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This press release is also available (PDFs) in Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Spanish and Portuguese.
After a quarter century as the world’s most popular business-English proficiency exam, the Test of English for International CommunicationTM (TOEIC??) is being redesigned to include authentic reading and listening tasks as well as new and much-anticipated Speaking and Writing components. Hundreds of Korean, Japanese and French test takers will participate in a pilot test of the Speaking and Writing sections scheduled for this month. ETS plans to launch the official test with the new Speaking and Writing components in the fourth quarter of 2006.
“The current version of the TOEIC test has served its constituents faithfully since its introduction in 1979,” says ETS President and CEO Kurt Landgraf. “However, a decade of ETS research on the English language and how people communicate in practical, everyday circumstances has confirmed the need for assessments that reflect more-authentic tasks such as those encountered in the global business environment. This new TOEIC test will make the exam even more valuable to the thousands of organizations worldwide that already rely on the test to measure proficiency in business English.”
Over 4.5 million people worldwide register for the TOEIC test annually. TOEIC test scores are used by more than 5,000 organizations around the world. A first round of field testing for the new Speaking and Writing components took place last April and will be followed this month by the administration of the pilot test.
The redesigned TOEIC Listening and Reading sections, with the more-authentic tasks, will continue to be administered through paper-and-pencil format. The enhancements to those two sections will include:
The Speaking and Writing components will be an Internet-delivered assessment and will complement the TOEIC Listening and Reading sections by providing a direct measure of productive skills for score users and English-language learners. The new Speaking and Writing sections will first be offered in Korea and Japan in the fourth quarter of 2006, with a phased launch planned for rest of the world.
“These changes will increase the value of the new TOEIC test to individuals seeking success in the international business arena and will help companies determine whether their employees have the English-communication skills needed to ensure that success,” explains Paul A. Ramsey, Senior Vice President of ETS Global.
ETS also plans to maintain the score scale of the current Listening and Reading TOEIC test. The scale and score ranges — 5 to 495 for each section of the test, and 10 to 990 for the total test score — remain unchanged. The score scale for the new Speaking and Writing components will be introduced in 2006.
Other improvements to the TOEIC test include enhanced score reports that will provide performance feedback within a test section, and strengths and weaknesses in specific skill areas. Test preparation materials will also be created to help test takers prepare for the new exam.
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