TOEFL JUNIOR

The Listening Comprehension section measures your ability to listen for instructional, social, and academic purposes.
The section contains three different question types, each designed to meet one of these purposes:

■ Classroom Instruction. In this question type, you will listen to a short talk by a teacher, principal, librarian, or other school staff member. Each talk lasts 20 to 45 seconds. After the talk you will answer one question. The question may ask you to identify the main idea or the purpose of the talk, or make an inference or prediction based on what the speaker says.

■ Short Conversation. In this question type, you will listen to a conversation between two students or between a student and a school staff member, like a teacher or librarian. The conversations last 60–90 seconds. After the conversation, you will answer 3–4 questions. The questions may ask you to identify the main idea or one of the important details of the conversation; to make an inference or prediction based on the conversation; to identify why a speaker talks about certain information; or to recognize how a speaker feels or what a speaker means when using certain intonation or stressing certain words.

■ Academic Listening. In this question type, you will listen to a classroom lecture or discussion about an academic topic. After you listen, you will answer 4–5 questions. The question may ask you to identify the main idea or one of the important details of the lecture or discussion; to make an inference or prediction based on the lecture or discussion; to identify why a speaker talks about certain information; or to recognize how a speaker feels or what a speaker means when using certain intonation or stressing certain words.

The Language Form and Meaning section measures your understanding of the structure of English and the depth of your vocabulary knowledge. The questions are presented within a series of short paragraphs. Each question requires you to choose the correct word or phrase that accurately completes a sentence. Each paragraph represents the kinds of reading that students do in a school context:

■ Emails, notes, or announcements
■ Short fictional passages
■ Student reports
■ Magazine articles
■ Passages from textbooks

There are two main types of questions. Language Form questions test knowledge of grammatical structures (for example, verb tenses, relative clauses, word order, adjective or adverb form). Language Meaning questions test knowledge of vocabulary.

The Reading Comprehension section measures your ability to read and comprehend both academic and non-academic texts that you might come across in a school environment. Examples of non-academic texts include:

■ Correspondence (emails, notes, and letters)
■ Non-linear texts (schedules and menus)
■ News articles (like those found in a school or local newspaper)

Examples of academic texts include:
■ Narratives about fictional characters
■ Persuasive texts that support an opinion (letters to the editor and movie or book reviews)
■ Passages about an academic topic that might be found in a textbook or specialized magazine

The questions in the Reading Comprehension section test your ability to:

■ Comprehend the main idea of a text
■ Identify important factual information that supports the main idea
■ Make inferences based on what is not explicitly stated in a text
■ Determine the meaning of unfamiliar words or expressions from context
■ Identify the words that pronouns represent
■ Recognize an author’s purpose