Vote for 'TOEFL® Word of the Year' During English Language Month

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Apr 11, 2018, 09:00 ET

PRINCETON, N.J., April 11, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- People of all ages are invited to celebrate April as English Language Month by voting for the "TOEFL® Word of the Year." Please visit www.toeflgoanywhere.org/english-language-month to cast your vote.

English Language Month, established this year in partnership with ETS's TOEFL® Program, is a celebration of the uniqueness of the English language and learners who are working hard to master it. In a world of over 7 billion people, English has become a uniting force, bringing people from different backgrounds together through education, work, business, everyday communication and pop culture. Students strive to learn English in part because it is the language of instruction at many top universities around the world.

Inspiration for the month came from English Language Day (April 23), which the United Nations established in 2010 to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity, according to the U.N. site.

"All languages have words that, simply by hearing or reading them, inspire us to be more than we are today, to strive to improve ourselves," said Jennifer Brown, Executive Director of ETS's TOEFL Program. "Voting for TOEFL Word of the Year is intended to be a fun way to express which English word you think is most beautiful, meaningful or powerful."

Candidates can vote for one of seven words that have been preselected by a team of international reviewers who work in the English-language space. The seven word finalists were chosen because they possess one or more of the following characteristics: they have multiple meanings; are used in multiple contexts; or can function as more than one part of speech. "Integrity" and "empower" are two of the word finalists.

The TOEFL® Family of Assessments helps individuals and educators evaluate the English-language proficiency of students from age 8 through adulthood. The cornerstone assessment is the TOEFL iBT® test, the most widely respected English-language assessment worldwide, recognized by more than 10,000 institutions in more than 130 countries — including in popular study-abroad destinations, such as Australia, Canada, China, Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom. For more information and to vote for the "TOEFL Word of the Year," visit www.toeflgoanywhere.org/english-language-month.

SOURCE Educational Testing Service-TOEFL