Evaluating the TOEIC® in South Korea: Practicality, Reliability and Validity

With the rise of globalization and the reality of English as a lingua franca in international business, it is hard to argue against the need for a practical proficiency test for international communication in the workplace. However, the TOEIC® does not adequately meet this need. This paper critically evaluates the TOEIC® in South Korea and draws on relevant literature to discuss the classic criteria for assessing a test: practicality, reliability and validity. It proposes that though the TOEIC® is practical, its reliability is questionable and that the TOEIC® is inappropriate for its intended purposes as an indicator of language ability as it fails to provide any direct evidence of its validity in order to support its claim of being a true measure of English language proficiency. 

With the rise of globalization and the reality of English as a lingua franca in international business, it is hard to argue against the need for a practical proficiency test for international communication in the workplace. However, the TOEIC® does not adequately meet this need. This paper critically evaluates the TOEIC® in South Korea and draws on relevant literature to discuss the classic criteria for assessing a test: practicality, reliability and validity. It proposes that though the TOEIC® is practical, its reliability is questionable and that the TOEIC® is inappropriate for its intended purposes as an indicator of language ability as it fails to provide any direct evidence of its validity in order to support its claim of being a true measure of English language proficiency.