Listen and Repeat responses, their score, and my analysis.
What are the speaking tasks?
If you’re not familiar with TOEFL, there are two types of speaking questions. The questions are exactly what their names suggest: Listen and Repeat and Take an Interview. You can read more about them in this blog post.
How are Listen and Repeat questions evaluated?
There’s a rubric that determines the score of a speaking response. Since the examples show responses of 3, 4, and 5, let’s look at what the rubrics tell us:
A score 5 response “is fully intelligible and is an exact repetition of the prompt.”
A score 4 response “captures the meaning expressed in the prompt, but it is not an exact repetition. Minor changes in words or grammar are present that do not substantially change the meaning of the prompt.”
One or two function words may be missing or changed. This falls into a few categories:
- A content word may be missing from longer responses, or it may be replaced with a similar word. (You might say “glasses” instead of “cups”, for example.)
- Parts of a word that specify verb tense/aspect/number may be incorrect. (This could be something like saying “use” instead of “used” or “book” instead of “books”.)
- Two words may be transposed. (You might say “glasses and plates” instead of “plates and glasses”.)
Another possibility is that one or two of the words may be ambiguous because of incorrect pronunciation. The speaker might self-correct, but they successfully complete the response.
A score 3 response “is essentially full, but it does not accurately capture the original meaning.”
The response is a full sentence, and it has the majority of the content words or ideas.
The rubric specifies that multiple function words may be changed or missing or that one or more content words are missing or substantially changed. The scored response below gives a good example of this.
There might also be a problem with intelligibility that makes it difficult to understand the meaning.
Listen and Repeat context
In this example you’re working part time in the university library. You’re receiving training to help students use the library’s resources. Here’s what you hear:
“When you’re finished using them, please return checked-out materials promptly and on time.”
Score 3 response
In this response the candidate says:
“When you’re done using them, please return unchecked materials on time ….. and in the reducing time.”
Here I notice three main things:
- They say done instead of finished. In this case, the substituted word preserves the meaning of the idea.
- Instead of checked-out materials, they say unchecked materials, which is a different content word that changes the meaning.
- For the last part of the sentence of “promptly and on time”, they are missing the concept of promptly. The essential ideas of the sentence aren’t communicated, but it is still a full sentence.
Score 4 response
Here the candidate says:
“When you’re finished using them, please return the print out materials … promptly … and on time.”
This response is better than the previous one, but it’s not an exact repetition.
The main issue is that they say “the print out materials” instead of “unchecked materials”. The incorrect content word prevents it from receiving a score of 5.
Score 5 response
In the last response we hear them say:
“When you are finished using them, please return checked-out materials promptly and on time.”
When I listened to this, I couldn’t quite hear the /t/ sound for the -ed ending in “checked”. Despite that, it still received a score of 5. Perhaps the scoring engine is more forgiving that we would expect.
If you’d like to listen for yourself, you can access the audio files and PDF with a description of the tasks by clicking here and scrolling down to the section that says Sample Responses.
Closing thoughts
These responses provide a small snapshot of what to expect from scoring for the Listen and Repeat section. Looking at the rubric and these examples, the scoring is quite forgiving as long as you speak in a full sentence.
If you’re preparing for TOEFL, I would suggest the following for this section:
1. Practice as much as you can. My Speaking Score is a great website with free and paid practice.
2. When you see the picture of a place, start thinking of what you might need to say. You can use what you see in the picture to make predictions.
3. Develop your vocabulary and knowledge of different structures in English as much as you can. This will make it easier to understand what you hear and repeat it.
What has your experience been practicing the Listen and Repeat section? Feel free to leave a comment.
