Analysis of Korean Language Assessment with 2015 Curriculum Revision

Abstract

This study is designed to see how the changes in the assessment system affect Korean language assessment. For this, 184 middle school or highschool Korean language teachers were surveyed about their perceptions of and efforts for descriptive assessment and essay evaluation and process-based assessment. The analysis result is like follows. First, Korean language teachers recognize academic achievement and enhanced creativity of students as the most important goal of Korean language assessment. Second, although Korean language teachers think they are able to achieve detailed information about students’ Korean language ability and affective domains, they have a relatively passive attitude toward giving the information obtained from the process to students or parents. They also think they should change their teaching styles according to the introduction and expansion of descriptive assessment , and they are trying to do it. Third, many Korean language teachers recognize the need for process-based assessment and they consider it as a kind of complement of the existing result-oriented assessment. Forth, many teachers are against abolishing or minimizing optional questions in assessment, which shows that the change in the assessment system should reflect the attributes of Korean language assessment that it has wide-ranging answers and it is hard to make objectivity of the correct answers. Because the various and sometimes contrasting perceptions about the change in Korean language assessment are actually reflected in teaching and learning situations and affect students, it is meaningful to examine how Korean language teachers perceive the change as the actual assessors in exploring the direction of assessment for the attributes of Korean language.