UST JUNIOR High School (JHS) has renewed its ties with an international testing firm to develop English-language proficiency among students and ensure the quality of its teaching staff.
Crispin Javier, UST-JHS English coordinator, said the partnership with Hopkins International Partners Inc., authorized representative of the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) in the Philippines, seeks to help the University attain high-quality English language instruction.
TOEIC is a global standard for measuring English language proficiency developed by the Educational Testing Service of Princeton, New Jersey. It consists of two equally graded tests of comprehension assessments.
Faculty members, guidance counselors and some support staff are required to take the TOEIC annually while students can take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). TOEFL is one of the two major English-language tests in the world, the other being the International English Language Testing System.
UST-JHS is the first academic institution in Manila to certify its students with the TOEFL Junior and Institutional Testing Program (ITP) tests, school officials said.
The TOEFL Junior test, intended for students ages 11–14, is a general assessment of middle school-level English-language proficiency. It has three sections: reading comprehension, listening comprehension, and language form and meaning. The Junior Comprehensive test has four sections: reading comprehension, listening comprehension, speaking and writing.
The TOEFL ITP test is a paper-based assessment used to evaluate the English-language proficiency of non-native English speakers. The test contains new and previously administered TOEFL test questions and is used for placement, progress evaluation and exit testing, among others.
“It is important for every young Thomasian to be TOEFL-certified in order to assess his or her level of proficiency and determine if international standards are truly met in terms of English language fluency,” Javier said in an email.
Administrators, academic coordinators and head teachers took the TOEIC in Academic Year 2013-2014.
Javier said TOEIC-certified teachers “reflect the level of competence evident in UST-JHS,” adding that consistent high marks in previous tests could be attributed to the performance of the faculty. Jerome P. Villanueva
