Another local test center was hosted at Wei Hwa Chinese School in Virginia.
Sophie Chou, the Director of the TECRO Education Division (the third person from the right), and Jennifer Lee, the Director of WMACS (the fourth person from the right), visited the test center hosted at the Washington DC Taiwanese School in Maryland.
The Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language (TOCFL) and the Children's Chinese Competency Certification (CCCC) in the Greater Washington area were recently successfully completed. This year, both the TOCFL and CCCC examinations were administered by the Education Division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) in the United States and coordinated by the Washington Metropolitan Association of Chinese Schools (WMACS). Two test sessions were offered in April. The first test session was held at Wei Hwa Chinese School in Virginia on April 14, and the other was held at the Washington DC Taiwanese School in Maryland on April 28.
The TOCFL is intended for those wishing to measure their Chinese proficiency and is available in both traditional and simplified character versions. The levels of the TOCFL have been reformed to correspond to the assessments administered by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) in Europe and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) in the United States. The TOCFL has four proficiency bands: Band Novice, Band A, Band B, and Band C. Each band has two sub-levels.
The CCCC, designed for non-native Chinese-speaking children aged 7 to 12, includes three levels: Basic (Sprouting), Intermediate (Seedling), and Advanced (Blossoming).
This year, the number of applicants significantly increased, with a total of 98 students taking the exam. This set a new record for the number of applicants in the Greater Washington area in recent years. In addition to students from Chinese schools, the test also attracted many students learning Chinese in mainstream schools and at the Taiwan Center for Mandarin Learning (TCML).
Sophie Chou, the Director of TECRO Education Division in the United States, visited both test centers in Maryland and Virginia. She thanked the administration team from WMACS and both schools for supporting the event. She also announced that the TOCFL has recently been recognized by the Virginia Department of Education as one of the approved certifications for the seal of biliteracy. High school students in Virginia can use the TOCFL certificate (Full test of Band B1) as proof to apply for the seal of biliteracy through their school to the Department of Education. This is definitely great news for students in the Greater Washington area.
The successful administration of the 2024 TOCFL and CCCC examination in the Greater Washington area not only saw a significant increase in the number of applicants but also provided students with a tool to evaluate their Chinese proficiency. It is hoped that more students will participate in the test in the future and further improve their Chinese proficiency through professional certification.
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