ETS is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.As part of its educational and social mission and in fulfilling the organization's non-profit Charter and Bylaws, ETS has and continues to learn from and also to lead research that furthers educational and measurement research to advance quality and equity in education and assessment for all users of the organization's products and services. Copyright © 2009 by ETS. All rights reserved.No part of this report may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Violators will be prosecuted in accordance with both U.S. and international copyright laws. Specifically, it investigates the strategic behaviors test-takers reported using when taking the Speaking section of the TOEFL iBT™ (SSTiBT). It also investigates how the reported strategic behaviors differed across integrated and independent tasks in the SSTiBT, as well as the relationship between test-takers' reported strategic behaviors and their performance on the tasks as determined by their test scores. The participating students were 14 graduate and 16 undergraduate engineering students whose first language was Chinese.The results indicate that test-takers reported using 49 separate strategies when completing the SSTiBT tasks. Of the five strategy categories, the metacognitive, communication, and cognitive strategies were proportionally the most frequently reported. The interrelationships among these three categories were negative. Undergraduates reported using significantly more communication strategies, whereas graduates reported using significantly more cognitive and affective strategies.No statistically significant differences were found in reported strategy use across proficiency levels.The integrated tasks were more alike with respect to reported strategy use than were the independent and integrated tasks. Furthermore, the integrated tasks elicited a wider variety of reported strategy use than the independent tasks. Overall, we found no relationship between the total number of reported strategic behaviors and total test score on the SSTiBT.We conclude that strategy use is integral to performing SSTiBT tasks and should therefore be considered as part of the construct of communicative performance. However, the relationship between strategy use and test performance is varied and is due to complex interactions among test-taker characteristics, tasks, and contexts. ETS administers the TOEFL program under the general direction of a policy board that was established by, and is affiliated with, the sponsoring organizations. Members of the TOEFL Board (previously the Policy Council) represent the College Board, the GRE Board, and such institutions and agencies as graduate schools of business, two-year colleges, and nonprofit educational exchange agencies.Since its inception in 1963, the TOEFL has evolved from a paper-based test to a computer-ba...

This article reports on findings from a research project designed to assess undergraduate and graduate students’ language-learning needs in the context of a new academic language support center at a Canadian university. A total of 432 students of English as an additional language and 93 instructors responded to the questionnaires, which asked them to provide importance ratings of academic language skills, to assess their own or their students’ skill status, and to respond to open-ended questions. This article reports on data collected from the writing section of the study.The findings indicated that there is much overlap in the skill items identified as ‘very important’ between graduate and undergraduate students and instructors. Students’ self-assessments and instructors’ assessments of their students differed dramatically, however. In addition to important pedagogical implications, this study suggests a need to be cautious when interpreting needs assessment results because what instructors or students consider as an important skill to possess may not be what students need to develop.

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