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 scope of this study was limited to the first spelling question out of 30 Vietnamese questions of each SAT from 2014 to 2023. To analyze the difficulty of the spelling questions, we analyzed the format of the questions focusing on the questions sentence and examined how many times the vocabulary in the questions was exposed, starting from which page of the EBS CSAT Special Lecture, which is the main exam book in reality. In addition, as another criterion for measuring difficulty, we used the Vietnamese vocabulary classification presented in the standard curriculum developed as part of the Critical foreign Languages Education Promotion to see what level the vocabulary on the question corresponds to. To summarize the characteristics of the four periods divided based on the questions sentence, the difficulty level of the spelling questions was inconsistent over the past 10 years and became difficult in the second period, but through the third and fourth periods, the level of completion increased and the difficulty level found its appropriate level.

This research investigated consistency of achievement levels stated in the 2015 revised national curriculum of English, high school English textbooks, and the Korean College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) according to CEFR Levels. Based on CEFR levels, this study compared levels of targeted achievement standards in the national curriculum, focusing on reading passages in High School EnglishⅡ and CSAT implemented for three consecutive years (2021-2023). Results indicated that the reading section of textbooks and CSAT included a considerable portion of passages whose text difficulty levels were higher than CEFR B2, exceeding the achievement standards required for high school graduates. These results suggest that difficulty levels in the national curriculum, textbooks, and CSAT should be adjusted according to target levels of language proficiency based on CEFR levels so that learning burden of students can be lessened and competency-based English teaching and learning finally can be performed.

The present study examines Korean high school English teachers’ and university students’ perceptions about the criterion-referenced assessment of English in CSAT. A total of 400 participants (149 teachers and 251 students) answered an online questionnaire. Teachers showed more positive attitudes than students in their perceptions about the reduction of excessive competition among students, more communicative English classes, and the use of Korean and mathematics scores of the CSAT for the admission materials. Students, on the other hand, were more positive than teachers in their perceptions about the effects of the criterion-referenced assessment of English in CSAT on the reduction of private education and more high scorers in the CSAT. Regarding the alternatives to current criterion-referenced assessments of English in CSAT, teachers seem to emphasize the development of new question types for a valid criterion-referenced assessment system while students seem to focus on improving the communication skills through the English test in CSAT, not on the validity of the criterion-referenced assessment.

The College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) has focused on relative ranks among students since it started from 1993. In December 2014 The Ministry of Education (MOE) announced that it would adopt an absolute grading system (AGS) for English scores in the CSAT, starting from November 2017, and discard the relative grading. The MOE hoped that the AGS of CSAT English would eventually serve to normalize English education by having teachers place more emphasis on improving students’ communication skills rather than on solving CSAT questions. This paper describes the rationale behind the implementation of AGS for CSAT English by the MOE and how the criteria and grades of AGS have been developed and set. Then current problems arising from the AGS for CSAT English are discussed by touching on its theoretical, practical and political issues based on relevant literatures, public hearings and news media reports, and informal interviews with contemporary teachers of English.

This study examines the effects of text length and question type on Korean EFL readers’ reading comprehension of the fill-in-the-blank items in Korean CSAT. A total of 100 Korean EFL college students participated in the study. After divided into three different proficiency groups, the participants took a reading comprehension test which consisted of 4 reading passages (2 short and 2 long) from the Korean CSAT, followed by multiple-choice fill-in-the-blank questions and open-ended inference questions. The longer version of the passages was made from its originally restored version in which one or two paragraphs were added. The results showed that the college students performed better on the long passages than the short ones. In addition, the college students’ reading comprehension test performance was affected differently depending on the type of questions. The findings of the study provided implications on how to select and construct reading passages for high-stake nationwide examinations, such as the Korean CSAT.

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 paper explores Korean EFL students’ test-taking strategy use in gap-filling inference items of the College Scholastic Aptitude Test (CSAT) through retrospective think-aloud protocols. Eight college freshmen participated in this study, and verbally reported the process of answering three gap-filling inference items in their L1. Students with higher proficiency levels tended to use language learner strategies with more variety, while students of lower levels often relied on familiar words and distractors as avoidance strategies. Also, the position of the gap in each item had an effect on the order and portions of reading. Unusual reading patterns were more frequently found from those who checked the gap first, when the gap was located in the middle or at the end of the passage. To foster positive washback effect of the test items on learning, this paper suggests that teachers encourage students to effectively employ language learner strategies in order to comprehend the text rather than rely on test-wiseness.

