 #2 (permalink) Fri Jan 26, 2007 13:50 pm Why TOEFL after GRE? |
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| laroche wrote: |
| I'm preparing to take the GRE sometimes this year, say in two months time. I'm from Nigeria and all my studies from Primary sch thru Secondary sch to University have been acquired thru English Language. Moreso, the official language of my country is English. So why wud i need to take the TOEFL after my GRE.....Cant i b exempted from that :?: |
I'm almost sure you can't be exempted from the TOEFL, and I'm sure that you SHOULDN'T be exempted, because the English in your post was not good.
I hear the same complaint from Nigerian students in the United States very often. Even though the official language of their country is English, and even though their education has been in some kind of English, their actual command of English is usually terrible. They understand everything we say, but they don't speak real English, but some kind of expanded pidgin or creole English, and they have terrible trouble speaking and writing English that is understandable to the Americans and the British.
When they take the TOEFL or some other English placement exam, they usually score into a low intermediate class and are very angry about it, and very arrogant about their bad command of English. They'll claim their creole English is "British" English, and they'll have great trouble with very basic aspects of English grammar, such as the comparative and superlative, and with most verb tenses. Many of them use only three verb tenses, and some of them use no verb tenses at all. They come out with terrible sentences, such as, "I am not doing well in this class, is it?" and when they fail exams because of many very basic English mistakes, they will fume that they were taught according to the British standard.
The point is that these people have learned to understand English, so they can understand almost everything they hear or read, and can probably pass the GRE or some other test that is not an English test. However, their English speaking and writing is often terrible, and sometimes it's almost impossible to understand, so they cannot pass the TOEFL.
It's very common for people from Nigeria, Liberia, Jamaica and other countries where English is official to fail the TOEFL and have to take ESL. |
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Jamie (K)
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 24 Feb 2006
Posts: 6552
Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA
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