TOEFL Business English FSBPT Requirements

 

 

TOEFL business English requires a good knowledge of English. This knowledge goes beyond the requirements for academic and personal situations in which you are using English. Scoring high on the TOEFL exam can demonstrate to future employers that you have a good level of English.  Many businesses require TOEFL business English. For example, the federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy  (FSBPT) require its non-native English speaker job candidates to have a combined score of 63 on the reading, listening, and writing sections of the exam.  In addition, these TOEFL business English testers need an overall score of 26 on the speaking section of the exam. Therefore, what type of proficiency will they (and you!) need to have in order to meet these TOEFL business English proficiency requirements?

TOEFL Business English
TOEFL Business English

TOEFL Business English: Reading Skill

FSBT requires a composite score of 63 on the three sections. Hence, you will need minimum academic proficiency. Approximately 50-60% of TOEFL business English test-takers will score higher than you in these three sections. First, it is somewhat likely or likely that you can understand academic reading passages. However, you may have trouble with conceptually-dense reading passages. Moreover, you may have trouble understanding information in reading passages that is not explicitly stated.

TOEFL Business English:  Listening Skill

Second, it is likely or somewhat likely that you can understand most information in listening passages. For example, you can probably understand main and ideas and support points in listening passages so long as it is explicitly stated.  However, you may have some trouble with information which is not directly stated.

TOEFL Business English: Writing Skill

Third, it is somewhat likely or likely that you can summarize the most important points of an academic reading and listening passage. Also, you most likely can write on an assigned topic. As you write, you can probably organize your ideas around a central theme. Then you can provide some supporting details for these ideas.  You may, however, have some problems with sentence structure, word choice, and grammar. But those language-use issues usually do not prevent others from understanding you.

TOEFL Business English: Speaking Skill

Fourth, scoring 26+ on the speaking section ranks you in the 86.2% of all students who take the TOEFL exam. In other words, of all the 1000’s of students who take the test, only 14% score higher than 26/30. Therefore, what independent and integrated speaking skills do you need to have in order to reach this standard?

To score this high, you will need to be able to do the following:

Your speaking responses answer the questions completely.

You have extremely clear pronunciation with some minor problems with intonation or  problems with some vowel or consonant sounds.

Any pronunciation problems that you have do not affect your ability to be understood by others.

You have good control of both basic and advanced vocabulary and grammar.  Most importantly, you speak naturally sounding English with some minor errors, all of which do not affect your meaning in any way.

You need to accurately and completely explain the most important points of reading and listening passages. During speaking tasks 3-4, you are able to explain how the information in the lecture is connected to the information in the reading passage without misrepresenting any information.

Your responses are well-developed and organized. Also, it is easy to see the connection of your ideas.

TOEFL Business English: Speaking Improvement Tips

Finally, FSBT requires a high speaking score because you will be working with patients who speak English. Further, FSBT wants you to be able to speak very clearly since many of these patients are elderly and do not hear so well. Therefore, you will REALLY need to be able to speak clearly with these elderly patients since they will already have trouble hearing you in the first place.

Like I said before, scoring 26+ on the speaking section puts you in the top 14% of all testers.  In a sense, you should be trying to do things that most TOEFLers would never do. 86% of the millions of TOEFL business English testers will never score as high as you. You will need to be the best of the best. “Happiness does not come from doing easy work,” Theodore Rubin said, “but from the afterglow that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded our best.” The following are ideas that you can do to score higher than 26 on the speaking section.

  • Join Toast Masters and begin making speeches at your weekly meetings.
  • Change phone, iPad, computer, and any other devices you use into all English settings.
  • Listen to Podcasts and other types of lectures while you drive. Then try to orally summarize the information.
  • Read newspapers, magazines, and books. Take notes on the passages, and use your notes to orally summarize the information.
  • Join a TOEFL Speaking Boot Camp course so that you can qualified feedback from a speaking specialist.
  • Make an effort to learn new vocabularies and grammar structures.
  • Make an effort to speak English at least 12-14 hours a day until you reach your goal.  Find opportunities to speak English with native speakers.

Good luck!

Michael Buckhoff, mbuckhoff@aol.com

http://onlinetoeflcourse.com