EFL Geek: ESL & EFL in Korea - TOEIC on the way out!
Though I highly doubt it will go away anytime soon (Can we all say VESTED INTEREST), I think the best way to describe how I felt as I read through these posts is…intrigued. EFL Geek: ESL & EFL in Korea - TOEIC on the way out!
Amen!“I have always stated that the TOEIC test is a fundementally useless test for indicating communicative English ability.”
I really appreciated the comments from the eclexys site:
“It’s not just that TOIEC doesn’t test real ability; it’s also that TOEIC sidetracks people from trying to learn to understand English, into memorizing ridiculous obscure grammar points and, worse, memorizing methodologies designed to maximize correct answers on TOEIC tests through absolutely inane grammatical analysis of the questions.”
I’m left wondering AGAIN to myself, and to the rest of you: What is our classroom (be it ESL, Math, Social Studies, English Lit) really, really for? Is it about taking and passing exams? Tests? State/Province standardized exams? Or is it about developing real world skills?
If you look at the TOEIC and how it is bumping into the real world (businesses and companies) we see that a shift is happening. The market is moving on. The test has remained largely unchanged. The market is saying it values personal things like a candidate’s ability to interact with others, to relate. It values experience. High TOEIC scores are no longer THE important factor, as corporations are realizing that high TOEIC doesn’t always mean a great worker.
ESL classes shouldn’t focus on prepping for the test as much as it should focus on helping students prepare to use English in workplace realities. The market is speaking, are we listening?
My thought: a sole focus on exam prepping is short changing the student. A shot in the foot. A raw deal. They may score highly on the exam, but completely screw up that key English phone call, or conversation. Result: Poor results on the job. Angry boss. Loss of job? (But I’ve got a 900 on the TOEIC!)
I KNOW lots of high scorers on the TOEIC who can’t write a clear, understandable sentence in English to save their life. We won’t talk about face-to-face conversations.
It’s not about the TOEIC results. It’s about reality. Teach how to learn, teach reality, and you can guarantee your students better TOEIC results, and better reality results. *With the latter being far more valuable!
