The purpose of this study was to investigate inter- and intra- rater reliability in an interview and a computerized oral test. It was also examined whether rater characteristics influenced on their reliability and biases, and finally the scores of both tests were compared with those of the Versant test using an automated computer rating system. For the study, the data from 21 Korean university students and 18 Korean or native speakers of English raters with various characteristics were collected. Some of the main findings from the study were as follows. First, rater severity was significantly different in each test, but each rater consistently graded on both tests suggesting lower inter-rater reliability and higher intra-rater reliability. Secondly, rater severity was impacted by the rater characteristics such as mother tongue, gender, age, and major. Lastly, there existed a positive correlation among the scores of the three tests, indicating that the scores of human beings and computers are strongly related.

This thesis, which involves honest life stories of members of the ìtraditionalî Korean generation that lived through the turbulent times of the first half of the twentieth century, assesses the meaning and import of Korean cuisine during an individual Korean’s lifetime, as well as the relevant properties of the culinary culture of the traditional generation and how those properties continue to influence the present generation of Koreans. Thus, traditional Korean culinary culture was subdivided into the following four aspects, each of which were exemplified by representative examples. The first of these is slow-food dietary life, which is exemplified by fermented foods. The development of side dishes (panchan) based on fermentation - kimchi, different types of soy and bean paste, salted seafoods, dishes of dried radish or cucumber slices seasoned with soy sauce, and so on - made the quantitative and qualitative supplementation of food possible for traditional Koreans. The second of these aspects, referred to as friendly dietary life, is exemplified by self-sufficiently produced foods. The system of many species and small production suitable with the season made it possible to produce food from sustainable ecological systems and to maintain locally grown food-cultures, each of which was distinguished from others by a local specialty product. The third aspect of the traditional Korean culinary culture involves the same use of medicinal roots and plant materials for foodstuff, and this is exemplified by the use of foods to cure and prevent diseases. The notion, for example, that ‘boiled rice is an invigorant’ is characteristic of the notion that diet can function in a preventative medical context, and other similar Korean notions illustrate the importance, also, of the curative properties of food. The fourth and final aspect of traditional Korean culinary culture identified herein is creative dietary life, which can be viewed essentially as a Korean adaptation to the turbulence of life during the early 20th century in Korea. This trend is exemplified by many Korean foods that were created in response to foreign influences, such as onions, cabbages, curry, etc. which found their place in overall Korean culture through the age of Japanese settlement, as well as the Korean war.

The deficiency of competent native English speaker raters and the inherent problem with intra-rater and inter-rater reliability of the oral proficiency interview (OPI) has precluded the full-fledged implementation of English performance testing, inevitably ushering in the computer- based oral proficiency interview (COPI) as its viable alternative with the help of automatic speech recognition (ASR). The plausibility and feasibility of implementing ASR-based COPI has recently been investigated with favorable results, which warrants more sophisticated research focusing on development of desirable test methods that will meet the rigorous criteria required by high-stakes language tests. In this respect, employing varied statistical methods as correlational, regression analyses, and ANOVA, the present study attempts to explore strengths and limitations of test method facets and to identify valid test methods to maximize the validity and reliability of ASR-based COPⅠ. Within the theoretical framework of communicative language components to be measured, the statistical findings reveal that some test methods prove to be more effective than others in producing COPI test results with better discriminability and reliability. The survey of students and teachers also suggest their favorable attitudes toward utilizing the COPI for in-class evaluation. Both findings strongly corroborates potential of the COPI in question as a valid performance testing tool to measure overall communicative competence. The current research is expected not only to shed light on advancement of performance testing, but also to serve the purpose of enhancing communicative English teaching.