In the era of the 4th industrial revolution, creativity plays a pivotal role in the competitiveness of a country. The importance of creativity education therefore cannot be overemphasized. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of discussion-based English reading and writing activities on Korean high school students' creativity, English writing, and self-assessed creative thinking. The participants were 45 high school students in Seoul, Korea. They were divided into two groups: the discussion-based English reading and writing group (n=24) and the traditional English instruction group (n=21). The experiment was administered during two semesters of the 2017 academic year. The major findings are as follows: First, the experimental group showed significant improvement on the creativity test, especially in the areas of fluency, flexibility, and original thinking. Second, the experimental group outperformed the control group on the writing test. Third, the experimental group showed positive changes in their self-assessed flexible thinking, convergent thinking, and intrinsic motivation. All of these indicate the beneficial effects of the discussion-based English reading and writing activities. Based on the results, some pedagogical suggestions were made for the effective integration of creativity education into the teaching of English as a foreign language.

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.

본 연구는 영어가 모국어가 아닌 학생(ELL; English Language Learner)이 전체 학생의 절반을 차지하는 미국 T주 영어 쓰기평가를 다룬다. 채점자 선정 기준, 채점자 훈련, 쓰기 표본 수집 기준 등을 개관하며 실제 데이터 분석을 통하여 채점자 일치도를 구하였다. 미국 T주 ELL 학생 영어 쓰기평가는 해당 ELL 학생을 가르치는 학교 교사가 여러 영역에서 학생의 쓰기 표본을 수집하여 평가함으로써 실제 상황에서의 참평가(authentic assessment)를 구현하려한 점이 특징이었다. 쓰기평가에서 더 적합한 총체적(holistic) 채점 방식을 도입하였으므로 채점자 자격 요건과 훈련을 강조한 것, 그리고 3개년 간의 지속적인 감사(audit)를 통하여 채점자 일치도 증거를 수집하고 후속 연구와 훈련에 이를 이용하는 것 또한 배울만한 점이다. 채점자 자격 기준을 정하고, 채점자를 합당한 수준이 되도록 훈련시킴으로써 교사 채점 신뢰도를 상당 수준 높일 수 있었다. 학교 교사를 채점자로 훈련시키는 것은 교사 재교육, 그리고 교사 전문성 함양 차원에서도 권장할 만하다.