Abstract
This chapter describes the development of the Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language (TOCFL), which is a proficiency assessment tool for Chinese learners. It is divided into four major sections. First, a brief background of Teaching Chinese as a Second Language in Taiwan is provided together with the historical development of the Chinese Proficiency Test (CPT) and the Test of Proficiency-Huayu (TOP), which were the predecessors of the TOCFL. The second section discusses issues that the TOCFL research team faced in its effort to map the test to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). The third section then discusses four challenging issues that the TOCFL research team has faced over the years in its effort to develop and maintain a standardized CSL/CFL test. The final section presents some washback effects of the TOCFL and work in progress.
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Notes
- 1.
The distinguished level did not exist in speaking and writing guidelines until 2012. For detailed information, please visit the Website: http://www.actfl.org/publications/guidelines-and-manuals/actfl-proficiency-guidelines-2012.
- 2.
“Huayu” is a Taiwanese reference to Chinese as a Second/Foreign Language. For more information, please visit the Website: http://www.sc-top.org.tw.
- 3.
The speaking and writing tests had not yet been completed, but they were in the stage of pretest at that time.
- 4.
If we had not divided the students into four groups, every student would have to answer all the statements, the number of which was huge. Our expert knowledge helped us predict which statements would be out of the range of the proficiency of a student; on this ground, grouping was made possbile.
- 5.
The current setting of words is that A1 level is 500; A2 level is 1000; B1 level is 2500; B2 level is 5000; C1 level is 8000. The word lists can be retrieved freely from http://www.sc-top.org.tw/english/download.php (8000 Chinese words).
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Acknowledgements
Some research studies described in this chapter were funded by the Ministry of Education, Taiwan. The author would like to express sincere thanks to the colleagues who worked in the SC-TOP, especially Ling-ying Lin and Pei-jun Lan. The author is also greatly indebted to Dr. Shou-hsin Teng, who has guided her in this field over the years, and Dr. Viphavee Vongpumivitch, who assisted her in the writing of this article. The author would also like to thank anonymous reviewers who gave valuable suggestions that have helped to improve the quality of the manuscript. Of course, all remaining errors are my responsibility.
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Chang, Lp. (2017). The Development of the Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language (TOCFL). In: Zhang, D., Lin, CH. (eds) Chinese as a Second Language Assessment. Chinese Language Learning Sciences. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4089-4_2
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