본 논문에서는 Bachman과 Palmer(1996)에서 제안한 언어 시험의 유용성을 판단하는 기준인 타당도, 신뢰도, 진정성, 영향력, 실용성에 대해 각 개념의 의미를 소개하고 해당 기준으로 판단해 본 수능의 특징을 논하였다. 수능은 읽기 문항에서는 타당도가 높지만 듣기는 입력 자료의 속도가 느리다는 점에서 타당도가 높지 않다. 또한 표현 기능인 말하기와 쓰기를 선택형 문항을 통해 간접적으로 측정하기 때문에 타당도에 치명적인 약점이 있다. 신뢰도 면에서 수능은 막대한 인력과 비용을 들여 점수에 부당하게 영향을 줄 수 있는 요소들을 차단하기 위해 최선을 다한 결과 매우 높은 신뢰도를 지닌 시험이다. 수능의 진정성은 읽기 문항에서는 상당히 우수한 편이지만 듣기에서는 원어민들의 실제 구어 사용의 특징을 제거한 녹음 자료를 사용하기 때문에 좋지 않은 편이다. 또한, 간접 측정 방식의 말하기와 쓰기 문항은 실제 상황에서 말하기나 쓰기 활동과 공통점이 거의 없기 때문에 진정성에 대한 치명적인 약점이 된다. 수능은 영향력이 너무 커서 다른 모든 기준을 압도해 버릴만한 주요 기준이다. 실용성 면에서 수능은 막대한 비용이 드는 시험이지만 정부에서 그 영향력을 인지하고 막대한 비용을 투자하기 때문에 필요한 자원보다 사용 가능한 자원이 더 큰 시험이다. 요약하면, 결국 수능은 타당도나 진정성에서는 그리 우수하지 않지만 시험의 영향력이 너무 큰 탓에 막대한 노력과 비용이 집중되어 신뢰도와 실용성은 상당히 높은 편이다.

본 연구는 수능 영어 독해력 향상을 위한 다독 프로그램에 대해 교사와 학생들이 가지는 의식과 다독 프로그램에 대한 요구를 조사 및 분석하였다. 이를 위해 서울특별시와 경기도, 강원도, 충청도 소재 국·공립 고등학교 2학년과 3학년에 재학 중인 남녀 고등학생 309명과 동일 학교에서 근무 중인 영어교사 32명을 대상으로 요구조사를 진행하였다. 교사와 학생에게 주어진 설문 문항은 기초 설문 항목, 학교 수업 실태 조사 항목과 다독 실태 조사 항목 및 영어 다독 수업 모형에 대한 요구도 조사 항목으로 구성하였다. 교사의 요구 분석 결과를 종합하면, 교사들은 교과서를 제외한 영어 읽기 텍스트 부족과 읽기 교육 내용의 체계적 구성 결핍을 현재 영어 읽기 교육의 주된 문제점으로 인식했다. 다독을 통해 영어 읽기 능력을 향상할 수 있기 때문에 대다수의 교사들은 교육 여건이 충분하지 못한 상황에도 불구하고 다독 교육이 필요하다는 의견을 보여주었다. 학생 설문 분석의 경우, 지나치게 난해한 표현들이 수능 영어 지문과 EBS 교재에 다수 포함되어 학생들은 영어 읽기 문제 해결에 많은 어려움을 겪고 있는 것으로 나타났다. 대부분의 학생들은 현재 다루고 있는 수능 지문과 EBS 교재 이외에도 읽기 능력 향상과 수능 영어 시험에서 높은 점수를 획득하 기 위해 추가적인 읽기 자료를 원하고 있으며 이러한 교사와 학생의 의식 조사를 통해 수능 영어 독해력 향상을 위한 다독 프로그램의 요구를 확인하였다.

본 연구는 2009 개정 교육과정이 적용된 2014학년도 대학수학능력시험부터 2019학년도까지 지속적으로 화학Ⅰ을 응시하는 학생이 감소하는 요인을 이를 지도하는 화학교사의 시각에서 탐색해 보았다. 이를 위해 1차로 27명의 화학교사를 대상으로 개방형 설문 조사를 실시하였다. 이후 이 설문 조사의 키워드 분석을 중심으로 7명의 화학교사를 대상으로 심층 면담을 진행하였다. 연구결과, 첫째로 일부 문항은 교육과정의 범위를 다소 벗어났다. 이러한 교육과정을 벗어난 문항은 학생들이 추가로 학습 부담을 느끼게 만드는 요인이 되었다. 둘째로, 화학Ⅰ 응시자들은 다른 과목에 비해 시험시간에 부담감을 느끼고 있었다. 지나친 계산을 요구하는 문항과 IQ-test와 같은 시간잡는 문항이 이러한 문제를 가속 시켰다. 셋째로, 화학Ⅰ을 다른 과목에 비해 최저등급을 받기 어려운 과목으로 인식하고 있었으며, 이러한 이유로 3～4등급의 학생들이 지속적으로 화학Ⅰ에서 다른 과목으로 응시과목을 변경하고 있었다. 화학Ⅰ의 응시자 감소에 대한 문제를 해결하기 위해서는 교육과정을 준수한 출제, 개념과 원리 중심의 문항 개발이 필요하다.

The purpose of this study is to introduce the system of the College Scholastic Ability Test(CSAT) in Korea, especially in the portion of mathematics to foreign countries. The mathematics portion of CSAT is to measure how students understand mathematical