The next-generation Test of English as Foreign Language (TOEFL), which will be Internet-based, will be launched in China in 2006.
   
Maurice Cogan Hauck, assessment director of the US-based Educational Test Service (ETS), told Xinhua here Wednesday that the next-generation TOEFL, called TOEFL iBT, will test reading, listening, speaking and writing.

Speech will take the place of grammar, in order to test the comprehensive communicating ability of the test takers. The content of the test will also include the kind of English used in higher education, such as in lectures, discussions, reading assignments and term papers.

According to Hauck, test takers will receive score reports from ETS experts, who will give detailed evaluations of all four parts of the test. "This will help the test takers know which part of their English learning should be improved," he said.
   
Four on-line preparatory courses for the new TOEFL has been setup on the ETS' official website, including TOEFL Practice Online, LanguEdge Courseware, TOEFL Academic Speaking Test (TAST) and Criterion Online Writing Evaluation.
   
Hauck said the new TOEFL will be launched in the United States in September, and later in Canada, France, Germany and Italy. It will be launched in the rest of the world, including China, next year. The rollout schedule will be posted on the ETS website on November 1.
   
ETS, founded in 1947, develops, administers and scores more than 24 million tests annually in more than 180 countries.

(Xinhua News Agency March 24, 2005)