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 Friday December 30 2005

TOEIC on the way out!

Via Gord a link to Jodi who discusses her thoughts about a the Chosun article detailing The End of the Road for TOEIC. I have always stated that the TOEIC test is a fundementally useless test for indicating communicative English ability. However in Korea (and probably elsewhere) TOEIC scores are used to determine success of job applicants and the difference of 10 points or less could decide ones future career, so it is good to read the following:

Korea is the world’s last bastion of the Test of English for International Communication or TOEIC, but the compromised test may at last be on its way out. Some 12 corporations including GS Retail have dropped a TOEIC score requirement for job applicants, and three others like Doosan had lowered the minimum requirement, according to a survey of 27 major companies. SK, Industrial Bank of Korea and Pantech & Curitel also did away with test score requirements from the second half of the year, while Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics lowered the barrier.

“Until last year, we required applicants to have TOEIC scores of 830 and above, but we judged that the TOEIC isn’t an appropriate indicator of actual English skills, so we stopped asking for TOEIC scores from the second half,” says Lee Jeong, the head of personnel at Industrial Bank of Korea.

In case you didn’t read it, I highly recommend reading Jodi’s thoughts on this - I basically agree with everything she said.



Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Friday Dec 30, 2005 at 05:06 AM
ESL_in_the_News |
Picture of Nathan B.

Nathan B. wrote 18 words  on  Sunday Jan 1, 2006  at  08:34 PM Korea (South)

Happy New Year, to you!  I hope you’ll still have time to blog in the next few months!

Sean.

Sean. wrote 23 words  on  Monday Jan 2, 2006  at  05:42 AM Korea (South)

Nathan,

Of course. Though blogging will be light until I start teaching again in March. Right now I’m doing full time Korean studies.

Picture of Tim Nall

Tim Nall wrote 34 words  on  Thursday Jan 12, 2006  at  02:11 AM United States

Hi Blinger,

Long time no surf the Net, but had no homework today. wink Saw your comments about the TOEIC. There’s an article about it here:

  http://www.geocities.com/twocentseltcafe/teach/toeic.html

  The TOEIC Test: Discussion and analysis

Later,
Tim

Sean.

Sean. wrote 22 words  on  Thursday Jan 12, 2006  at  05:46 AM Korea (South)

Tim,

Thanks for the links - I looked at your email also and fixed that. Will look at your links later today.

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