diff --git a/rhino-tools/src/main/java/org/mozilla/javascript/tools/shell/ShellContextFactory.java b/rhino-tools/src/main/java/org/mozilla/javascript/tools/shell/ShellContextFactory.java
index f43cc1a69c..61c96fc17c 100644
--- a/rhino-tools/src/main/java/org/mozilla/javascript/tools/shell/ShellContextFactory.java
+++ b/rhino-tools/src/main/java/org/mozilla/javascript/tools/shell/ShellContextFactory.java
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
 public class ShellContextFactory extends ContextFactory {
     private boolean strictMode;
     private boolean warningAsError;
-    private int languageVersion = Context.VERSION_1_8;
+    private int languageVersion = Context.VERSION_ES6;
     private int optimizationLevel;
     private boolean generatingDebug;
     private boolean allowReservedKeywords = true;