TOEFL proficiency sorely testing students at new college

YOKOHAMA--

For hundreds of students at a new liberal arts college faculty that opened here in spring 2005, February looms like a date with hell.

At least half the second-year students at the International College of Arts and Science at Yokohama City University may have to repeat the year because they lack English fluency.
The college's goal is to provide a practical liberal arts education by focusing on English skills. Students are expected to gain fluency, thereby giving them an edge in the post-graduation job hunt.

To move on to the next level of study, sophomores are required to score at least 500 on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). Otherwise, they are held back.

This goal has become a near-impossible hurdle for many students. Only half of about 740 students have cleared the requirement so far.

A 19-year-old second year student said: "I thought it was going to be no sweat when I was a freshman. But now, I am at the end of my rope--and I am feeling pretty desperate.

"Some of my friends are already resigned to repeating a year," he added.

He is not giving up, though. He spends his days cramming at the library or the audiovisual language lab, immersed in English.

TOEFL tests are administered worldwide by the Princeton, New Jersey--based Educational Testing Service. The tests, first administered in 1964, are now taken by about 800,000 people around the world each year.

More than 5,000 universities use the test to measure basic language skills in reading, listening, speaking and writing as part of their admission screenings and other purposes.

While Internet-based TOEFL tests (iBT) are available, the Yokohama City University uses only the TOEFL-ITP, a paper-based test administered for big groups. The highest score is 677.

Another assessment tool, the Test of English for International Communication, or TOEIC, was first used in 1979. TOEIC evaluates communication skills. Its highest score is 990. About 4.5 million people worldwide, including 1.5 million in Japan, take the TOEIC each year.

About 2,600 companies and schools in Japan use TOEIC results in recruiting and for school admissions.

At the Yokohama International College of Arts and Sciences, students who present a TOEIC score of 600 or above, or pass the pre-level 1 in the English Language Proficiency (STEP, or Eiken) test, are also allowed to go on to their third year.

Yet, of the 740 second year students who would constitute the college's first graduating class in spring 2009, only 357 had passed the English benchmark as of early December.

The college in the city's Kanazawa Ward was created in 2005 through a merger of three of the university's departments: Business, International Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The aim is to groom "cosmopolitan, well-rounded individuals" with international communication skills. The school's TOEFL 500 goal has been widely promoted, symbolizing a commitment to providing a comprehensive English education within Japan.

With much of the student body falling short of the fluency goal, college administrators are perplexed. At this rate, it seems inevitable that many students will be kept back until they attain greater fluency in English.

The school fears its reputation would suffer, causing future enrollment to plummet, if it relaxed its criteria.

For this reason, the school offered 67.5 hours in a two-week intensive English workshop over the summer.

"A TOEFL score of 500 is just the starting point for students who hope to succeed in a specialized field at the university level. We cannot afford to ease our standards," said Tsuguo Fujino, dean of the International College of Arts and Sciences.

(IHT/Asahi: January 4,2007)

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200701040113.html