English Education Professor Young-Ju Lee

논문 초록 (Abstract)

This study investigates the validity of the new item types of the listening section of an English proficiency test. The agenda for developing new item types was stipulated through the needs analysis as well as the critical review of popular large-scale English proficiency tests. The tentative test specifications of the new item types were formulated in a way that the English proficiency test enhances validity as well as authenticity. The test instrument for the pilot test consisted of 20 items and the listening stimuli were presented to test takers only once. Students were asked to fill out the survey right after the test and they were also asked to elaborate on their survey responses through individual interviews. The results of item analysis, responses to survey items, and interviews provided future directions for the listening section as follows. First, picture/graph items are introduced in order to decrease overall difficulty of the listening section. Second, the new item types of the long monologue such as problem-solving and note-taking tasks are introduced in a way that they evaluate practical listening comprehension in authentic context. Third, in the case of dialogue completion items, it is advisable that options are not provided in the test booklet, which in turn contributes to construct validity. Results from the current study will feed back into the reformulation of the test specifications for the listening section of the English proficiency test.