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.
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 (10–219)
- brown (220–469)
- green (470–729)
- blue (730–859)
- gold (860–990)
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.
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.
- 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.
LISTENING & READING TEST SCORE
Scores on the TOEIC® Listening and Reading test are determined by the number of correct answers. The number of correct responses on each section is converted to a scaled score. Three TOEIC® Listening and Reading scaled scores are given for each examinee:
- one for the Listening Section
- one for the Reading Section
- one Total Score that consists of the sum of the Listening Section and Reading Section sub-scores.
Each sub-score can range from 5 to 495 points. The Total Score ranges from 10 to 990. There is no negative scoring. The Total Score consists of the sum of the Listening Section and Reading Section sub-scores. In next year 2016 , System of TOEIC Changed in 10 years. ETS OF America Said that contents of TOEIC will changed soon in 2016, because in modern society, there are available to Oline Communication.
HISTORY
The US-based Educational Testing Service (ETS) developed the TOEIC test to measure achievement in using English in a business setting. Yasuo Kitaoka 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.
