Is an English exam the same as English itself? — Thinking about the gap between test scores and real English ability— 2026/7/6 (Mon), Reiwa8

Is an English exam the same as English itself?

I used to teach English at a high school. What I often felt during those years was that I was not really “teaching English,” but rather spending a lot of time teaching students how to get higher test scores.

In particular, TOEIC preparation lessons were less about understanding English deeply and more about training students to choose the correct answer in specific situations. Students’ scores did improve, and those scores did help them enter universities or get jobs. However, I often wondered whether that truly meant they had developed real English ability.

English, in its original form, is a tool for communication between people. However, in exams, students are asked to listen to carefully prepared audio once, or read well-structured passages, and then choose the correct answer. There is no repetition, hesitation, or correction like in real conversation.

This difference has always stayed in my mind.

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Are test scores and “being able to use English” the same thing?

Tests such as TOEIC and EIKEN are designed to express English ability in numerical form. However, in reality, a high score does not always mean that a person can naturally communicate in English.

On the other hand, some people who can communicate in English fairly well may not achieve high scores if they are not familiar with the test format.

In other words, test scores and real-world English ability do not completely match.

Still, in society, these scores are widely used as standards for education and employment. One reason is that numbers allow for easy comparison.

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Why are English tests designed this way?

English exams are designed to be fair and consistently graded. Because of this, free conversation and ambiguous responses are difficult to evaluate.

As a result, exams tend to focus on questions with clear correct answers and structured language-processing tasks.

The Common Test in Japan follows the same direction. Grammar and vocabulary questions have been reduced, and the focus has shifted toward reading comprehension and information processing. Listening tests also use clear, well-articulated English spoken only once.

This design improves fairness and efficiency, but at the same time, it makes the natural uncertainty and complexity of real language less visible.

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What is “English ability”?

What does it really mean to “be able to use English”? Even today, there is no single clear answer.

Some aspects can be measured through test scores, while others can only be understood through real communication with people. Both are part of English ability, but they are not the same thing.

Over the years, I have come to feel that I have been observing this gap.

And now, English education and testing seem to be moving not only around language itself, but also around the broader challenge of how to measure human ability fairly.

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Conclusion

English exams are useful systems that have supported many people’s education and careers. However, they are not completely identical to English itself.

Simply being aware of this difference may change the way we approach learning English.

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