National English Test Set for 2010

The Ministry of Education & Human Resources Development (MOE) is planning to launch a national authorized English test that can replace the TOEIC and TOEFL starting from 2010.The test will cover speaking and writing ability tests for students from primary school to high school. Reading and listening tests and authorized English tests for adult will be gradually introduced.

The Korea Institute of Curriculum & Evaluation (KICE) and the MOE publicized their idea for the English test on Monday at the English Education Innovation Seminar held in KICE headquarters.

The English test will be taken on an iBT basis for speaking and listening the same way the TOEIC and TOEFL do.

In a survey of English experts conducted by KICE, which was released in this past October, 85 percent responded “negative” to the question that the TOEFL and TOEIC can evaluate the level of English proficiency for primary to high school students, and 63 percent agreed that the establishment of national authorized English test is needed.

Contrary to TOEIC and TOEFL, each individual can choose a grade that he or she can take on the basis of his or her ability. Each test will be based on current regular English classes. KICE estimates 300,000 students will take the test per year.

Before KICE starts the national authorized test, it plans to conduct preliminary tests four times from September 2007 to December 2009, targeting 12,000 students in 96 schools nationwide.

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