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Internationalization and ETS Hegemony

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The Educational Testing Service runs and manages the TOEFL and TSE that are directed toward screening international students based on their english proficiency.

I was recently drawn to look further into the ETS after one of our international students (with excellent written and spoken english skills in my assessment) was asked to retake the local Purdue spoken english test because he had supposedly not met the minimum TSE requirement established by Purdue. The student was frustrated at the thought of having to take the spoken test yet again; he felt humiliated.

And I was perplexed at the hoops that we invent and re-invent for our international students to go through. I understood his indignation although at that moment I encouraged him to take the local speaking test in order to maintain his status as a teaching assistant.

The event reminded me of my graduate school days when I felt indignant at the thought of having to take a spoken english test although my education was all along in English, although I had won multiple public speaking awards in English, and although I considered myself to be at par with if not better than most of my US-based colleaugues with my English language skills. Why is is that all international students have to go through the English tests even though many international students come from backgrounds and contexts where English is the primary language of instruction in schools? Who sets up the ETS tests? Who runs ETS? What are the linkages between the bureaucratic interests of ETS and the set up of the tests? Who does the so-called evaluations on the ETS tests? Who runs the evaluations? How are the evaluators trained?
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