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.

The present study attempts to provide empirical and qualitative evidence to support the feasibility of rubric-referenced self-assessment to promote learning in a Korean high school EFL context. Over four rubric-referenced self-assessment lessons, with the help of a teacher’s instructions, students wrote a first draft and assessed it using a scoring rubric. Drawing on this self-assessment, they wrote a second draft, also followed by a self-assessment as well as a self-assessment diary. As quantitative data, the scores of the first draft of the first class were compared with those of the second draft of the fourth class. Survey questionnaires, interviews, self-assessment diaries, and essay self-assessments served as qualitative data. The findings are, first, rubric-referenced self-assessment showed positive effects on students’ writing quality. Second, students came to perceive the effectiveness of rubric-referenced self-assessment. Lastly, rubric-referenced self-assessment positively influenced students’ learning strategies and attitudes. These results imply that rubric-referenced self-assessment promotes learning in a Korean high school EFL context, leading students to become self-regulated learners that take responsibility for their own learning.

This study explores university students’ revising behaviors in the peer assessment process. The data for this study were collected from 18 college students taking English critical writing courses. The results of this study show that the students’ feedback on critical writing significantly affect their revising behaviors. That is, the students’ feedback had substantial variability in the process of revising and improving their critical essays. Specifically, it was found that the students revised their essays more in surface levels by self-reflection and peer feedback and more in meaning levels by teacher feedback. In addition, the students’ perceptions of peer assessment appeared to be related to the extent of their experience of peer assessment and their revision work by peer feedback. The students considered peer assessment useful and helpful for improving their writing skills. This peer assessment induces learning and promotes further learning beyond what the students currently know or are able to do. The results inform L2 writing test developers and researchers about the extent to which peer assessment affects students’ learning and improves their writing abilities. Based on the findings in this study, the implications related to the assessment policy are also discussed.

This study examines how native English speaking (NES) and Korean non-native English speaking (KNES) teachers assess L2 writing performance. More specifically, this study aims to investigate whether these two groups of raters evaluate writing samples differently when using different rating scales (holistic vs. analytic) and different task types (narrative vs. argumentative). Four NES and four KNES raters evaluated 78 narrative and 78 argumentative essays written by Korean EFL university students using both holistic and analytic rating rubrics. The comparison between the two rater groups indicated that the scores given by the two groups were statistically significantly different for both holistic and analytic ratings regardless of the two task types investigated. Overall, KNES teachers rated the essays more harshly than their NES counterparts, irrespective of task type and rating scale. Multiple regression analysis of five analytic sub-criteria revealed that the two rater groups demonstrated similar patterns in assessing argumentative essays, while for narrative essays, the relative influence of each analytic sub-criterion on overall writing quality differed for the two rater groups. Implications for L2 writing assessment are included.

This study explores a discussion held among raters for a writing assessment in a Korean university. It investigates rater behaviors that influence their decision-making processes as revealed in their interaction during discussion. Four raters independently assessed student writing samples using CEFR scales and then held a discussion session to agree on a single score for each sample. Observation and analysis of the rater discussion showed that there were differences in the degree to which individual raters’ initial judgments were reflected in the final decisions and that each rater’s argument style affected the degree. Raters’ personality dynamics, appreciation of student effort, and comprehension of students’ intended meaning were found to be prominent factors that influenced the process of score decisions. These findings have important implications for the use of discussion in performance assessment and for the rating process in general.

This paper aims to analyze the scores assigned to compositions of Korean as a foreign language (KFL) in terms of the many-facet Rasch measurement (MFRM) model. The MFRM computer program Facets has recently been updated and this research uses it in order to investigate the scoring reliability of KFL writing test. For the research data the Korean compositions written by 270 KFL learners were collected and rated by eleven Korean raters. At first a brief theoretical basis for the Facets is introduced based on the MFRM model. Then focusing on the raters’ characteristics such as rating consistency and fitness in terms of the rating scheme of content/organization and language, the collected scores of KFL compositions are analyzed and the analysis results are interpreted. As a result, a few cases of unreliable scoring of Korean raters are identified, but it appears that the ratings of Korean raters for a standardized KFL writing test are generally reliable. Finally it is suggested that the Facets program of MFRM offer many potential advantages for validating the scoring reliability of Korean writing assessment.

한자를 구성하는 단위는 완정한 형태의 자형과 부건, 필획의 세 개의 구조로 구 성되어 있다. 본고는 이 세 개 구조의 층차 및 그들의 관계를 밝히는 한편, 한자 쓰기의 규칙성을 발견하여 한자 쓰기에서 드러나는 오류 현상을 살펴보았다. 홍콩에 거주하는 제2언어 모국어 사용 학생들이 한자를 서사할 때 나타나는 오 류는 모국어가 중국어인 홍콩 출신의 학생들과는 다른 경향성을 보였다. 이 연구 는 홍콩에 거주하는 2언어 모국어 사용 학생들이 한자를 습득하는 과정을 기초로 하여 진행되었으며, 필획 쓰기, 부건 쓰기, 글자 쓰기, 단어 및 문장 쓰기의 방면에 서 조사하고, 한자쓰기를 평가할 수 있는 도구를 설계하여, 홍콩에 거주하는 2언 어 모국어 사용 학생들의 쓰기 모양과 능력을 평가하고자 한다.

