By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
Educational Testing Service (ETS), the U.S. test organizer of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC), plans to introduce a new voluntary English test program for English teachers at private cram schools or hagwon.
ETS Korea told The Korea Times, Tuesday that its headquarters have long prepared an exam solely for English teachers here, but it will not target teachers at public schools, only those at private cram schools. ``We don't think we can test public school teachers as it is a job of the Korean government. The headquarters plan to measure English skills of teachers at hagwon from next year,'' said a source from the institute.
Earlier last Friday, Philip Tabbiner, vice-president of ETS, also mentioned that the institute is preparing a new TOEFL-style test to assess the teaching ability of English teachers in non-English speaking countries, and invited Korean journalists at the company's headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey.
Asked whether ETS is trying to expand its market here in the wake of the to-be-introduced English proficiency test by Korean government, the source said, ``It takes minimum five years to create new exams and that means we have prepared the test long time ago,'' the source said. Korean government plans to run a state-certified English test from 2012 in order to improve practical English skills of students and eventually replace TOEFL and other foreign English material.
According to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, it will run pilot exam between 2010 and 2011, before the official launch. The state exam, which is an Internet-based test like TOEFL, will have reading, listening, speaking and writing sections. Statistics show that private English language education bills in Korea increased about 12 percent last year, and annually the amount of money spent on English education reached 15 trillion won. More than 90 percent of elementary school students receive private English education.
Korea has the largest number of TOEFL test takers in the world. According to the ETS, a total of 149,027 Koreans took the test last year making 20 percent of the total test takers around the world and increasing the number of Korean test takers by some 34,000 from the previous year.
TOEFL score of Korean test takers last year stood at 78 out of 120, placing the country 89th, lower than the world average of 79. They scored 77 in 2007. However, Alina von Davier, director of the ETS Research Center, said it is meaningless to compare TOEFL scores among countries. She said it would be better focus on individual progress including repeater analyses, longitudinal data and on external criteria. For example, tracking the number of students accepted in English speaking universities over time.
For the grounds, the director pointed out although Germans have higher TOEFL scores than Koreans, it does not necessarily mean Germans are better at English. She said many German test applicants are university or graduate students, while in Korea, many elementary and secondary school students take the TOEFL.
The nonprofit institution also plans to readjust TOEFL fees in Korea and other countries. The cost to take the test in Korea is $170, $20 more than in the United States. Scott Nelson, ETS vice president for marketing, said the institute is studying readjustment of the fee on the value of currencies and the result will come out at the end of the year.