The National English ability test in Korea and its legitimising discourses

Shin, Dongil; Cho, Eun Hae

doi:10.1080/01434632.2020.1745818

Cited by 8 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 21 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Government and policy documents also serve as discursive constructs that legitimize test-driven educational reforms. Shin and Cho (2021) examined Korean Ministry of Education (MOE) policy documents strongly supporting the development of NEAT and consolidating a testing regime. They focused on how representational (discourse), identificational (style), and actional (genre) meanings of policy texts are socially constituted but also constitute the NEAT-driven social realities.…”

Section: A Critical Discursive Approach To Investigate Social Impactmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Korean government pushed NEAT through from the top down, and the policy documents were the discursive site where the goals and intents of NEAT were disseminated. Shin and Cho (2021) found that test-driven policy reforms were explicitly Claim of Social Impact: The intended and anticipatory impact is expected to be positive Warrant 3: Immediate user groups (students, teachers, parents) expect positive impact on educational communities involved. Backing 3: Anticipated impact in the circle of NEAT users can be examined for collecting and evaluating the validity evidenc from interviews and surveys.…”

Section: Validation Framework For Social Impactmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The chronic problems of “English fever” (the Korean term yeongeo yeolpung ), along with the “TOEFL crisis” (Shin, 2012), were thought to be resolvable through the implementation of a locally developed English test. An innovative agenda for English education, including the development of a new government-led English proficiency test, tentatively called “Korean TOEFL” and named “NEAT” later, was put forward in the new government’s policy documents (Shin & Cho, 2021). The test was developed for three levels, with Levels 2 and 3 targeted at secondary school students.…”

Section: A Critical Discursive Approach To Investigate Social Impactmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Its policy-driven impact, which often leads to sociopolitical discourses beyond the psychometric properties of testing, had been widely discussed, particularly in the media, (e.g., in an editorial of JoongAng Ilbo published on 12 April 2007, titled, “TOEFL crisis, let’s solve it with a domestic test”), focusing on the extent to which it helped achieve intended reform outcomes in educational contexts. Discourses either supporting or opposing the implementation of NEAT were created, disseminated, and inculcated in state-led policy documents (Shin & Cho, 2021), and reproduced in the media (Shin, 2019; Shin & Cho, 2020).…”

Section: A Critical Discursive Approach To Investigate Social Impactmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As social impact is open to change as the struggle for the “true” meaning, the validation for it is also a continuous process. I take, as an example, the context of the development of the National English Ability Test (NEAT) in Korea, which had been used as a means of implementing government policies (Im et al, 2020; Shin, 2019; Shin & Cho, 2020, 2021). Through analysis of this example, I contribute to the understanding of validation as itself a critical and discursive practice bound up with social impact.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Critical discursive approaches to evaluating policy-driven testing: Social impact as a target for validation

Shin

2023

Language Testing

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper addresses the intersection of testing and policy, situating test-driven impact and validation within the context of policy-led educational reform in Korea. I will briefly review the existing validation models. Then, arguing for an expansion of the conventional conceptualization of consequential validity research, I use Fairclough’s dialectic–relational approach in critical discourse analysis (CDA), positioned in critical and poststructuralist research tradition, to evaluate social realities, such as intended and actual impact of policy-led testing, I take, as an example, the context of the development of the National English Ability Test (NEAT) in Korea, which had been used as a means of implementing government policies. Combining Messick’s validity framework for consequential evidence, Bachman and Palmer’s argument-based approach to validation (assessment use argument, AUA), and Fairclough’s dialectic–relational approach, I will illustrate how the impact of policy-led testing is performed and interpreted as a sociopolitical and discursive phenomenon, constituted and enacted in and through “discourse.” By revisiting the previous Faircloughian research works on NEAT’s impact, I postulate that the discourses arguing for and against social impact acquire their meanings from dialectical standpoints.

show abstract

Section: A Critical Discursive Approach To Investigate Social Impactmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Validation Framework For Social Impactmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Critical Discursive Approach To Investigate Social Impactmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Critical Discursive Approach To Investigate Social Impactmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Critical discursive approaches to evaluating policy-driven testing: Social impact as a target for validation

Shin

2023

Language Testing

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Failed policy attempts for measuring English speaking abilities in college entrance exams

Butler¹,

Lee²,

Peng³

2020

English Today

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

English as a foreign language education in East Asia has received repeated criticism for its lack of success in developing sufficient English oral proficiency among its students (Muller at al., 2014). In response to the criticism, the governments of China, Japan and South Korea attempted to include assessment of students’ speaking abilities as part of their high-stakes college entrance exams, hoping for positive washback effects in both primary- and secondary-school English education as well as on shadow education (i.e., non-formal private-sector education). These attempts often failed. In South Korea, a new test called the National English Ability Test (NEAT), which included direct assessment of students’ speaking skill among other skills, was developed in 2012. However, the government's plan to use NEAT to replace the current exam – the Korean College Scholastic Aptitude Test (KCSAT) – was quickly dropped before its implementation. In China, the government has tried to promote more communicative methods of English education through incorporating English speaking test in high-stakes tests such as the Gaokao – college admission tests – in addition to reducing the weight of English in the traditional paper-based exams. However, the policies have received heavy resistance at the regional level and have not been implemented at the national level. In Japan, the government asked universities to accept designated external proficiency tests as part of the Common Test, the existing college entrance exam, in order to make up for the exam's missing speaking component. After a mountain of criticism from test users, implementation of the plan is still pending. In this light, the aim of this paper is to discuss why these policy attempts failed. While these policy attempts occurred in three different contexts, we could see striking underlying commonalities. We argue that these policy attempts were made based on a set of beliefs separate from the reality of the stakeholders (e.g., students, parents and teachers). More specifically, the failures can be largely attributed to the governments’ monolithic view of the English language and their insufficient consideration for equity rather than equality.

show abstract

Informal digital learning of English and perceptions of using EIL materials: attitude toward varieties of English as a mediator

Lee

Chen

Drajati

2021

Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The National English ability test in Korea and its legitimising discourses

Cited by 8 publications

References 21 publications

Critical discursive approaches to evaluating policy-driven testing: Social impact as a target for validation

Critical discursive approaches to evaluating policy-driven testing: Social impact as a target for validation

Failed policy attempts for measuring English speaking abilities in college entrance exams

Informal digital learning of English and perceptions of using EIL materials: attitude toward varieties of English as a mediator

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About