Chinese-language exam reports record numbers

• By Rachel Lin and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer

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More than 1.3 million people have taken Taiwan’s Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language (TOCFL), the test’s organizers said yesterday, as it celebrated its golden anniversary.

Seventy-seven countries have adopted the exam as a standard language proficiency certification test, with India leading the numbers of test-takers, the test’s steering committee and Ministry of Education officials said at an event at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) in Taipei.

Last year, 1,496 Indians, 2,404 Thais, 202 Dutch, 134 Canadians, and 17,616 Vietnamese took the TOCFL, increasing by of 1,600 percent, 817.6 percent, 494.1 percent, 415.5 percent and 212.3 percent over the certification test’s history from 2019, the officials said.

Students take the Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language at the SRM Institute of Science and Technology in Chennai, India, on April 30, 2023.

Photo courtesy of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in India

TOCFL has become an important metric for universities to recruit foreign students and teach the Chinese language, Deputy Minister of Education Luo Kuo-wei (劉國偉) said.

The ministry is introducing artificial intelligence (AI) in Chinese-language education platforms up to A2 proficiency this year and up to C1 level proficiency next year, he said.

The long-term goal is to use Internet-based, AI-assisted technology to conduct tests remotely so that foreign students would not need to travel to take the test at authorized testing centers, he said.

Committee chairman Sung Yao-ting (宋曜廷), who is also the NTNU president, said that he had advocated for the ministry to put its stamp on TOCFL certificates to ensure the test’s credibility.

Officials used to carry the tests in hardcopy — which must be destroyed after use — to foreign-based TOCFL centers before computerization of the exam, he said.

Sung emphasized TOCFL’s importance to Taiwan’s representation in the field of Chinese-language studies, saying that he hopes the test would continue to grow.

The government has opened 93 centers in the US, Canada, the EU, Japan and New Zealand to promote Chinese-language education programs run by Taiwan, a Community Affairs Council spokesperson said.