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 Wednesday October 18 2006

TOEIC

My wife is about to become a victim of testing English. Her company, in it’s infinite wisdom, has decided that all employees are to take a TOEIC exam. The exam has been scheduled for December 17 and they were just told today. Yes, they have only 2 months to prepare for an exam that in my opinion has absolutely nothing to do with English skill and is overly long and mind numbing to complete. Yes I took a practice test myself ages ago to see exactly what it was like.

My wife has never taken a TOEIC exam before and is a little stressed because of this. She has no problem speaking or writing in English and has been communicating at the corporate level in English for over 10 years. In fact when she interviewed for her current job, two years ago, they hired her on the spot because of her English skill in the interview. If they were satisfied then, what exactly is the purpose of conducting this needless test at this point?

For the next two months my wife will now have to spend what little free time she has getting familiar with the test format. Yes getting familiar with the test format, not actually learning English. No one studying for the TOEIC actually learns English. All they do is learn how to pass the infernal test.


I tell my students as well that I have little faith in the TOEIC test. This is so that they don’t equate TOEIC scores with actual English ability. Of course I don’t tell them not to prepare for the TEOIC as it is a fact of life in Korea. In order to graduate every major has a TOEIC score requirement (including majors where there is little need for them to actually use English), getting a job interview usually requires a TOEIC score, promotions once employed sometimes require TOEIC scores.

Yet despite all the TOEIC requirements not enough Koreans can speak English at an appropriate level to conduct business or everyday transactions. Still there seems to be an epidemic of TOEIC fever that will not break. There must be a better method to assess language ability than standardized tests such as the TOEIC or TOEFL exams. I last wrote about TOEIC on the way out last December, but that seems to have been a little premature.

Tomorrow I’ll be heading to the bookstore to peruse the TOEIC resources and see if I can find something good and a couple of practice tests. I’ve also started acquiring some TEOIC resources via P2P networks.


Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Wednesday Oct 18, 2006 at 07:29 PM
About_Language | Random_Ramblings |
labdarugo

labdarugo wrote 27 words  on  Thursday Oct 19, 2006  at  11:04 AM United States

I don’t think the TOEIC is on its way out, but a new TOEIC is certainly on its way in. Is your wife taking this new TOEIC?

Sean.

Sean. wrote 40 words  on  Saturday Oct 21, 2006  at  06:44 AM Korea (South)

labdarugo,

Actually I’ve been told that Korea is not going to implement the new TOEIC for about a year or more. Anyhow she is definitely taking the current version of the test and is rather stressed about the whole thing.

Picture of Nathan B.

Nathan B. wrote 76 words  on  Monday Oct 23, 2006  at  07:06 PM Korea (South)

I think there is a world of difference between the new iBT TOEFL and the TOEIC, and like you, I have a very, very low opinion of the latter, while I’m more optimistic than you are about the former.  In any case, good luck to your wife as she prepares to take on that old dinosaur.  I hope that the test results will reflect her considerable English ability, and not the limitations of the TOEIC test.

Picture of Robert

Robert wrote 204 words  on  Wednesday May 2, 2007  at  01:50 PM Germany

Hello

I was reading your entry regarding testing of employees. In fact this is something we (I in fact) have been interested in since 2001. I have developed many online based testing systems for employees, for instance needs analysis for language, English level assessment and job applicant English level testing. The whole test system was quite a task, but works fine. It was quite amazing when I finished the system because it can now give an immediate (well within 60 seconds) report on a person’s English level worldwide. Over the years I developed it further, working towards my goal of assessing someones speaking and communication ability without even having to speak to them, and I did it to approximately 90% success.
I have also developed an online certificated English training area and recently finished our new TOEIC preparation area. If you would like to look here are the urks

I cannot seem to post the URL but if you email me I would be pleased to send them to you.

I am also interested in any companies that would like to use any of the systems we have.
have a great day.

Rob Phipps
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

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