Developing the Movie Minimal English Test (mMET): Preliminary Study With The Wizard of Oz

This study aims to develop a new English proficiency test using movie dialogues, called the movie Minimal English Test (mMET). The original Minimal English Test (MET), developed by Maki et al. (2003), measures English skills by having test takers listen to five minutes of audio and fill in blanks in a written transcript. While the MET predicts scores on established English tests, such as TOEIC and Japan’s university entrance examination (the Common/Center Test), its audio is typically clear, spoken at a constant speed by native speakers, and lacks background noise. This idealized audio differs from real-life conversations, which often include varied speeds, overlapping speech, and noise, making it difficult for learners to develop practical listening skills. To address this, the mMET uses more realistic movie audio that includes such features. As a preliminary study, two versions of the mMET were created based on the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz. Their results showed that mMET scores significantly correlated with scores on both the Common Test and TOEIC. This indicates that the mMET has potential as an engaging and practical English assessment tool. The study also discusses the unique features of the mMET and its possible contributions to English education.