Test Of Proficiency In Korean Research Articles

Validation of an elicited Imitation test as a measure of Korean language proficiency

This study presents a modified version of the Korean Elicited Imitation (EI) test, designed to resemble natural spoken language, and validates its reliability as a measure of proficiency. The study assesses the correlation between average test scores and Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK) levels, examining score distributions among beginner, intermediate, and advanced learner groups. Using item response theory (IRT), the study explores the influence of four key facets—learners, items, raters, and constructs—on performance evaluation. An explanatory item response modeling (EIRM) analysis identified linguistic factors impacting the EI test’s performance. Notably, the study uncovered a robust positive correlation between EI test scores and TOPIK levels. Significant score disparities were observed between beginner and intermediate, as well as beginner and advanced, learner cohorts. An IRT-based exploration of each facet revealed that item difficulty was comparatively lower in contrast to learners’ commendable performance, and raters exhibited a high degree of scoring consistency. The EIRM analysis underscores the significance of variables such as the number of syllables, vocabulary score, and content word density in influencing test performance.

Determinants of international Korean language promotion: A cross-country analysis

This study investigates the determinants of the international promotion of the Korean language at the cross-country level. The analysis is based on candidate data drawn from the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK) and uses a cross-country panel data model to measure how several factors affect Korea's international promotion. To mitigate sample selection bias, we estimated the model using the Heckman two-step method. The findings show that factors such as the Hallyu (or “Korean Wave”), international business, motivation to migrate to South Korea, motivation to study in South Korea, and Korean language learning resources play essential roles in the international promotion of Korean. The development level of the sample countries influenced the importance of each factor. For example, Hallyu, often regarded as important for the international promotion of Korean, was shown to be statistically significant only in the sample of developed countries. In addition, a shortage of Korean language learning resources has been identified as a major impediment to the promotion of Koreans in developing countries. These results provide new insights that can assist in formulating policies to promote the Korean language worldwide.

명사의 특질역할 관점으로 본 한·중 한자어 형태소 차이의 특징

Objectives This study aims to organize the meanings of two-syllable partial heteromorphic and synonymic nouns of Sino-Korean words and Chinese words and their morphemes, analyze the differences between morphemes’ meanings and find the characteristcs inside so as to make it better to distinguish the differences between Sino-Korean words and Chinese words for Chinese Korean learners.
 Methods Referring to the list of beginning and intermediate vocabularies of the Test of Proficiency in Korean, two-syllable partial heteromorphic and synonymic nouns were selected as the subjects of the study. After listing the meanings of Sino-Korean and Chinese words and the morphemes that constitutes those words, the features of the morphemes’ differences between the two languages will be analyzed from the perspective of qualia roles.
 Results Three features of the morphemes’ differences have been observed between the two languages’ nouns with two-syllable and partial heteromorphic synonyms. The first feature is that most of the differences can be explained and understood by the qualia roles ‘shape’ and ‘significant relationship’, which were belonging to ‘constitutive’ and ‘formal’. And the second feature is that the morphemes’ differences between the two languages’ words is closely related to the qualia roles about ‘action’ and ‘handle’. The last feature is that as a component of qualia roles, the ‘agentive’ could hardly be able to explain the morphemes’ differences between Sino-Korean words and Chinese words.
 Conclusions Lots of Chinese Korean learners do not fully recognize and understand the morphemes’ differences between Sino-Korean words and Chinese words, and they are tending to regarded heteromorphic synonyms as isomorphic synonyms, and this is one of the reasons why the errors in heteromorphic synonyms field are often occurred. So it’s necessary to make students recognize the morphemes’ differences between Sino-Korean words and Chinese words. It is expected that the results of this study will be activated used by helping learners to understand and distinguish those morphemes differences between the two languages. And the necessity of follow-up research on specific operation plans and other parts of speech is suggested.

Солонгос хэлний үнэлгээ, шалгалтын аргачлал (Солонгос хэлний түвшин тогтоох шалгалтын жишээгээр)

Test of Proficiency in Korean is co-organized by Department of Asian Studies of NUM and Korean National Institute for International Education and the 46th TOPIK is on the run. Due to the rising number of test takers more and more TOPIK courses are emerging. 
 TOPIK trainers are facing many issues on running the test preparation course including the test knowledge, experience and strategies. For this reason, we did research on TOPIK and developed some strategies for students to answer the test questions. 
 We aimed to invent strategies based on the study about the contents of the TOPIK, test takers’ results analysis and test questions.

한국어 학습자의 쓰기 전략 비교 분석 - 한국인ㆍ재한 중국인ㆍ재중 중국인을 대상으로 -

This study aimed to examine the differences in writing strategies of the following three groups: native Korean learners, Chinese learners in Korea, and Chinese learners in China. First, the writing results of the three groups were collected as Question 54 of the Korean writing area in the Test of Proficiency in Korean. Based on the previous research results, questions were created and individuals in the three groups were interviewed according to the framework of reorganized writing strategy analysis such as Planning, Content Creation, Content Composition and Expression, Modification, Request Help, and Justice Control. As a result, significant suggestions were made by identifying differences in the use of writing strategies. We hope that our results will be useful in helping Chinese Korean learners achieve better writing.

Research about the Improvement of the Answer for Compositional Writing Question of Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK II) Focusing on Question 53

본고의 목적은 토픽Ⅱ 쓰기 영역 53번 작문형 문항의 모범 답안이 출제자의 의도에 적합한 최선의 글쓰기 모형인지, 이외 다른 방안은 대안이 될 수 없는지 논의해 보기 위함이다. 이를 위해 53번 문항의 유형을 분석한 뒤 문항 답안 작성에 적합한 글쓰기 모형과 패턴을 찾아 모범 답안을 활용하여 재구성하고, 이를 한국어 교사, 한국어교육 전문가, 글쓰기 교육 전문가들의 견해를 살펴보았다. 그 결과는 아래와 같다. 첫째, 토픽Ⅱ 쓰기 영역 53번 문제 유형은 주어진 정보를 객관적으로 전달하는 글쓰기 형태의 답안 작성을 요구하고 있었다. 그러나 한국어능력시험 홈페이지에 공개된 53번 문항 모범 답안의 전개 구조는 ‘정보 전달 글쓰기’ 보다 ‘주장하는 글쓰기’에 가까운 형식을 많이 채택하고 있었다. 둘째, 연구자는 모범 답안의 대안으로 53번 글쓰기와 같이 정보 전달을 목적으로 하는 보도기사문 가운데 역피라미드형 글쓰기 패턴을 찾아내고, 모범 답안을 활용하여 역피라미드형식의 답안 작성을 재구성하였다. 셋째, 이를 모범 답안과 비교하여 한국어교육 및 글쓰기 교육 전문가들을 대상으로 그 효용성을 조사, 분석한 결과 연구에 참여한 3개 전문가 그룹 전체에서 역피라미드형글쓰기가 모범 답안의 대안이 될 수 있음을 확인하는 유의미한 평가 결과를 확인할 수 있었다. 본 연구는 한국어교육 전문가 등의 견해를 통해 그동안 토픽Ⅱ 쓰기 교육 관련 연구에서 거의 다루지 않고 있던 ‘모범 답안’ 자체에 대한 논의를 이끌어내었다는 점에서 그 차별성과 의의를 찾을 수 있다고 하겠다.

A basic study on the development of Korean vocabulary textbooks for Vietnamese learners: Focusing on demands analysis

본 연구의 목적은 한국어 어휘 교재에 대해 한국어를 배우는 베트남인 학습자의 요구를 분석하여 그 분석 결과를 바탕으로 한국어 어휘 교재 개발 방안을 제시한다. 이를 하기 위해 베트남 한국어 학습자 168명을 대상으로 기초 연구로 조사를 진행하고 요구분석은 다음에 몇 가지의 내용을 중심으로 실시한다. 1) 베트남 한국어 학습자의 특성을 확인함, 2) 어휘 학습의 어려운 점들을 파악함, 3) 교재 구성에 대한 요구 사항을 확인함. 조사 결과를 분석한 후 베트남인 학습자를 대상으로 한 한국어 어휘 교재 개발 방안을 다음과 같이 제시한다. 첫째, 대학생과 젊은 특히 18세부터 25세까지 베트남인 초급 학습자를 위한 한국어 어휘 교재를 개발할 필요가 있다. 둘째, 새 단어 제시한 후 번역 제공, 의미, 예문, 관련어, 연습 문제 등을 제공하고 한국어 어휘의 특성에 대한 설명을 교재 앞부분과 어휘의 의미 설명 부분에 충분히 제공할 것은 바람직하다. 셋째, 어휘 교재는 주제별 구성해야 하고 학습자들의 관심을 끌고 쉽게 배울 수 있는 교재를 만들기 위해 그림(삽화)을 추가해야 한다. 게다가 어휘 교재의 출판 형태로 책이 가장 선호하는 형태이지만 개방형 질문에 앱으로 출판하는 형태도 원하는 응답자가 많았으므로 듣기 파일이나 앱을 제공할 것은 바람직하다. 넷째, 어휘 설명 부분에 한국어능력시험(TOPIK) 에 대한 단어의 중요도나 빈도 표시할 뿐만 아니라 예문 부분에 문장 단위로 일상생활에서 자주 쓰는 단어를 활용할 필요가 있다.The purpose of this paper is to analyze the needs of Vietnamese learners who learn Korean with Korean vocabulary textbooks, and based on the analysis results suggesting a future Korean vocabulary textbook development plan. A basic study was conducted on 168 Vietnamese Korean learners, and an analysis of learner s demand was conducted focusing on the followings: 1) Identifying the characteristics of Vietnamese Korean learners, 2) Identifying the difficulty in learning vocabulary, 3) Confirming the requirements for the content of the textbook. After analyzing the results of the survey, a plan for developing Korean vocabulary textbooks for Vietnamese learners was presented as follows. First, it is necessary to develop Korean vocabulary textbooks for university students and juniors, especially Vietnamese beginner learners whose ages are from 18 to 25. Second, it is desirable to provide translation, meaning, example sentences, related words, practical questions, etc., after presenting a new word, and to provide an explanation of the characteristics of Korean vocabulary m the beginning of the textbook and in the explanation of the meaning of the vocabulary. Third, vocabulary textbooks should be organized by topics; and pictures (illustrations) should be added to create a textbook that attracts learners attention and is easy to learn. In addition, although books are the most preferred form of publication for vocabulary teaching materials, many respondents also wanted to publish as an app to open-ended questions, so it is desirable to provide a listening file or an app. Fourth, it is necessary to not only indicate the importance or frequency of words for the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK) in the vocabulary explanation part, but also use the words frequently used in daily life in the example part.

