A. Definition TOEIC
The Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) is "an English language test designed specifically to measure the everyday English skills of people working in an international environment." There are different forms of the exam: The TOEIC Listening & Reading Test consists of two equally graded tests of comprehension assessment activities totaling a possible 990 score; the newer TOEIC Speaking & Writing Test comprises tests of pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, fluency, overall coherence, and structure (organization of sentences) totaling a possible 400 score.
B. TOEIC Listening & Reading Test
The TOEIC Listening & Reading Test is a two-hour multiple-choice test consisting of 200 questions evenly divided into listening comprehension and reading comprehension. Each candidate receives independent scores for listening and reading comprehension on a scale from 5 to 495 points. The total score adds up to a scale from 10 to 990 points. The TOEIC certificate exists in five colors, corresponding to achieved results:
- orange (10–215)
- brown (220–465)
- green (470–725)
- blue (730–850)
- gold (855–990)
TOEIC Speaking & Writing Test
The TOEIC Speaking & Writing Test was introduced in 2006. Test takers receive separate scores for each of the two tests, or can take the Speaking test without taking the Writing test. The Speaking test assesses pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and fluency, while the Writing test examines vocabulary, grammar, and overall coherence and organization. The tests are designed to reflect actual English usage in the workplace, though they do not require any knowledge of specialized business terms. The TOEIC Speaking Test takes approximately 20 minutes to complete; the TOEIC writing test lasts approximately 60 minutes. Each test has a score range between 0-200, with test takers grouped into eight proficiency levels.
Institutional TOEIC Test
In addition to the official TOEIC tests, there are also versions that individual businesses and educational institutions can purchase for internal use. These "Institutional" TOEIC tests can be administered at the organization's own choice of location and time to their employees or students.
Benefits of TOEIC
1. Benchmarking Tool
- Verifies current level of English proficiency
- Identifies strengths and weakness and supports to set learning goals
- Monitors progress in English
2. Serves Multiple Purposes
- Provides English language credentials global employers needs and supports migration
- Proves the English Skills required to succeed in workplace
3. Reliable, Fair and Valid
- Measures everyday English Skills needed in the global workplace.
- Uses real world examples of spoken and written English collected from workplace around the world.
- Measure the intended attributes only
4. Convenience and Flexibility
- Test can be administered at a business location at choice and online.
- Separation of listening & Reading from Speaking and Writing offers more flexibility
5. Highly Accurate
- Offers quantifiable standard of performance with consistent and accurate scoring.
- Grounded with principle research in preparing and testing.
- Answers are Distributed among multiple raters to avoid discrimination and improve Quality.
C. History of TOEIC
The Educational Testing Service (ETS) developed the TOEIC test to measure achievement in using English in a business setting. The Asahi Shimbun national daily's evening edition interviewed Yasuo Kitaoka who was the central figure of the Japanese team that conceived the basic idea of the TOEIC test.
According to an Aug. 11, 2009 Japan Times article, "In the 1970s, Kitaoka began negotiating with ETS to create a new test of English communication for use in Japan. ETS responded that it required a nonprofit organization to work with as their partner. Kitaoka tried to enlist the help of the Ministry of Education, but their bureaucrats did not see the need for a new test to compete with the STEP Eiken, an English test already backed by the ministry. To overcome this opposition, Kitaoka received help from his friend, Yaeji Watanabe. Watanabe's influence as a retired high-ranking bureaucrat from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (renamed the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, or METI) proved crucial to TOEIC's establishment.
Watanabe had remained in contact with his old ministry while working on the board of directors for the World Economic Information Services (WEIS) and as chairman of the Japan-China Economic Association, both public-interest corporations operating under MITI. Watanabe declined an interview request, but his memoirs describe how he overcame Ministry of Education opposition to the TOEIC by taking cover "behind the ministry of trade shield." Watanabe convinced his old ministry it should play the lead role in establishing a new English test, and formed a TOEIC Steering Committee under the WEIS umbrella. Members of the committee included other retired MITI bureaucrats and influential business leaders.
Government support secured, ETS began developing the test in 1977. In 1979, English learners in Japan filled in the first of many TOEIC multiple-choice answer forms."
ETS's major competitors are Cambridge University, which administers the IELTS, FCE, CAE, and CPE and Trinity College London, which administers GESE and ISE exams.
D. New TOEIC Tests
A new version of the TOEIC Listening & Reading test was released in 2006. The changes can be summarized as follows:
- Overall, passages are longer.
- Part 1 has fewer questions involving photograph descriptions.
- The Listening Section hires speakers of English from Britain, Australia, New Zealand and North America, and uses an equal distribution of the dialects. However all the voice actors for the speaking test have lived in the United States for an extended period.[citation needed]
- Part 6 no longer contains an error-spotting task, criticized as unrealistic in a corporate environment, instead adopting the use of a task wherein the test taker fills in blanks in incomplete sentences.
- Part 7 contains not only single-passage questions but also double-passage questions wherein the test taker reads and compares the two related passages, such as an e-mail correspondence.
According to a survey conducted in 2006 by the Institute for International Business Communication ( Zaidanhōjin Kokusai Bijinesu Komyunikēshon Kyōkai), 56.8% of the respondents who took both the older and the revised versions of the TOEIC test in Japan find the latter version more difficult. The lower the score the test taker achieves, the more marked this tendency becomes. As many as 85.6% of those who earned scores ranging from 10 to 395 points find the revised TOEIC test more difficult, while 69.9% of those who earned 400 to 495 points think this way, as do 59.3% of those who earned 500 to 595 points. Among those who achieved 600 to 695 points 58.9% agree with these findings. 700 to 795 points 48.6%, 800 to 895 points 47.9%, and 900 to 990 points 39.8%. 2006 also saw the addition of TOEIC Speaking & Writing tests. In 2007 there were additional changes to the TOEIC Reading & Listening test that decreased emphasis on knowledge of grammatical rules.
SOURCE:
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar