This study analyzed the patterns of relative clauses (RCs) used on the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), a standardized test for college admissions in Korea. The researchers investigated the Noun Phrase Accessibility Hierarchy and the impact of the antecedent’s animacy on RCs. Also, it was explored how NPs in the subject position of object RCs affected language processing, specifically, the condition where relativizers were omitted and the reasons for producing passive subject RCs. Data were collected from the CSAT and mock tests from 2019 to 2023. The analysis of 622 RCs yielded the following results: First, the frequency of RCs appeared in the following order: subject RCs, object RCs, then OBL. Second, the object RCs showed a preference for inanimate antecedents whereas the subject RCs used did not show a preference for animate antecedents. Third, NPs in the subject position with sentences containing object RCs predominantly took the form of pronouns, with common nouns used less frequently.

In this study, the continuity of reading passages from high school mock College Scholastic Ability Test (CAST) English exams across grade levels was investigated using Coh-Metrix. A corpus consisting of 525 reading passages, evenly distributed with 175 passages from each high school grade level, was compiled from the 2017-2023 mock CSAT English exams administered by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education. Coh- Metrix measures included basic counts, word frequencies, word features, lexical diversity, personal pronouns, connectives, standard readability, syntactic complexity, coreference, and semantic cohesion indices. The analysis revealed significant differences among grade levels in the reading passages of the mock CSAT English exams in measures such as word counts, average word and sentence length, nouns, age of acquisition, second person pronouns, standard readability, and subject density indices. These findings highlight the potential for refining the design and construction of reading passages in mock CSAT exams to better prepare students for the linguistic challenges presented in the actual high-stakes CSAT.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the readability of reading passages used in 5th and 6th grade elementary school English textbooks under the 2015 Revised National Curriculum. For this purpose, all the reading passages of each textbook were calculated with ATOS (Advantage-TASA Open Standard) formula as a readability index. The results of this study indicate that, firstly, the average readability score of 6th grade English textbooks is higher than that of 5th grade ones. Secondly, the readability of 6th grade English textbooks is about six months ahead of that of 5th grade ones. Thirdly, the readability scores are similar in all reading passages for 5th grade, while the readability scores of 6th grade differ from textbooks to textbooks. According to the textbook writers, the readability score of 6th grade textbooks is higher than that of 5th grade ones in four out of five textbooks. Lastly, In terms of the units in each textbook, the readability scores fluctuate and do not increase sequentially as expected.

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.

Since the introduction of criterion-referenced evaluation into the English Section of the 2018 College Scholastic Aptitude Test (CSAT), it has become more important than ever to maintain the same level of its difficulty each year. This study was designed to examine whether 2017 and 2018 CSAT reading passages do not differ in terms of text difficulty. Both unidimensional and multidimensional indices Coh-Metrix (Version 3.0) provides were used in this study. Descriptive indices involved the respective count and length of sentences and words. As unidimensional indices, the Coh-Metrix L2 Readability score as well as the Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level scores was measured. Indices for text easibility at different discourse levels (the surface structure, the textbase, the situation model, and the genre and rhetorical structure) were also included. Results showed that there were no significant differences between 2017 and 2018 passages. Compared with other easibility components (narrativity, syntactic simplicity, word concreteness, and deep cohesion), referential cohesion was rather low in both 2017 and 2018. Some pedagogical implications are also provided.

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.

The present study sought to examine the continuity of the English textbooks of the elementary school 6th grade and the middle school 1st grade by analyzing the readability and vocabulary difficulty of their reading passages. It investigated the continuity between textbooks of the two grades and among chapters of each textbook. For the analysis, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Index was used to measure the readability of reading passages, whereas vocabulary difficulty was measured in terms of TTR (type-token ratio) and frequency by using VocabProfile. The results showed that the readability of middle school textbooks was one point higher than that of elementary school textbooks. Given that the readability index is based on the American school system, the increase in readability index between grades can be seen as large gap. In terms of vocabulary difficulty, the total amount of vocabulary in the middle school textbooks was three times as much as that of the elementary school textbooks. Second, readability index fluctuated across the chapters of each textbook, while the TTR was found to be higher in the former chapters than in the latter chapters in elementary school textbooks. All these could lead to learning difficulties for students. 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.

