Strategy Use in the TOEFL iBT Speaking Test and Academic Classroom

Although it is claimed that strategy use is one of the constructs of academic proficiency assessed in the TOEFL iBT, it is not realised in the scoring rubrics (Swain and Huang, 2006; Swain et al, 2009). This study was therefore designed to discover whether strategic competence is evidenced under both TOEFL iBT test conditions and classroom conditions, and whether strategy use in the test is similar to that in academic classrooms. The findings provide evidence to assist the evaluation of the validity claims made by the test designers. In this study learners were asked to undertake parallel tasks under test and classroom conditions. Strategic competence under both conditions was assessed by using stimulated recalls in which students verbalised their use of strategies upon completion of each task. Performance data was then analysed to identify the strategy use verbalised by the students. This triangulation of data makes the study methodologically novel in strategy research, providing greater internal validity to the findings. The study discovered that 84% of strategy types used under the test condition were also used under the classroom condition. While classroom-specific strategies were found where human interlocutors were involved, the percentage was so low as not to be a major cause for concern.