The comparison of readability between TOEIC and TOEFL tests* Anupong Mueangngam1

Angvarrah Lieungnapar2

1 Branch Business English Program under the Suan Sunandha Rajaphat university,Tell. 089 126 4460, e-mail : stkza007hod@hotmail.com

2 Professor at branch Business English Program under the Suan Sunandha Rajaphat university,Tell. 099 426 6441, e-mail : angvarrah.li@ssru.ac.th

AbstractNowadays, to apply for a job, we need to take TOEIC while we need to take TOEFL

for further study. However, these two types of tests are different, especially in the reading part. To investigate how these two tests are different in terms of difficulties of the reading passages, this study aims to investigate the readability between TOEIC and TOEFL tests. To analyze the average frequency of readability in the tests, Coh-Metrix, an automatic tool for analyzing texts, was used as the main instruments. By analyzing 15 sets of each type of test in the reading parts, I found that the results of the TOEIC and TOEFL tests are different. By comparison, the average readability of the TOEIC is higher than the TOEFL. This means that the difficulty of reading part of tests is easier.

Keywords: Readability, TOEIC, TOEFL

* A research article submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of undergraduate students, Business English Program, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, academic year 2018 for Independent Study course (ENL4911)

บทคัดยอ่ ปัจจุบนัการสมคัรงานเราจำาเป็นต้องใช ้TOEIC เพื่อสมคัรงานใน

ขณะท่ี TOEFL ใชเ้พื่อการเรยีนต่อ อยา่งไรก็ตามการสอบของสองประเภทน้ีมคีวามแตกต่างกันออกไปโดยเฉพาะอยา่งยิง่ในสว่นของขอ้สอบ part การอ่าน เพื่อวเิคราะหว์า่ทัง้สองขอ้สอบนี้แตกต่างกันอยา่งไรในเรื่องความยากของ part การอ่าน การศึกษาวจิยัน้ีมวีตัถปุระสงค์เพื่อพสิจูน์วา่ค่าความมารถในการอ่านระหวา่งขอ้สอบ TOEIC และ TOEFL การวเิคราะห์หาค่าเฉล่ียความสามารถการอ่านของตัวขอ้สอบทัง้สองน้ีจะม ีCoh-Metrix ซึ่งเป็นเครื่องมอืหลักเพื่อใชว้เิคราะหบ์ทความ โดยจะมขีอ้สอบ part reading อยา่งละ 15 ชุด ผลลัพธท์ี่ออกมาขอ้สอบ TOEIC และ TOEFL มคีวามแตกต่างกัน โดยเปรยีบเทียบจากค่าเฉล่ียความสามารถในการอ่านของตัวขอ้สอบวา่ TOEIC มค่ีาเฉล่ียที่สงูกวา่จงึหมายความวา่มีความยากน้อยกวา่

คำสำคัญ: ควมสมรถในกรอ่น,โทอิค,โทเฟล

Introduction

Currently, English is considered a universal language. Several billion of people, both native and non-native speakers of English, use English as a tool for communication and exchange of idea (Pakir, 2001; Jenkin, 2003). The vital roles of English nowadays are in education, job application, international trade, and industry (Crystal, 2000 as cited in Rattanaprasert, 2012). Graduates looking for jobs need to achieve impressive scores of certain standardized tests, especially TOEIC in attaining employment opportunities.

Most company required to obtain some levels of English proficiency. This explains why the scores of standardized tests, especially the TOEIC test is one of the requirements for a job. TOEIC or Test of English for International Communication developed by Educational Testing Service (ETS) a private non-profit organization, is a multiple-choice, norm-referenced test designed to measure the English-language listening comprehension (LC), and reading (R) skills of individuals for whom English is a second language (ESL). The TOEIC tests are a fair, valid and reliable measure of English language skills used in the workplace. The TOEIC test question simulate real-life situations that are relevant to daily life and the global workplace. This test is used in nonacademic setting as a measure of the ability of a current or potential employee to communicate effectively in English in a variety of business setting and situations.

Most universities, especially in US, requires TOEFL.TOEFL or Test of English as a Foreign Language is an exam mainly aimed at students. They usually have to take the test as part of student exchange or so that they can study abroad, mainly in English-speaking countries. This test can also be required by a Mexican or Chinese university willing to make sure that their future student has a sufficient English level to enroll in a given degree program. The TOEFL measures the test-taker’s ability to function in an English-speaking academic environment. The target test-taker for the TOEFL is a candidate for higher education in an English-speaking country.

TOEIC and TOEFL tests are essential in applying for jobs and studying. However. Nowadays, Thai people, the score was lower than standard and do not know the difference between TOEIC and TOEFL, I believe, if we know the test of TOEIC and TOEFL. We will have score better.

