Teacher in Development

Seems like the TOEIC could be on the way out of South Korea.
Via the Korea Times on October 20, 2006 - South Korea’s Education minister says that the government is developing a new “in-house” English evaluation exam.

Top reasons for TOEIC’s phase out:
1. Businesses are complaining about poor English skills from college grads.
The problem is not that there aren’t enough jobs, but that the English skills are so low that new grads just can’t be hired.

2. English ed is too scholarly: Not enough focus on day-to-day use of language.

3. Companies complain that the TOEIC is not accurate.
Students do great on the exams, but when they have to hold an English conversation while on the job….

According to the article, the South Korean government is conducting feasability studies into creating their own exam that would incorporate speaking and conversation into a nationwide language assessment tool.

Earlier this month, the ministry said it is conducting a feasibility study on launching a new English test, composed of four parts: reading, listening, speaking and writing. It estimated some 2 million Koreans would take the exam every year.

The Korea Times : CEOs Press for English Education Reform

I wonder something: If the Korean govt. throws the TOEIC out and successfully deploys their new English assessment exam, will they be able to come up with accurate results? Or will South Korean CEO’s still be complaining about accuracy in another five or ten years?

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An interesting read around the role of the TOEIC in today’s marketplace. Via:
The Korea Times : Recruiters Discount TOEIC Scores

Employers seem to be placing higher value on how well you interview vs. how high your TOEIC score is.

"In many companies, TOEIC scores are merely used as a cut-off threshold, rather than a critical evaluation standard of one’s capabilities."

Then there’s a really interesting bit about hacking the test: 

“TOEIC has been around for such a long time people have started to get a `feel’ for the tests, which could result in higher scores than their actual English ability,'’ said Lee Hak-sung, an employee at Doosan Infracore, a machinery unit under the Doosan Group.

“You get a better idea [of English skills] from asking job applicants to speak English in their interviews and hear them respond to different questions, rather than relying just on TOEIC scores,'’ he said.

Note to English teachers: Prep for life, not soley for the test. 

I got a great comment from gordsellar around recent posts over the TOEIC. I appreciated getting a local Korean perspective around this topic. He raises some interesting points that I never thought of before, so I would like to repost most of his comment here. Heads up for all TOEIC prep teachers out there…this one is for you… - Thanks Gord.

“Vested Interests in the teaching community, and a general stagnation of programming, will ensure that TOEIC testing and TOEIC test preparation continue in full force for the next long while. However, it may change faster than anyone expects: this happens in Korea sometimes.

2. What the market “says” isn’t always useful to people, either. For example, the market “demanded” students with good TOEIC scores for a long time, even if those scores funamentally reflected nothing about applied English ability.

3. The fact of the matter is that many high-scorers on TOEIC never need to use English in their professional lives. The rare occasion that a foreigner need be dealt with, they tend either to be redirected to a better English speaker, or hung up on. This happens with such regularity that it leads one to suspect the results of uch hang-ups or redirects are absolutely nothing. People don’t get fired for hanging up on a caller with whom they are unable to communicate.

And this really is not a complaint about how Korean support desk people handle foreigner callers. (After all, in Canada if someone called the bookshop I worked in and spoke to me in Chinese, after a short attempt to get them to speak English — or maybe French — I would have hung up on th person.)

Rather, I’m trying to say that the English language ability-related demands imposed on applicants are much higher than the demands placed on workers. Someone working as manager of a little telecom outlet doesn’t need English, even if she or he needed to get a good TOEIC score to qualify for the position.

There’s a false demand for English imposed on Koreans in the labour market which actually doesn’t reflect how much English they can/will use in their work. This is what allows a testing standard to flourish despite the fact that it doesn’t consistently, realistically reflect applied ability to USE the language.

But since plenty of students are training in fields in which they do not intend to work — since post-secondary education isn’t really directly related to career here — the TOEIC score is just one other supposedly “objective” exam that can be used to filter the reams and reams of applicants with unrelated degrees who try for every attractive work opportunity that comes up.

