Exposing an Uneven Playing Field: National Accreditation and Score Conversion among English Proficiency Tests

Abstract

National policies on the accreditation of English proficiency tests can have a huge impact on the credibility and use of these tests and on English language learning in general. There are two major legal apparatuses currently in place to regulate English proficiency tests used in Korea: (a) the Framework Act on Qualifications and its associated decree; and (b) the Decree on Public Officials Appointment Examinations.One critical problem of the existing legal system, however, is that it is being imposed only on domestic tests, exempting international tests. Although both domestic and international tests are competing for market share in Korea when used for recruitment, employment, and placement purposes, there is no properly-functioning procedure to check the observance or violations of quality control standards for the international tests and to review the fairness of score conversion among these tests at the state level.The main goals of the current investigation are to: (a) critically review relevant laws on certification testing; (b) discuss the limitations of the existing systems of national accreditation/regulation by reviewing test revision history, mean score trends, and recent score conversion results of New TEPS and TOEIC; and finally (c) suggest possible ways to reform these national accreditation/supervision systems.