It is no doubt that English teachers should have a high proficiency of English to be eligible for teaching students. Judging one's language proficiency is by no means easy since there is no such proper measurements which demonstrate one's skill 100% accurately. Some people say that TOEIC can be an excellent means to test one's language ability. However, I strongly disagree with this idea due to some reasons.
Given what TOEIC is created for, we come to know why TOEIC is not relevant to demonstrating one's proficiency. The aim of TOEIC is to test how effectively one is able to use business English in a business mood. That is why the test contains a lot of business terminologies and some forms used in the real business world. In fact, one's general English ability has nothing to do with the business English skill.
In addition, one's language proficiency is represented into four skills--speaking, writing, listening and reading. However, TOEIC only teats two of them--reading and listening. Accordingly, even if one gets a high score on that test, we cannot affirmatively say that he is a proficient learner because we do not know his speaking and writing ability.
A great many companies in Korea once required all job applicants to attach their TOEIC score to the resume to select workers with a better English. However, the result was frustrating. It turned out that many of job applicants who had relatively a high score did not have equivalent ability in speaking and writing. As a result, companies should run another English oral interview to screen out unqualified employees.
To sum up, TOEIC is widely used to demonstrate one's English ability in Korea. However, TOEIC cannot merely test language one's proficiency because it is initially created for testing one's business English ability. Moreover, it is only testing two receptive skills--reading and listening. That is, one with a high TOEIC score does not necessarily mean that he is proficient in overall English skill. Therefore, other measurement including testing 4 skills should be used as a means for demonstrating one's English ability.
Given what TOEIC is created for, we come to know why TOEIC is not relevant to demonstrating one's proficiency. The aim of TOEIC is to test how effectively one is able to use business English in a business mood. That is why the test contains a lot of business terminologies and some forms used in the real business world. In fact, one's general English ability has nothing to do with the business English skill.
In addition, one's language proficiency is represented into four skills--speaking, writing, listening and reading. However, TOEIC only teats two of them--reading and listening. Accordingly, even if one gets a high score on that test, we cannot affirmatively say that he is a proficient learner because we do not know his speaking and writing ability.
A great many companies in Korea once required all job applicants to attach their TOEIC score to the resume to select workers with a better English. However, the result was frustrating. It turned out that many of job applicants who had relatively a high score did not have equivalent ability in speaking and writing. As a result, companies should run another English oral interview to screen out unqualified employees.
To sum up, TOEIC is widely used to demonstrate one's English ability in Korea. However, TOEIC cannot merely test language one's proficiency because it is initially created for testing one's business English ability. Moreover, it is only testing two receptive skills--reading and listening. That is, one with a high TOEIC score does not necessarily mean that he is proficient in overall English skill. Therefore, other measurement including testing 4 skills should be used as a means for demonstrating one's English ability.