New Ways to Fail TOEIC

[Mulboyne]

[Scott]

So now you can get a crummy score for not understanding accents?! That's insane.

[etto_neh]

... Maybe they should have a special test for each and every accent, not just native english speaking ones. Lot's o' j-folk I've met work for trading companies who work throughout Asia, duh, and they all speak English. Can you imagine Yao Ping from Timber Co Nowhere Szechuan trying to speak with Hideki Nantoka from Yokohama in English?

Why subject them to an Australian accent for the test? Chances are, they'd only really go there for vacation. And they're going to include a *Canadian* accent? WTF? The only diff t'ween that and a generic American accent is that Canadians say 'aboot' and 'eh'.

[Mulboyne]

[Taro Toporific]

[Samurai_Jerk]

So now you can get a crummy score for not understanding accents?! That's insane.

Well it is supposed to be a test of international communications.

ETS has revamped the TOEFL (new test starts in September) and is now changing the TOEIC. Does anyone know if they were getting complaints from schools or businesses about their crappy tests?

[cliffy]

[Scott]

"Well it is supposed to be a test of international communications. "

Reducing the number of questions *and* throwing in widely different accents on a standardized test is a bad idea. Even native speakers make mistakes with accents - making each printed question all the more valuable is going to increase the pressure on test takers a LOT. If the TOE*** people increased the number of written test items, then the addition of accents would be fine.

As for having folks listen to 'accents' of other non-native speakers - that's actually a pretty good idea. It won't happen, but it's a good idea.

[dimwit]

The title of this thread says it all. TOEIC is regarded by as an achievement rather than a proficiency test by many English teachers and students. English schools often concentrate on improving TOEIC scores rather than trying to improve communication skills, resulting in people who can score 700 but can't string sentences together. I don't think I should say anymore and I am not going to try mind read the people who are revamping the test.

The idea of using different accents is a good one. Not all ESL students learn from Americans or in America, so why should those that do have a perceived advantage? I seriously doubt your are going to be hearing Inbred Outback, Newfie, or Liverpool Scouse anytime soon on TOEIC tests anymore than you presently hear Hillbilly Kentuckian. One would think that they would use standard accents from whatever country.