Impact of TOEIC Listening and Reading as a University Exit Test in Vietnam

Abstract

ABSTRACTRecently, many universities in Vietnam have adopted the TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) Listening and Reading test as a language exit test for non-English major students. This study aimed at examining the perceived impact of the TOEIC Listening and Reading test on English teaching and the mechanism by which this test impact occurred. The data were collected by means of a questionnaire at three large universities in Vietnam. The findings suggested that, generally, the use of the TOEIC Listening and Reading test as the sole exit requirement could have brought about a narrowing of the teaching content and a shift away from communicative language teaching, but its overall influence was, on average, not perceived as being strong. The form and intensity of the perceived test impact were related to a number of factors, some of which seemed to have operated remarkably differently from the way they do in other research contexts.