The relationship between attitudes toward the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) and scores of Thai test takers

Abstract

Attitudes have played a pivotal role affecting not only English language learning but also language test performance. There have been some studies exhibiting that students’ attitudes in English language learning were significantly related to their English test proficiency and their scores. The objectives of this study were to examine Thai test takers’ attitudes toward the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) and explored the relationship between Thai test takers’ attitudes toward the TOEIC and their scores. This study used quantitative and qualitative methods to collect and analyze the data under the research framework adapted from the ABC model of Attitudes (Solomon, 2010) and the CAC model (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2004). The participants were 389 Thai TOEIC test takers who were sampled by the purposive sampling technique. Descriptive statistics were used in the analysis of the quantitative part. Ten voluntary participants representing different levels of the English proficiency were interviewed to explore the in-depth information. The qualitative data were analyzed by content analysis. The findings from both qualitative and quantitative data analysis illustrated the Thai test takers’ attitudes toward the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) in three aspects that were affective, behavioral, and cognitive components. The overall attitudes of the participants toward the TOEIC test were positive. Moreover, there was a weak significant positive relationship between attitudes and the test takers’ TOEIC scores. Overall, the results of this study will contribute to teaching and learning English, especially for the TOEIC test that will lead test takers to achieve their goal.