TOEIC and TOEFL are totally different TOEIC focuses on business English. It is generally thought of as a work-related English proficiency exam. However, a surprising number of USA universities and degree programs will accept the TOEIC as an alternative to

the TOEFL. The TOEIC is based on English used in the workplace. But the test does not require knowledge of special business words. The questions come from real situation like attending a company meeting. The TOEFL exercises only address topics relating to university life: taught subjects (history,sociolygo,sciencs,etc.) but also students’everyday life (discussion with course mates or lecturers on topics such as the organization of courses, campus life,etc.) No technical vocabulary is required.

A comparison of readability between the TOEIC and TOEFL test indicates differences, importance and better ways to choose whether to take the TOEIC or TOEFL exam using tool. Cohmetrix. It displays the average between TOEIC and TOEFL and compares it. The TOEIC, test and context tests will be easier than the TOEFL. The content and context in the test. TOEFL will be more formal and complex, and vocabulary will be more academic. TOEIC will focus on the context and vocabulary seen in everyday life. Like reading newspapers. The use of readability to compare will show the clarity of the difficulty between the two tests. The results are expressed as averages to demonstrate clearly and to be an indicator of the decision of those who are interested in TOEIC and TOEFL to apply job for a job or study abroad.

There is one research find the readability (Flesch–Kincaid grade level) with the 1 of the famous novel, Leah Borovoi from the Infinity Labshas calculated the Flesch score for the seven Harry Potter books that were located at the Glozman Website. The average Flesch score for Harry Potter was 72.83, with the highest score (81.32) for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and the lowest score (65.88) for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Readability of newspaper content (by topic and by newspaper) has been measured on a big-data scale, showing strong topic-readability correlations. Leah Borovoi also calculated the Flesch score for 2000 articles about people on Wikipedia. As you may see in the chart below, the most readable articles are about sportspeople and entertainers (actors and actresses), while the least readable articles are about scientists and philosophers. The least readable scientists are economists (Flesch score = 41.70), psychologists (42.25), chemists (42.81), and mathematicians (43.35). According to an empirical study, the Coh-Metrix L2 Reading Index performs significantly better than traditional readability formulas.

Therefore, this study aim to analyze, identify and parallel the readability of TOEIC and TOEFL for finding the average of readability. There are 30 set of examination separate TOEIC 15, TOEFL 15, the research instruments use a website tool (www.tool.cohmetrix.com). The research evaluate statistics in frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation.

The goal will be focused on TOEIC and TOEFL readability of reading part to compare and evince the average of data. The findings of this research are expected to provide additional information for further research and be beneficial for the English language teaching in TOEIC, TOEFL test particularly who need score of TOEIC and TOEFL in job’s requirement. And provide people with specific strategies to help people deal with reading part of TOTEIC and TOEFL.

Purposes of the study

The purpose of this study is to compare the average readability between TOEIC and TOEFL.

Research Methodology

1. Data

Samples TOEIC Test in reading part

The TOEIC Listening& Reading Test consists of two equally graded tests of comprehension assessment activities totaling a possible 990 score; The TOEIC Reading test is composed of tasks that assess grammar, relevance of sentences to the picture, quality and variety of sentences, vocabulary, organization, and whether the opinion is supported with reason or examples. Most students find the TOEIC to be easier than the TOEFL, Business language tends to be simpler and more straightforward than academic English.

Samples TOEFL Test in reading part

The TOEFL is a standardized test to measure the English language ability of non-native speakers wishing to enroll in English-speaking universities. The test is accepted by many English-speaking academic and professional institutions. The reading section consists of questions on 3-4 passages, each approximately 700 words in length. The passages are on academic topics; they are kind of material that might be found in an undergraduate university textbook. Passage require understanding of rhetorical functions such as cause-effect, compare-contrast and argumentation. Students answer questions about main ideas, details inferences, essential information, sentence insertion, vocabulary, rhetorical purpose and overall ideas. The TOEFL is more formal, academic and complicated than TOEIC, Difficulties are with the length of the article and the vocabulary.

