Table 6 Comparison of Construct, Genre, and Test Format on Reading Section Between CAE and TOEIC
From: Classification of multiple text reading test formats by analyzing English language proficiency tests
| Â | CAE | TOEIC |
|---|---|---|
CEFR levels | C1 | A1 to C1 |
Construct | Facilitate processing, which approximates more closely to real-life processing in various reading types (Weir et al., 2013) | Measure the everyday English skills of people working in an international environment by a wide variety of genres regarding real-life work settings (Educational Testing Service, 2017b) |
Subconstructs—understanding multiple texts | Able to understand opinion and attitude; comparing and contrasting of opinion and attitude (Cambridge Language Assessment, 2015) | Can infer gist by connecting information across two texts (Schedl, 2010) |
Discourse mode genre | Newspapers, magazines and journals, fiction and non-fiction books (extracts), promotional and informational sources (e.g., guides, manuals; Khalifa & Weir, 2009) | - Written texts concerning businesses, hotels, hospitals, restaurants, international meetings, conventions, and sporting events (Educational Testing Service, 2017b) - Text messages, online chat dialogues (Im & Cheng, 2019) |
Rhetorical task | Descriptive, narrative, expository, argumentative, instructive (Khalifa & Weir, 2009) | A wide variety of genre regarding real-life work settings (Educational Testing Service, 2017b) |
Number of sets in overall reading section | 34 sets (per test format) | 13 sets (per test format) |
Number of questions in overall reading section | 55 questions (per test format) | 100 questions (per test format) |
Number of MTRF set in overall reading section | A set with 4 questions each (Part 6) | 4 sets with 5 questions each (Part 7) |
Number of questions in MTRF | 4 questions per test format (Part 6) | 20 questions per test format (Part 7) |