Description: This is
a VOA Special English Education Report.
See text below
Text:
This week on our program, we answer a question from
Japan. A listener named Maki would like to know if
the test known as the TOEIC is popular in the United
States.
TOEIC is the Test of English for International
Communication.
It measures the ability of people to communicate in
the workplace using everyday English.
The Educational Testing Service in Princeton, New
Jersey, develops and administers the TOEIC. It says
more than nine thousand organizations use the test
in more than ninety countries.
Each year the TOEIC is taken in the United States
about twenty thousand times.
So how popular does that make it? Well, consider
that last year the test was given more than five
million times worldwide.
Non-native English speakers take the test to
demonstrate their English skills when seeking a new
job or a promotion. Some organizations use the TOEIC
to measure progress in English training programs and
as a placement test. The cost of the test is set
locally in each country.
The TOEIC is really two tests. People can take one
or both of them. One is a paper-and-pencil test.
It measures listening and reading skills. The other
test is given on a computer. It measures speaking
and writing skills.
Eleven questions on the computer test require
speaking. For example, the test taker is asked to
read out loud or describe a picture.
Eight other questions require written answers,
including an opinion essay. We visited the ETS Web
site for more information about the TOEIC. But one
of the first things we saw was a warning about a
"phishing scam." A phishing scam is a kind of crime
that uses e-mail to trick people into providing
financial or other personal information. In this
case the e-mails claim to be from the Educational
Testing Service.
Spokeswoman Christine Betaneli advises people taking
the TOEIC to be suspicious of any e-mails claiming
to be from ETS. They should be especially suspicious
of messages that ask for information that they have
already provided for the test.
The spokeswoman says if you get an e-mail you are
not sure about, forward it or send a separate
message to ContactETS@ets.org.
And that's the VOA Special English Education Report.
You can learn more about English language tests from
our Foreign Student Series at voaspecialenglish.com.
You can also find transcripts, podcasts and
captioned videos of our reports, and post comments
and questions.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
