In Korea, the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) was introduced in 1993 as the official national college entrance examination. Over the 22 years since its inception, the CSAT has gone through numerous changes in its policies regarding the test structure, test administration, test writers, item bank, item difficulty, test materials, score reporting, and the use of test scores. The present study reviewed these policies and policy changes regarding the CSAT, with a focus on the English section ofthe test. The study found that while some of the policies were laudable for beneficial effects on students and the society, some other policies had detrimental effects on the quality of the test and for stakeholders including students, teachers, and parents. More active involvement of testing professionals is suggested for the improvement of policymaking processes and the policies themselves.

The present study investigated the characteristics and trends of academic research by Korean scholars of English education. The main focus was on the extent to which active scholars focus on their primary major areas. The study surveyed 11 journals of major academic societies in Korea, and analyzed a total of 5,072 research papers written by 1,639 scholars. The results showed that the most popular topic was acquisition/learning (19.30%), followed by English (applied) linguistics (17.90%), English materials (14.59%), teaching methodology (12.03%), and learning psychology (10.11%), the top five collectively comprising 73.93% of the total papers. The 99 most productive scholars published 1.01 papers per year on average. Younger scholars published more papers per year on average than older scholars. As for the concentrated efforts in their primary areas of research, the top 99 scholars wrote 46.84% of their papers on their primary areas, and 20.03% on their secondary areas of study. Younger scholars concentrated more efforts on their primary areas than older scholars. The results were interpreted, and suggestions were made for the future research.

This study investigates secondary school English teachers’ perceptions and psychological burdens involved in the implementation of the speaking and writing tests of the National English Ability Test, which is being developed by the Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. The study surveyed 138 secondary school English teachers in Seoul. Although more than half of the teachers were aware of the new test, 18% of the surveyed teachers were not aware of the fact that speaking and writing skills would be assessed in the new test. Also, 22.7% of the teachers were opposed to the productive skills test. More than half (56.2%) of the teachers felt some psychological burdens toward the inclusion of the speaking/writing tests. Although the teachers admitted that serving as raters for the new test would help improve their teaching, the majority of them were reluctant to participate in the actual rating process. The teachers felt that the difficulty of subjective rating and the lack of time for the speaking and writing tests were serious problems in implementing the new test. The teachers were sensitive toward the students’ test anxiety. They also indicated that they feel a strong psychological burden when making judgments on the students' performances. Implications and suggestions are made based on the findings.

The present study invesrigates the current state of English education/research institutes belonging to four-year universities in Korea. Out of 102 institutes that are currently being operated in 167 universities, 67 institutes responded the survey questionnaire. The survey revealed that the universities established foreign-language education institutes to help students meet the challenge of the internationalization era, many of which establisheà in the 1990s. Most of the institutes, however, were small in their size and focusing on short-term profit-making programs, neglecting research on foreign language education. The paper suggests that the institutes should strive to develop good program, improve its research efforts, and networking among similar institutes in different universities.