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 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 investigated the structural and functional differences between formulaic sequences in College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) and SAT reading assessment texts. The results of the RANGE program showed that SAT used more diverse and difficult words compared to CSAT. The frequency analysis revealed that CSAT used more formulaic sequences than the SAT counterpart. This suggests that CSAT used more repeated expressions, whereas SAT used diverse vocabulary items. The structural analysis showed that noun phrases were the most dominant in CSAT, whereas prepositional phrases were pervasive in SAT. The functional analysis showed that both corpora relied heavily on referential expressions. The results indicate that referential bundles are dominantly used in institutional writing (Biber & Barbieri, 2007). In accordance with the previous studies, the results suggest that high frequency formulaic sequences can be different according to the register. In CSAT, connectives and discourse organizers were prevalent. This may be due to the characteristics of question types in CSAT. The results may indicate that formulaic sequences in texts are partly influenced by the characteristics of a register.

This study examined the reading passages of the National Assessment of Educational Achievement (NAEA) and middle school English textbooks in terms of their readability and lexical difficulty. The readability was measured by using Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Index, while their lexical difficulty was measured in terms of STTR (standardized type-token ratio), frequency of tokens per type, and vocabulary frequency levels by using VocabProfile and Oxford WordSmith Tools 7.0. The results showed that there was a gap between the readability of the English textbooks and that of the NAEA conducted from 2012 to 2014, while the readability between the English textbooks and that of the 2015 NAEA reached a comparable level. However, the textbooks from one publisher showed substantively lower readability than those from the other publishers and the NAEA. Secondly, regarding vocabulary frequency levels, the words in 1K and 2K accounted for more than 90% of the textbooks and the NAEA, while the NAEA had a higher STTR and lower frequency of tokens per type than the textbooks. It suggests that the NAEA employed more various words with less repetition than the textbooks. Pedagogical implications are discussed.

This study aims to compare the effects of different types of test-items using the same text and test-takers' text familiarity on the scores of English reading comprehension. A total of 312 third-grade Korean high school students took three different English tests, adapting types of test-items from the Korean College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT). Each test included items using the same texts, presented in exam preparation books published by EBS in Korea, but different question types. To estimate levels of their topic familiarity, two surveys were carried out. Repeated measures ANOVAs reveal that there were significant differences in scores among the items using the same text with different types of test-items. However, there was no statistically significant effect of topic familiarity. The results indicate a greater effect of different types of test-items than topic familiarity on the scores of a reading comprehension test using the same text. Based on the findings, it is suggested that English teachers in Korea need to manage their reading classes by using various types of questions in order to develop students' reading ability and to prepare their students for the CSAT.

교육이 이루어지는 장면에서 평가는 학습의 성취 정도를 측정하는 중요한 일이 다. 평가가 있지 않은 교육은 없다고 해도 과언이 아니다. 한문과 교육과정 영역 중 ‘읽기’ 영역의 평가를 어떻게 할 것인가에 대한 대안이자 방향을 설정하는 것이 이 논문의 핵심이다. 한문과 교육과정에 제시된 읽기의 영역별 내용과 읽기의 평가에 근거하여 평가 의 방향과 실제를 논하고자 한다. 개정 교육과정에서 ‘한문 교육용 기초 한자의 음과 뜻을 알고 쓸 수 있는 능력’과 ‘한문에 대한 기초적인 지식을 익혀 한문 독해 와 언어 생활에 활용하는 능력’을 평가 목표로 하고 있음을 알 수 있다. 또한 소리 내어 읽기, 끊어 읽기, 바르게 풀이하기를 평가 내용으로 하고 있다. 이를 통해 평 가 목표, 평가 내용, 평가 결과의 활용을 정하여 평가의 방향을 제시하였다. 제시한 평가의 방향을 토대로 소리 내어 읽기 3문항, 끊어 읽기 3문항, 풀이하 기 2문항을 예시로 제작하여 현장의 한문 교사가 읽기의 평가를 진행할 때 참고가 되게 하였다. 소리 내어 읽기는 포트폴리오, 단답형, 서술 단답형의 유형으로, 끊어 읽기는 단답형, 완성형 유형으로, 풀이하기는 단답형, 자기 평가 보고서법 유형 으로 출제하였다. 차후 읽기의 평가에서 ‘풀이하기’와 관련한 다양한 평가 방법이 연구되어야 하 겠다. ‘풀이하기’가 읽기의 교육에서 가장 중요한 비중을 차지하기 때문이다. 다양 한 평가의 방법은 읽기뿐만이 아니라 한문 능력 신장이라는 한문과의 궁극적인 목표를 달성하는데 중요한 역할을 할 것이다

A large number of foreign students enroll at Korean universities each year. Although a good command of the Korean language is crucial for them to be successful in their studies, and both university authorities and teaching staff now agree that students’ language ability needs to be tested before their admission, a valid and reliable test of academic Korean is still to be developed. The aim of this paper was twofold: to determine the Korean language proficiency level and language task types that are necessary to succeed at the university level in Korea; and to determine test specifications that could be used by examiners to appraise university candidates’ language skills. To develop such specifications, Common European Framework (CEF) descriptors of language proficiency were used. These descriptors can be used as indicators showing which language tasks a candidate should be able to do at a certain level. To create test specifications, academically relevant descriptors were selected and task types associated with each were analyzed. Many descriptors associated with the B2 level of the CEF were used to determine the language achievement level necessary for university students in Korea. Information about linguistic input and output associated with each language task type was also gained and applied from CEF descriptors.