Construct validity. There are clearly some problems in establishing construct validity for this test. The TOEIC test claims to assess overall English communication skills, yet it does so by only testing listening and speaking skills. This would imply that the TOEIC is constructed upon the theory that an individual ‟s productive language abilities are proportional to his/her receptive abilities (Miyata, 2004: 61). Hughes (2003: 31) suggests that it is unnecessary to define construct validity for direct tests of some commonsense constructs, such as „reading ability‟ or „writing ability‟, but:
Once we try to measure such an ability indirectly, however, we can no longer take for granted what we are doing. We need to look to a theory of writing ability for guidance as to the form an indirect test should take, its content and techniques. (Hughes, 2003: 31)