Students revolt over ‘Taiwan, China’ switch for English language test
Change to website menu by US-based non-profit Educational Testing Service prompts open letter said to have the backing of more than 5,000 students
A popular English-language proficiency test angered Taiwanese students after its official website modified the way it listed Taiwan to fall in line with Beijing’s claims over the self-ruled island.
Thousands of students lodged protests with the US-based Educational Testing Service (ETS) this week over the change to its drop-down menu of testing locations for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) exam – widely used for university admission – to describe the self-ruled island as “Taiwan, China”.
An open letter to the non-profit service that claimed to have the backing of more than 5,000 students demanded ETS change the listing back to “Taiwan” only, threatening to switch to TOEFL’s Britain-based rival International English Language Testing System (IELTS), according to the Taiwan News.
“The sudden change of ‘Taiwan’ to ‘Taiwan, China’ seems to us antithetical to the values that ETS as a non-profit should protect and also steers away from what forms the cornerstones of both US and Taiwan’s democracy,” the letter said.
ETS did not respond to requests for comment on Friday about when and why the change was made, or about discrepancies across the website in how Taiwan was classified.