Education Division in San Francisco

Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language (TOCFL)

Introduction

The TOCFL is intended for those that wish to measure their Chinese proficiency and is available in both traditional and simplified character versions.

Since 2014, the levels of the TOCFL have been reformed in order to correspond to the CEFR(Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment).The new version of the TOCFL has three proficiency bands: Band A, Band B, and Band C. Each of the bands has two levels.

According to the AP Course Description, “Course work provides students with opportunities to perform Intermediate- to Advanced-level tasks, and students are expected to achieve proficiencies throughout, and sometimes beyond, the Intermediate range, as described in the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Proficiency Guidelines.” Therefore, if the students want to pass the AP test, they have to reach the intermediate level of the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, which corresponds to level 3 of the TOCFL. The students could take the TOCFL as a practice test for AP test preparation.

Examinees who pass the test will receive a Chinese Proficiency Certificate as a credential for the followings:

• Becoming eligible for the “Taiwan Scholarship” and “Ministry of Education Huayu Enrichment Scholarship” sponsored by the government and for studying in Taiwan.
• Qualifying for admission to academic programs at colleges or universities in Taiwan.
• Serving as a job-required proof of Chinese language proficiency for individuals who wish to obtain Chinese-inclusive, bilingual employment globally.

Providing an incentive to those who are interested in learning Chinese TOCFL will be administered via the Internet.There are two sections (listening and reading) which take a total of about two hours to complete.

Please see https://tocfl.edu.tw for the mock-test.