What Type of Knowledge does the TOEIC Bridge Test Measure?

Abstract

This study aims to examine whether the TOEIC Bridge Test measures the declarative and/or procedural knowledge of L2 learners. Elder and Ellis (2009) investigated the relationships between two standardized proficiency tests (TOEFL and IELTS) and the implicit and explicit knowledge of L2 learners. Their results suggest that different L2 proficiency tests may encourage the use of different types of knowledge. However, no previous research has investigated the relationship between the TOEIC Bridge test and declarative/procedural knowledge, which this study undertakes. The results indicate that although the TOEIC Bridge test assesses both declarative and procedural knowledge, the relationship between procedural knowledge and the TOEIC Bridge test was relatively stronger than that between declarative knowledge and the TOEIC Bridge test. In addition, the results suggest that the reading section of the test might be more related to declarative knowledge than the listening section. Thus, these results support Elder and Ellis’s argument that different standardized L2 proficiency tests may measure different types of grammatical knowledge.