All of which is to say that simply abolishing TOEIC won’t help so much, and that TOEIC isn’t the whole of the problem. The environment that allows TOEIC scores to mean anything would also have to change radically, or else you’d just get some other test in its place.”

Great stuff.

The strange English requirements of job applicants and the lack of real usage that employees have.
Imposed false English demands.
The TOEIC as a recruiter’s tool - a corporate funnel.
The environment that propagates it all.

So how do you change the environment? I wonder about the “false demand” and tough “artificial” English competencies that don’t reflect authentic work place conditions. What does it all mean for TOEIC prep and the ESL classroom?

Looking at the issue from the perspective you gave me really shows why soo many try to “hack” the test. If it’s just another recruiter’s tool, and not always a real indicator of a job where strong command of English is necessary, the TOEIC degrades into a lowly hurdle that must be conquered before landing a job.

So does TOEIC prep really belong in the ESL classroom, or with employment center workers?

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!

“I have always stated that the TOEIC test is a fundementally useless test for indicating communicative English ability.”

Amen!

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!

And Just when we thought the thing was on the way out…

TOEIC test upgraded to include writing, speaking components
Tuesday, December 13, 2005 at 15:50 JST

PRINCETON — The Test of English for International Communications, better known as the TOEIC test, will include new writing and speaking components in the fourth quarter of 2006, Educational Testing Service officials said Monday. (JAPAN TODAY)

Does this thing really work, or is it all about the money it pulls in? Just wondering…

What happens when you base your educational career around something that is no longer true?

I’ve been following the TOEIC around now for half a year. Up till now, the message has been uniform: Not a native English speaker? Want a good job? Get a great TOEIC score.

Take a peek at this article from the Korea Times. It was posted on October 26 of this year:
Universities Become ‘Cram Schools’ for Jobs
By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter

Students study in a library at Yonsei University in Seoul. College students struggle to find jobs amid the soaring jobless rate due to the prolonged economic slowdown, transforming the campus landscape from an ivory tower into a gateway for employment.
A 23-year-old law student at a prestigious university in Seoul goes to the library every morning to study English for the TOEIC instead of studying law for his major.

TOEIC _ Test of English for International Communication _ is the standard for workplace English language proficiency worldwide.

“It is a part of my daily routine to study English for about five hours. TOEIC scores are becoming more important to getting a good job,’’ she said.

F-I-V-E hours!
As an ESL teacher this article disturbs me greatly. What’s the point of school anyway? To learn how to learn? Or to pass an exam? There sure seems to be something off balance here…

But that’s another post.

The starting question, if you recall, was what happens when the market shifts?

This article, again from the Korea Times paints a very different picture. It was posted on November 13 of this year.
The Korea Times : TOEIC Minor Factor in Hiring
TOEIC Minor Factor in Hiring
By Choi Kyong-ae
Staff Reporter

High TOEIC scores will no longer give advantages for jobseekers as an increasing number of companies recruit new workers through intensive interviews and internship programs, according to personnel managers.

TOEIC, which stands for Test of English for International Communication, has been a bible for undergraduate students to study to get a better-paying job in Korea.

“In document screening, unlike in the past, we focus on self-introduction letters, not on TOEIC scores or credits. We want rookies who have participated in various extracurricular activities and have a clear vision to pursue in this company,’’ a Hyundai Motor’s personnel manager said.

Quite a radical shift. A shift that we need to be paying careful attention to. While a very small focus on standarized testing could be useful, what really counts is a well rounded person.

The New Market wants:
A person who knows how to relate to and with others.
A thinker.
A person with clear vision.
Openness to learning.

Core knowledge (what you supposedly go to university for) is important, but it seems like more weight is shifting over to what is contained in the list above.

High TOEIC scores are fading as a prerequisite.

Something to ponder:

An applicant with good credits and high TOEIC score does not always make a successful worker. So we have lowered the required TOEIC score to 500 and now concentrate on applicants’ attitude toward the job,’’ a Doosan Group personnel manager said.

What does that mean for your TOEIC prep classes?