Difference Between Ielts and Toefl
When a non-native person plans to work or study in the UK or the USA, in order to prove his proficiency in the native language i.e. English, he/she has to give either a IELTS or a TOEFL. TOEFL stands forTest of English as a Foreign Language and IELTS stands for International English Language Testing Systems. These are two types of tests of English language that have recognition and acceptance in most of the countries as well as universities all over the world.
The very first difference between TOEFL and IELTS is that the former is conducted by an organization in the USA called ETS, which is non-profit in nature and the latter is conducted by the IELTS Australia, the British council and the University Of Cambridge.
Another difference that lies between these two is that the IELTS is generally recognized as well as accepted by only the Australian, British as well as New Zealand universities while the TOEFL is accepted by the Canadian and US universities.
Where IELTS is more into British English and emphasizes on the British pronunciations and spellings, TOEFL is all about American English.
Although the basic structure as well as pattern of the two tests is the same, yet there are many differences in that too. Bothe the tests do involve Writing, listening, reading as well as speaking, but in TOEFL, the questions are of MCQ type, while in IELTS one is supposed to copy down the content from a conversation or text as it is word by word. Moreover, it becomes easier to give the TOEFL as its pattern remains consistent all throughout, unlike IELTS that undergoes some change or the other every now and then, in the pattern.
The precision and the command over the language is another important aspect of the two examinations. In TOEFL one need not worry about the words used while writing, the minor silly mistakes and errors as the marks are given based on the total performance of the candidate. But in case of IELTS, one needs to be very careful of the words he/she chooses to write, the spellings of them, the grammar of their sentences, the vocabulary, the sentence formation etc as they are marked individually for all these.
IELTS is a generalized examination meant to be for the people coming from various parts of the world and having difference in the knowledge as well as command over English. However, TOEFL is basically all about the English that is in vogue in the North America region.
Thus we see that in spite of the fact that both are a type of examination that are conducted for the candidates who plan to go abroad for working or studying, yet there are many differences that exist between them that should be known to each and every individual planning to sit for the exam.