Data Collection

Data collection was conducted by means of collect test example TOEIC and TOEFL each 15 test specific reading part. Website tool. Cohmetrix measure the readability is Flesh Reading Ease

TOEIC Test collection was download from website

1.) (http://freetoeicxam.blogspot.com)2.) (http://chulatutor.com/toeic-test/)3.) (http://tewtoeic.com/toeic_all/)

The exam consist of 1. Tactics for TOEIC listening and reading Test

2. Cambridge Target Score Final Test

3. Barron’s Toeic Practice Exams

4. Barron's Toeic_600_Words

5. Target TOEIC

6. Longman Advanced Course test

7. Longman Preparation Series for the New TOEIC Test

8. Longman New Real TOEIC

9. ETS TOEIC test

10. Skills for the TOEIC Test Listening and Reading

11. Grammar in Use by Raymond Murphy

12. ETS TOEIC LC+RC 1000 2014

13. ETS Toeic Test LC+RC 1000

14. ETS Toeic Test LC+RC Part 1-7

15. Economy TOEIC LC RC

TOEFL Test collection was download from website

1.) (http://birtraining.edu/Files/Documents/TOEFL_Thai.pdf)2.) (http://e-abroad.com/toefl.htm)3.) (http://ets.org/toefl_itp)

The websites was download are the top websites for examination of TOEIC, TOEFL and collect information, learning, tutor and knowledge of English. Which many people who interested in English have visit per day is too many.

2. Data Analysis

Coh-Metrix

Analyzing texts with the free Coh-Metrix tools online is the easiest part of the process. Both of the Coh-Metrix website are set up to be quick and user friendly for students, teachers, and researcher.

Figure 1: Coh-Metrix 3.0 main page (http://cohmetrix.com).

Figure 1 show the main page user will find when they visit Coh-Metrix-3.0 (http://cohmetrix.com), respectively. To set up an account on the Coh-Metrix site, simply clink on the “WEB TOOL” and set up an account. User are encouraged to explore the other link on the site. These link provide tons of useful information, including full list of relevant Coh-Metrix reference, detailed description and link to new Chinese version of Coh-Metrix.

Figure 2: Coh-Metrix 3.0

Figure 2 show the main operation of cohmetrix 3.0 to find the result. The text is typically entered by a cut-and-paste facility from a Text file. After this identifier information and the text are entered, the user clicks the submit button located at the bottom left of the screen. The limit text to a maximum of 15,000 character and remove irregular character.

Figure 3: viewing result

When Cohmetrix has analyzed your text the results will appear on the right side of the screen. You may continue to enter and submit text on this screen. The results will continue to appear on the right side of the screen. The data show up when you submit the text, the readability consist of Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid Grade level and Cohmetrix L2. Download results, the result table can be downloaded by clicking the button Save Data. On both website and three texts are entered using a simple cut-and-paste method from a text file. Note that both tools are limited to about 15,000 characters. Researchers and students who wish to use the internal batch facility can contact us through the website and inquire about the process of using it.

Frequency of readability was used to show the difficult of language level. In the Flesch reading-ease test, higher scores indicate material that is easier to read; lower numbers mark passage that are more difficult to read.

Flesch reading ease

In the Flesch reading-ease test, higher scores indicate material that is easier to read; lower numbers mark passages that are more difficult to read. The formula for the Flesch reading-ease score (FRES) test is

Scores can be interpreted as shown in the table below.

The reading ease test as the standard test of readability for its documents and forms. Florida requires that life insurance policies have a Flesch reading ease score of 45 or greater.

Results and finding

In order to analyze the average of readability from the sample test TOEIC and TOEFL, will take 15 sets of exams by using Coh-Metrix. Our result show the frequency of readability of TOEIC and TOEFL by comparing to see the difference and compare with Flesch reading ease what is the level of TOEIC and TOEFL is. Table 1: Comparison of the Flesch readability of TOEIC and TOEFL

TEST The average of Readability

TOEIC TOEFL

1 63.77 51.9142 71.703 57.5413 66.415 58.5944 71 56.2635 76.497 49.3756 70.827 56.6567 73.739 57.5418 69 64.3289 73.738 62.95310 71.2 51.55711 61 61.80812 65.546 67.45613 67.324 50.98614 69.475 46.87715 63.156 54.637

After taking 15 samples of TOEIC and TOEFL by using cohmetrix to analyze and apply the Flesch reading ease to each of the 15 sets of readability.

As shown in Table 1, the average of TOEIC and TOEFL are different. The highest average of TOEIC is 76.497, the lowest is 61 and the highest average of TOEFL is 67.456, the lowest is 46.877. Which makes it different from the TOEIC test because of its high readability. For example, in the Flesch Reading Ease table, which indicated the difficulty of measuring readability, the higher readability is mean easier than the lower score. So TOEIC is high than TOEFL it means TOEIC tests is easier than TOEFL tests.

Table 2: Comparing the average of readability of all examinations between TOEIC and TOEFL.

