TOEFL, TOEIC Fees in Korea to Be Adjusted

Educational Testing Service, the U.S. nonprofit institution which administers the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC), plans to readjust TOEFL fees in Korea and other countries.

The cost to take the TOEFL in Korea is 170 U.S. dollars, 20 dollars more than in the United States. Last year, 115,000 Koreans took the test.

Scott Nelson, ETS vice president for marketing, told Korean correspondents Friday at the company`s headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey, that the service has commissioned a consulting company to study readjustment of the fee, adding the result will come out around year`s end.

He said a readjustment does not necessarily mean a lower fee.

On recent hikes in fees resulting from weakened currencies in Korea and other parts of Asia, Nelson said test fee adjustment will be based on the value of currencies.

Philip Tabbiner, vice-president of ETS, said a new TOEFL-style test next year will assess the teaching ability of English teachers in non-English speaking countries.

Alina von Davier, director of the ETS Research Center, also said making simple comparisons of TOEFL scores among countries is inappropriate.

She said Germans have higher TOEFL scores than Koreans, but that does not necessarily mean Germans are better at English. Many German test applicants are university or graduate students, while in Korea, many elementary and secondary students take the TOEFL.

higgledy@donga.com