More talk about the TOEFL in Korea.

The Educational Testing Service [ETS], which produces the Test of English as a Foreign Language [TOEFL], is in the news a lot recently after it held a press conference last week for Korean journalists.

ETS last Friday invited correspondents from Korea to its headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey to explain current issues such as test fees and interpretation of test scores. Scott Nelson, who is in charge of PR at ETS, said the organization is "adjusting" all test fees including for the popular TOEFL, which costs US$170 in Korea, and the result will be out by the end of this year.

That Chosun Ilbo column calls the service and the exam "controversial." There was a so-called "TOEFL crisis" here in 2006, about which the New York Times had an interesting article. An excerpt:

The crisis erupted last year, when the company changed testing methods. In September, partly in an effort to tighten security and discourage cheating, the testing service switched to a new Internet-based test that would be given simultaneously throughout the region, about four times a month, and then discarded. Previously, the test was given as many as 50 times a month, as local demand warranted, from a bank of questions.

But the abrupt reduction in the number of times the test would be offered meant that, from September to December 2006, they were prepared to process only about 20,000 tests in South Korea. The testing service had initially expected that it would be able to allocate 64,000 test slots for South Korea in all of 2007. This was so far below demand that, in April, a senior vice president of the testing service’s international division, Paul Ramsey, told reporters in Seoul that an additional 70,000 slots would be created for South Korea in 2007.

And apparently there were some issues in 2008 with an unreliable internet. I can understand Koreans' frustration. South Korea has the highest number of internet-based TOEFL takers in the world, and should deserve better, you'd think, as such steady customers. However, one reason for implementing that type of test is because Korean students and test-takers generally can't go more than three seconds without trying to cheat. I'm stuck with the consequences of that now, as I'm trying to take the GRE in a country that only offers it twice a year; compare that to Japan, which offers it several times a week.

South Korea ranks as among the worst nations at English test scores, which is kind of amusing considering English education here revolves around teaching to the test. In spite of the nominal attention to "communicative competence" in the national curriculum, there is no denying that the Grammar Translation Method is still in favor, and native speaker English teachers frequently have their classes cancelled for tests or test preparation. Last summer the IELTS showed South Korea ranked 19th out of 20 countries in English ability. And South Korea ranked 107th in the world in ibt TOEFL scores. These low averages are no doubt because so many people are taking the test.

That is something that has always confused me about English education and testing here: it's almost an entirely self-contained. I mean, people are taking English tests to get into domestic high schools, to work at domestic companies, and to study at domestic universities, and the perception of English proficiency---not actual English proficiency itself, because it's all memorized for the test---is a domestic status symbol.

Anyway, in December I posted about Korea's decision to unveil a domestic test to replace the TOEFL and the English portion of the college entrance examination. Well, one way to avoid ranking at the bottom of tests is to simply stop taking them. Here's a bit of an article I quoted back then:

The government will introduce a state-certified English proficiency test from 2012 to improve practical English skills of students and eventually replace TOEFL and other foreign exam material.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology announced this and other measures to help reduce the amount of money people spend on private cram schools and language institutes.

The new test, tentatively named the State English Aptitude Test, will be modeled on Japan's Eiken English test, which has earned international recognition.

``We believe as long as we can develop a quality test, many overseas schools will accept it,'' Education Minister Ahn Byong-man said Thursday.

If you will it to be so. It was mentioned briefly in this article today from the Times, via Chris in South Korea, which says ETS will introduce an English test for hagwon teachers. It makes perfect sense to have an easier exam, at least for domestic use, because as you can see from the college entrance exam, the English portion is unnecessarily difficult. And it bears repeating that what's on these tests is not the English language, but rather English as a subject . . . or perhaps that should be English in quotation marks.

The thing about the Education Minister's remarks is that there's no reason for a new Korean test to be accepted internationally on the same level as the TOEFL. As we saw last December, Japan's Eiken is only accepted at 290 universities in North America, most of them in the US. And if you browse the list you'll find that none of the universities are big brand names, and would not be the types of schools TOEFL-takers would want to go to anyway. Certainly nothing wrong with, say, Slippery Rock University, and a Korean who is just going abroad for the sake of a couple lines on a resume might appreciate spending a fraction of the price; but then again a fraction of the price doesn't boost many egos. I'll just quote what I wrote back in December, because I like it and because you probably won't click through:

The Eiken is accepted at 290 universities in North America, according to Wikipedia, though only six of those schools are in Canada. Browsing the list of institutions that recognize it I see that they're community colleges or lower-tier public and private schools, and in Pennsylvania's case none of the big names like Pitt, Penn State, UPenn, Allegheny, Grove City, Carnegie Mellon, Temple, or even my alma mater accept it. The listed schools are perfectly fine institutions that will provide a foreign student with a valuable study-abroad experience---or an American degree to augment a resume---and probably save plenty of unassuming Japanese students the headache of trying to cram for an inappropriately difficult exam. But the TOEFL, on the other hand, is the most-used test of English proficiency in the world and is necessary for the top public and private schools in the country. It's not a good idea to become even more localized when the purpose of taking the test in the first place is to study internationally.

As for what will happen with these tests, I don't really care. I'm a little uncomfortable about Korea creating its own practical English exams considering there is so little proficiency in practical English now. If teachers who profess themselves experts at grammar and reading are so weak in those subjects, I shudder to think what will happen when they're in charge of practical English. I'm sure academics, though, will marvel at a country taking control of a foreign language like this, especially since Korea has essentially done that by making these international English exams a domestic yardstick. I do know that so long as there is English, Koreans will find a way to waste money on it. If a domestic exam is used for most of the domestic test-takers, and the TOEFL is only used for those with international ambitions, of course the South Korean average will increase, which is what's extremely important anyway. In spite of articles like "Koreans Need Not Be Disappointed With TOEFL Scores" and implorations from ETS researchers like

"As of today, we don't have a test that can measure a national-level English proficiency"

it is still common to find paragraphs like the following, from the Chosun Ilbo:

ETS admits to being very sensitive to the Korean market. When the introduction of the Internet-based TOEFL in 2007 resulted in total chaos in Korea, ETS in June that year established a Korean office. The average score of Korean Internet-based TOEFL takers was 78 points last year, as against 66 for Japanese. But Alina von Davier, an R&D staff member at ETS, said it was inappropriate to make simple comparisons of TOEFL scores among different countries to gauge the level of English skills.

Anything stand out to you?