This paper discusses the limitations of the current practices of English reading assessment in the Korean educational context based on the concept of 'cognitive validity.' It then introduces the Evidence-centered Design (ECD) model as a framework that can guide English teachers and test developers in developing a reading assessment. The paper illustrates how the framework can be applied to the assessment formats and practices widely used in Korean middle and high schools. The ECD framework can help English teachers reconsider reading assessment practices commonly implemented in Korea. The framework contributes to enabling them to focus on the three critical, interrelated questions: what ability to measure with what task(s), how to score students' responses, and how to interpret the test results. Teachers' conscious application of the ECD framework would lead to a more valid and theoretically more sound reading assessment. Such an assessment is expected to align better with teaching and eventually bring a positive washback in English language learning.

In order to inform foreign language education practices that can empower students to properly retrieve and utilize information in today’s society, research on the nature of reading that takes place on the Internet—referred to as online research and comprehension—is of paramount importance. As an initial step, this study investigated the strategies employed by six Korean tertiary-level learners of English that engaged in a second language online research and comprehension (L2 ORC) task. To this end, screen recordings of L2 ORC sessions and verbal data from stimulated recall interviews were triangulated in order to identify and categorize strategy use behind L2 ORC. The results revealed that a wide variety of strategies for constructing a coherent reading path as well as comprehending single and multiple digital texts contributed to successful L2 ORC. These findings demonstrate that the current conception of L2 reading needs to be expanded to encompass the novel challenges posed by the Internet.