• Introduction

Steering Committee for the Test Of Proficiency (SC-TOP) now presents Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language: Writing (TOCFL Writing), a task-oriented test which assesses Chinese learners’ writing ability. The test materials are based on authentic situations which are close to everyday life. The purpose of the test is to evaluate test takers’ ability to effectively express themselves by writing in assorted situations. In order to accurately measure test-takers’ writing ability from different aspects, all levels of the test require the ability of completing two types of writing. The test will be taken on the computer.

• Target

TOCFL Writing is a foreign/second language writing test designed especially for non-native speakers of Chinese. Those who wish to measure their Chinese writing ability or to study or work in Chinese-speaking areas are all welcome to take the test. Note: TOCFL Writing is a computer-based test. Chinese-typing ability (ㄅㄆㄇㄈor Microsoft Pinyin) is a requirement for all test takers.

• Scoring

For each level, the test adopts a 0-5 scoring scale with 3 as the minimum passing score.
Assessment for TOCFL Writing consists of primary and secondary criteria. Primary criteria assess content relevancy, i.e. whether the content is relates to the scenario or task; is well developed and well-organized, and demonstrates appropriate syntactic usage, word choice and language variety. Secondary criteria assess the length of the writing and the frequency of erroneous Chinese characters and punctuation within.

• Test Levels

The test is divided into different levels according to the complexity of the writing tasks. So far three levels of tests have been developed: TOCFL Writing for Level 2, Level 3 and Level 4. Test takers should choose the test level corresponding to their writing proficiency. (Please see Table below)

• Test Content

Each level consists of two writing tasks. (Please see Table below)