This paper explores whether the English reading texts of College Scholastic Ability Tests are factually accurate. The tests which were administered over the fifteen-year period since 1996 are investigated with regard to whether the infonnation in the texts which deal with historical events or figures and real life situations is factually accurate. The results show that there are 12 test items which are not factually accurate. Some of the items which use the original texts intact or have a minor modification to them contain information which is not true when their original texts are cross checked with various sources of materials. Others have inaccurate information resulted from the revisions of the original texts such as modifying them in order to lower the difficulty of the items. In conclusion, it is suggested that every effort should be made to confirm whether the information in the reading texts is factually accurate or to sustain the information as it is as much as possible if it is accurate.

본 연구는 생체지문 인식장치의 전략적 상품기획 프로세스를 통하여 표준화된 신상품 기획안을 도출하는데 있다. 이를 위해 사업전략과 목표시장을 설정한 후 1차 설문결과, 고객 요구준건을 , 2차의 설문조사 응답 결과를 바탕으로 기획품질을 결정하며, 이것의 만족도 정도를 Sales point로 삼았다. 상관 매트릭스를 이용하여 요구품질과 기술적 요소의 대응 정도를 살펴 본 후, 개발 제품 현재의 품질 특성치를 파악하기 위해 경쟁업체의 제품을 기준으로 벤치마킹 테스트를 실시하여 첫째, 세대별 상품전략 둘째, 세대별 요소기술 map. 셋째, 세대별 상품 컨셉. 넷째, 세대별 개발계획의 4개 파트의 다세대 상품기획을 수립하였다.

본 연구는 2015 개정 교육과정을 기반으로 개발되어 사용되고 있는 중등학교 영어 교과서의 읽기 지문에 나타난 고빈도 어휘 뭉치(lexical bundles)의 유형과 특성을 고찰하고, 어휘 뭉치가 갖는 구조적, 기능적 특징을 살펴보고자 한다. 또한 원어민 참조 코퍼스와의 비교·분석을 통해 어떠한 차이가 있는지를 알아보고자 한다. 이를 위해 2015 개정 교육과정 중·고등학교 영어 교과서의 읽기 지문을 코퍼스로 구축한 후 고빈도 어휘 뭉치를 비교·분석하였으며, 그 결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 중학교 교과서에 비해 고등학교 교과서의 읽기 지문이 다양한 내용과 더 많은 양의 텍스트를 다루므로 예상대로 더 많은 어휘 뭉치가 출현하였으며, 어휘 다양성 또한 높은 것으로 확인되었다. 둘째, 어휘 뭉치의 구조적 분석을 통해 동사구 결합 유형의 비율이 가장 높은 중학교 읽기 지문은 구어 담화적인 성격을 지녔으며, 전치사구 결합 유형의 비율이 높은 고등학교 읽기 지문은 학술적인 글의 특성을 지녔음을 알 수 있었다. 셋째, 중·고등학교 교과서 어휘 뭉치의 기능적 분석 결과 지칭 표현 기능의 어휘 뭉치가 70% 이상의 높은 비율을 차지하였는데, 이는 교과서 읽기 지문이 문어적 특징을 지녔음을 보여준다. 한편, 중학교 교과서의 고빈도 어휘 뭉치 유형이 고등학교 교과 서에서 나타나지 않는 경우가 있었고, 원어민 코퍼스에서 빈도 높게 쓰인 표현이 교과서에서는 쓰이지 않은 경우와 원어민들의 사용 빈도에 비해 교과서에서의 사용 빈도가 지나치게 높은 어휘 뭉치도 있었다. 이는 영어 학습자들이 영어를 이해하고 표현하는 의사소통 능력을 꾸준히 향상시 킬 수 있도록 어휘와 어휘 뭉치 표현이 학년별, 학교급별 연계와 위계를 고려하여 반복적으로 접할 수 있도록 나선형으로 제시될 필요가 있으며, 실제 의사소통 상황에서의 활용 빈도와 중요도를 고려한 어휘 뭉치를 교과서에서 균형적으로 다룰 필요가 있다는 것을 시사한다.