TOEFL VS TOEIC

Thai Version

Should I take TOEFL? Or TOEIC? These questions are frequently asked. Well, due to the similarity of two words, TOEFL and TOEIC, a lot of people get confused which one is the right test for them. Though they sound almost the same, these two tests are totally different!

TOEIC stands for Test of English for International Communication. Its name implies us that the objective of the test is to measure the test taker's ability to communicate with foreigners. As a result, English in the test is mostly English for communicating in daily life and in working situation. On the other hand, TOEFL, Test of English as a Foreign Language, tests the examinee in understanding and using English in university level. Thus, the TOEFL score is used for applying for universities abroad, or applying for the visa, or applying for the scholarship, etc. For more information about TOEFL, please visit http://all-about-toefl.blogspot.com/2013/11/toefl-what-is-it.html.

The content of these tests still have nothing in common. TOEIC consists of Listening+Reading and Speaking+Writing, but normally people take only the Reading+Speaking part. (If the company requests for some special requirement, the test taker may need to take Speaking and Writing parts. But I'm not gonna talk about it here.) The reading content is about working or real-life situation, such as advertisement, announcement, short article. It also contains fill-the-missing-word-in-the-sentence part. For listening, daily-life conversation or announcement are parts of it.

However, for getting the TOEFL score, you need to take four parts of the test, listening, speaking, reading and writing. Reading and listening in TOEFL, undoubtedly, are much more difficult than those in TOEIC. As you may recall, the level of TOEFL is equal to university English; the contents are academic i.e. listening to lectures in the class, writing essay, making a speech in stating opinions or explaining analytically etc. More details about the content of TOEFL iBT will be discussed in the next post.

If you want to register for the TOEIC test, you have to contact your local ETS Preferred Network office in your country. Please follow http://www.ets.org/toeic/listening_reading/order/ for more information. If TOEFL (iBT) is the right test for you, go to https://toefl-registration.ets.org/TOEFLWeb/extISERLogonPrompt.do and create an account. Then log in and click "Register for a test". For those who needs the TOEFL ITP, please contact the ETS Preferred Network Office in your country. You can find it in http://www.ets.org/epn_directory. 

The total time is 2.5 hours for TOEIC and 4-4.5 hours for TOEFL (iBT). The range of TOEIC score is 10-990, and the range of TOEFL score is 0-120.

Some people may get worried about how to prepare themselves for the test. Well, I suggest that for both TOEFL and TOEIC, we can practice reading from reading English articles or news and practice listening from watching movies/series/documentary/news in English. TOEIC is easy to get the satisfied score if you practice it frequently yourself without paying for the tutorial. Yet, for TOEFL, you really need a hard work. Only merely practicing listening and reading is not enough. You also have to practice other skills e.g. note taking, just like the way that you learn in the university, speaking analytically or giving reasons to support your claim, and practicing writing essays. This requires a lot of self-discipline. (You'll realize that these skills are useful when you become a student and study in the school.)

In sum, TOEFL is used only for studying abroad or applying for the visa. If you want to use the score for applying for a job, consider TOEIC. Find out what is the purpose for taking the test first so that you will know which is the right test for you. You can read more about TOEFL in www.ets.org/toefl and about TOEIC in www.ets.org/toeic.

References:
http://info.dek-eng.com/TOEIC/%E0%B8%AA%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%9A-TOEIC/%E0%B8%A8%E0%B8%B9%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%A2%E0%B9%8C%E0%B8%AA%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%9A-TOEIC.html