According to an NIIED survey, 43.6 percent of the applicants took the test to study in Korea. (image: Korean Education Center in Chicago)
SEOUL, Jul. 4 (Korea Bizwire) — The annual number of applicants for the state-run Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK) surpassed 300,000 for the first time last year, its administrator said Thursday.
A total of 329,224 people in 76 countries applied for the Korean language test for non-native speakers and ethnic Koreans in 2018, said Jeong Mi-reh, an official in charge of TOPIK at the National Institute of International Education (NIIED) under the Ministry of Education.
The figure marked a 13 percent increase from 290,638 in 2017 and was 120 times more than the 2,692 applicants in 1997, when it was first conducted.
Speaking to a forum in Seoul on promoting Korean language education, Jeong said the institute plans to add speaking to the test in 2022. TOPIK currently consists of reading, writing and listening.
According to an NIIED survey, 43.6 percent of the applicants took the test to study in Korea.
Others said they applied in order to check their Korean proficiency (24.5 percent), to get a job (13.3 percent) and to understand Korean culture (4.1 percent).
The result shows the growing need for communication-oriented evaluation, Jeong said.
“We plan to introduce speaking to a TOPIK test in Korea in the second half of 2022, after developing questions and standards and carrying out trial tests every year,” she said.
The forum was organized by the Korean Language Institute Council and sponsored by Yonhap News Agency, the National Museum of Korea, the King Sejong Institute Foundation and other organizations related to the promotion of Korean culture and language.
(Yonhap)
