The Influence Of Three Factors On The Results Of The Speaking Section In TOEFL IBT

Since the administration of the TOEFL iBT in 2006 in China, it has brought with increased efficiency of high technology and great convenience to testees. However, it has also come up with a series of problems, especially problems in the test of the Speaking Section, which may influence the reliability and validity of the speaking section. Therefore, this study attempts to investigate the influence of three factors on the reliability of the TOEFL iBT speaking test, that is, the time limit factor, testees'personal/anxiety factor and the testing environment factor. Although the three factors are not so decisive as compared with the scoring of the test, their influence on the test cannot be excluded and ignored.The study used a questionnaire and an interview to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. Qualitative results and percentage analysis show that a great majority of the testees regard the time limit factors influential rather than testees' personal factors, such as anxiety or tension and the testing environment factors. However, quantitative analysis of the questionnaire results show that the time limit factor did not exert significant influence on the speaking section scores. Whereas, significant influence has been found with the testing environment factor and the personal/anxiety factor.