The average of Readability total of 15 sets

The average of Readability

TOEIC TOEFL

68.69 56.57

After finding the average of each set of TOEIC and TOEFL, the average total was analyzed. And pledge to compare the difficulty level of each exam, which will use the Flesch Reading Ease Table as a measure of difficulty. See the table below:

The Flesch Reading Ease is calculated on the same units:

1. Sentence and Length as judged by the average number of words in a sentence.2. Word length as judged by the average number of syllables in a word.

Flesch Reading Ease: The higher the reading score, the easier a piece of text is to read. Note that this differs from the majority of readability scores where a lower score is easier.

As shown in Table 2, the average of all examinations of TOEIC and TOEFL are different. The average of TOEIC is higher than TOEFL, This result show that the TOEIC test is easier than the TOEFL test, based on the Flesch Reading Ease Table. The TOEFL test is somewhat more difficult. This will show that. The language and complexity of the TOEIC test is much easier that the TOEFL. The content of the article and the vocabulary are mostly academic, but TOEIC is a vocabulary found in everyday life that is not very complex.

Discussion

Findings of the readability revealed that there was a difference relationship between TOEIC and TOEFL. For the use Cohmetrix to find the average of readability and use Flesch Reading Ease to reference the level and difficulty of the test.

This finding supports etsglobal.org and clarksoncolleage.edu. Etsglobal.org shows The Relationship among TOEIC and TOEFL Listening, Reading, Speaking, and Writing Skills. TOEIC is standardized testing conditions and the design of each test ensures that all test takers are given a fair chance to demonstrate their English skill proficiency. The TOEIC test questions simulate real-life situations that are relevant to daily life and the global workplace. But TOEFL has 4 sections to test Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing. The TOEFL test measures the ability to use and understand English at the university level. The average English skill level ranges between intermediate and advanced. Clarksoncollege.edu for Flesch readability formula, a high result or reading ease of a text indicates that the text is easy while the high American grade level presented as the result of Flesch-Kincaid readability test indicate that the text is difficult to read. Findings show that the Flesch Reading Ease of TOEIC is higher over than 60 scores, to compare with TOEFL less than 10-20 score. The results of the two reading formulas. Flesch readability formula and Flesh-Kincaid test are undoubtedly opposite. In other word, despite the score is different it can also be measured to analyze readability.

After we compared the average readability between the TOEIC and TOEFL test samples and compared it using Flesach Reading Ease to measure the diffuclty level of the TOEIC and TOEFL test. The result is the TOEIC score is higher than the TOEFL. In conclusion The TOEIC test is much easier than the TOEFL in terms of vocabulary and articles that simpler and less complex. Most of them are found in everyday life. Like reading newspapers or listen to the media. But the TOEFL test is more complex and difficult than vocabulary and articles, this will be more academic and most vocabularies are at the university level. However, this research has just taken the TOEIC and TOEFL part of reading test not the real test. To compare the average readability to the differences in the TOEIC and TOEFL tests Compared to the Flesach Reading Ease Table. This research will serve as a reference for those who interested in taking the TOEIC or TOEFL exams. These two are different in terms of articles and vocabulary, which require different understandings.

Conclusion

The present study investigated the readability of TOEIC and TOEFL that analysis .from the examination of reading part 15 set. The result revealed the different of readability between TOEIC and TOEFL by using Cohmetrix consist of 1 formula to analyze readability 1) Flesch Reading Ease. Measuring scores from the each formula tables. Then put in the data of readability from Cohmetrix to Excel to create comparison table readability between TOEIC and TOEFL. The result come out completely different between TOEIC and TOEFL in The average Flesch Reading Ease of TOEIC Readability is 68.69% then compare with the Flesch formula table. The average of TOEIC will be in the 8th & 9th grade category explain that Plain English. Easily understood by 13- to 15 year-old students. The average of readability of TOEFL is 54.637% compare with the Flesch formula, the average of TOEFL will be in the 10th to 12th grade category explain that Fairly difficult to read. In the Flesch-Kincaid Grade level and Cohmetrix Readability are undoubtedly opposite with Flesch Reading Ease In the number of average of readability. But the result is the same. It is seen the relationship between TOEIC and TOEFL is different no matter which formula to use. The analysis of the test TOEIC and TOEFL 15 set, Text of TOEIC examination is easier than

TOEFL. The result was analyzed is just from the examination. The research made to analyze the readability of TOEIC and TOEFL, compare for the people who interested to test TOEIC or TOEFL, and make decision for testing.

Acknowledgement

This research was supported by all lecturers at Business English program, the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and Suan Sunandha Rajabhat Univeristy. I thank Dr. Angvarrah Lieungnapar who greatly assisted and provided insightful guidelines for originating and finishing this study.

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Retrieved on June 3, 2013 from http://club.topsage.com/forum-113-1.html