An Analysis of Public Secondary School English Teacher Employment Exams: Focusing on Items in Phonology and Phonetics from 2014 to 2018

Abstract

The present study aimed at analyzing item format, test content, and test trend in phonology and phonetics in the Korean public secondary school English teacher employment exams from 2014 to 2018 in comparison with those from 2009 to 2013. Findings of the study revealed that filling-out and restricted-response essay items have been evenly distributed on the test even though there was no extendedresponse essay item over the last 5 years. The items in phonology and phonetics were the second most frequent on the test (37.8%), followed by syntax and school grammar (57.3%), and its ratio tended to steadily increase since 2014. The frequency of test contents indicated that ‘consonants and vowels,’ ‘syllables,’ and ‘phonemes and allophones’ comprised high frequency while ‘phonological process,’ and ‘phonological rules’ has significantly decreased on the test. The new test trends linked to morphology and teaching methodology were qualitatively analyzed. Finally, problems of the current test and future direction were discussed.