VietNamNet Bridge – Since the end of 2005, when MOET signed an agreement with the US ETS on using TOEIC programme as the standard to appraise English skills, students have been rushing to follow TOEIC English courses.

Registering for English courses

The new movement

Minh Thao, one of the students in the queue, a student of Nguyen Tat Thanh Junior College, said that she is going to graduate from college, and she has to have a TOEIC of 350 points to be eligible to sit for the final exams. Therefore, she has to register for English courses right now so that she can get the necessary certificate.

Nguyen Vu Tu, who introduced himself as the director of the centre, said that he did not anticipate such a large number of students registering for English courses. “We released 500 tickets for reservations, while there are some thousand people who want to take our classes,” he said.

Other foreign language centres in the city have also witnessed increased numbers of students registering for TOEIC English courses. Bui Thi P, a staff of DA foreign language centre on February 3 road in district 10, said that some 700-800 students register for each English course, 70% of whom are learning to get a TOEIC certificate.

The dramatic increase of the number of students following TOEIC courses, according to experts, is due to many universities requiring their students to have TOEIC certificates to graduate.

According to Doan Hong Nam, General Director of TOEIC Vietnam Company, there are some 20 universities which apply curricula and evaluate English skills based on TOEIC standards.

How much to spend to get TOEIC certificate?

Hong Lien, a third-year student at HCM City Economics University, said that in order to get TOEIC level 7-8, she has undergone four courses so far. The tuition is VND1,550,000 per course.

In order to get a TOEIC certificate with good marks, a student needs to study for 16-24 months at the cost of VND8-12mil, Lien said.

According to Huynh Thi Kim Hoa, MA, Dean of the Foreign Language Faculty under Saigon University, students have to study 500-600 periods at least to get 500-600 on the TOEIC. However, under the current curricula, students have only 150-200 periods. This means that in order to meet TOEIC standards, students have to go to foreign language centres besides their English hours at university.

(Source: Saigon tiep thi)