As writing skill is considered important in globalised societies nowadays, the skill is taught and assessed in English classrooms in Korea. As for assessment, however, there are no authoritative rating schemes suggested for classroom testing contexts. Given this lack, this study investigates the applicability of one of the existing scales, the FCE rating scale for writing assessment, to Korean high school contexts through both theoretical considerations and an empirical study. From both the theoretical perspectives and the empirical study, in which three English teachers at Korean high schools were asked to assess 6 writing samples using the FCE scale and to do think-aloud during the assessment, it was found that the FCE scale in this context tends to cause problems for the validity of the assessment. It was, therefore, concluded that, for the sake of validity, this kind of scale cannot be applied to the context for which it was not developed, and that there is a need to develop a rating scale, taking into account the characteristics of test-takers, raters and assessment context in question.

Although fluency is included as one of main aspects to teach and assess in the course of "English Writing" for special-purposed high schools in Korea, any concrete and detailed idea has not been suggested in the guidelines to the course on how this concept could be understood and dealt with both in teaching and testing. This study, therefore, aims at exploring the concept of fluency in writing through both reviewing literature on fluency which is mainly with regard to speaking skills and investigating characteristics in terms of fluency which are observed from 390 writing samples written by 195 Korean students at a foreign language high school. As a result of inductive and qualitative analysis of the data, specific features were observed with regard to quantity, coherence, cohesion and language level. It is suggested that these features could be considered when we trying to understand fluency in depth and establish a rating scheme for it in the context of high school students" writing assessment.

The Computerized Enhanced ESL Placement Test (CEEPT) at a public university in the US reflects a new academic writing assessment as test-takers are given sufficient time to plan, produce, and revise a short, academic essay. This study examines the authenticity of the CEEPT, will illuminate the potential of the computerized process-oriented writing assessment. The authenticity was examined based on both logical and empirical analyses. A close examination of a checklist with test and Target Language Use (TLU) tasks reveals relatively good correspondence between the characteristics of CEEPT tasks and of TLU tasks, which indicates high authenticity of the CEEPT. Test takers’ responses to the open- and closed-items on the CEEPT survey also show positive evidence in support of the authenticity of the CEEPT. Students perceived a close match between the academic tasks and the CEEPT tasks, and this high authenticity contributed to eliciting their true writing abilities. The CEEPT as one possible model for process-oriented writing assessment can provide alternatives to timed-single draft essay tests. The findings in this study can advance our understanding of writing assessments and may be applicable to the Korean context.

이 연구의 목적은 글 유형에 따른 예비교사의 평가 특성을 분석하여 교원 양성 과정에서의 구체적인 평가자 교육 방안을 제안하는 것이다. 이를 위해 2015년, 2016년, 2017년, 2019년에 국내 사범 대학에 재학 중이었던 예비교사 133명으로부터 설명문 40편과 논설문 40편에 대한 평가 결과를 수집한 후 글 유형에 따른 평가자의 엄격성 및 일관성, 평가자와 글 유형 간 편향의 특징을 살펴보았다. 이 연구의 결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 예비교사의 엄격성은 글 유형에 따라 크게 변하지 않는 것으로 나타났다. 둘째, 예비교사의 일관성 수준은 글 유형에 따라 크게 변하지 않는 것으로 나타 났지만, 일부 예비교사는 글 유형에 관계없이 부적합이나 과적합 경향을 보이거나, 특정 글 유형에 부적합 혹은 과적합 경향을 보이는 것으로 나타났다. 셋째, 예비교사 중 약 1/3은 특정 글 유형에 편향을 보이는 것으로 나타났다. 이 결과를 바탕으로 교원 양성 과정에서의 다루어야 할 평가자 교육 방안을 제시하였다.

이 연구는 현직 및 예비 국어교사의 쓰기 평가 태도의 양상을 살펴보고, 그 차이를 분석하였 다. 이를 위해 선행 연구에서 개발된 쓰기 평가 태도 검사도구를 현직(33명) 및 예비 국어교사 (80명) 총 113명에게 투입하여 쓰기 평가 태도에 대한 반응을 수집하였다. 이를 바탕으로 쓰기 평가 태도에 대한 기술통계량 및 집단 간 차이의 통계적 유의성을 살펴보았다. 그 결과 현직 국어교사에 비해 예비 국어교사의 쓰기 평가 태도가 상대적으로 높았으나, 두 집단의 쓰기 평 가 태도는 모두 척도 평균보다 낮았다. 한편 쓰기 평가 태도 하위 요인 및 하위 요인의 각 문 항에 대한 집단 간 차이에서 쓰기 평가에 대한 경험과 관련된 요인 및 문항에서만 통계적으로 유의한 차이가 나타났다. 이를 통해 쓰기 평가의 경험이 쓰기 평가 태도에 영향을 미치는 것을 확인할 수 있었다. 하지만 그 영향이 부정적이라는 점에서 긍정적인 쓰기 평가 태도 형성을 위 한 다양한 프로그램의 마련의 필요성을 확인할 수 있었다.

The introduction of a speaking and writing test is of greater importance because it is becoming more central to language assessment, especially with reference to communicative language instruction. In order for a writing test to be reliable and valid, the item difficulty should be the same across different test forms. In line with this test equivalence, this study examined the factors that affect writing item difficulty in Level 2 of the NEAT using two qualitative data collection methods, a) focus-group meetings with researchers, professors and teachers who specialized in English education, and b) in-depth interviews with students who took Level 2 of the NEAT. The results indicated that the following factors affected writing item difficulty: a) topic familiarity, b) topic concreteness, c) the extent to which a topic elicits negative feelings from test-takers, d) concreteness of a given writing prompt, e) the extent to which a given writing prompt elicits diverse words, and f) the vocabulary and grammar knowledge required to complete a given writing task. Based upon the study’s results, further research about teaching and testing writing skills is discussed.