A Study on Disagreement Speech Act Strategies Revealed In the Listening Texts of Test of Proficiency in Korean

A Study on Disagreement Speech Act Strategies Revealed In the Listening Texts of Test of Proficiency in Korean

Framework to accumulate validity evidence for intended and actual consequences of Korean language proficiency testing

Korea is rapidly becoming a multicultural society. As the notion of purity in ethnic bloodline has long been a requisite for ‘Koreanness’, however, the cultural nationalist identity seems to be maintained on proficiency levels tested by the most powerful, government-instituted Korean language test, TOPIK (Test of Proficiency in Korean). Research on immigrants’ language practices, ideologies and (language) testing requirements has been bleak in Korean contexts, and this article proposes one such framework by combining critical discursive approaches and contemporary argument-based approaches to validation to evaluate a newly developed test, TOPIK-speaking, and related policy issues. Drawing on Shohamy’s critical language testing (CLT), Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis (CDA), and Bachman and Palmer’s assessment use argument (AUA), it illustrates the unique features of a validation framework and uses TOPIK-speaking as an example to collect and evaluate empirical evidence for its intended and actual consequences. The practice of testing consequences should be discursively analysed as a multilayered phenomenon, reinforced by discursive conflicts, such as represented in the media.

Suggesting a policy-driven approach to validation in the context of the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK)

ABSTRACT This study suggests a conceptual framework for policy-driven test development and validation, using the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK) as an example context. By linking the literature on policy analysis and argument structure in the validation of testing, the strong relationships between policy and testing are illustrated. This rationalizes why policy-driven test development and implementation require the analysis of multiple stakeholders, content, context, and processes. The suggested framework will enable test providers to investigate the legitimacy of test development and use at the initial stages. The TOPIK was often intended for socio-political purposes, and was utilized for admissions and employment purposes. Today, its use has extended for the purposes of visa issuance, permanent residence, and naturalization. Thus, it is posited that the legitimacy of any policy-driven testing should be evaluated in terms of context, consequence, and feasibility.

한국어 말하기 평가 연구 동향 분석

Research on speaking assessment is rapidly increasing ahead of the implementation of the speaking assessment section in the Test of Proficiency in Korean(TOPIK) in 2022. The purpose of this study is to analyze the research trends in Korean speaking assessments. A hundred and twenty-six theses from graduate theses and academic journals were collected and classified by year, type, and topic. Although the research topic has been subdivided as the research results on assessment has accumulated, there still has been found higher portion of fundamental study for developing speaking assessment tools in the research, and there shows a tendency that the research is focused on the academic purpose learner in terms of assessment subject and on the pronunciation in terms of assessment contents. In the future, there are needs not only for the development of subject-oriented assessment tools, but also for the diversification of assessment contents including spoken grammar, vocabulary, and, pragmatics, as well as pronunciation. It could be possible to combine language functions like listening and reading with the speaking assessment and verify the type of tasks that can effectively measure the learner’s language ability in a specific area. After the speaking assessment has been implemented, studies on the assessment of learning patterns or improvement of assessment tools will be actively conducted. (Kyunghee University)

사실적 이해 능력 평가를 위한 한국어능력시험 읽기 문항의 환언 적절성 연구

The purpose of this research is to set appropriate standards for paraphrasing when writing multiple-choice reading questions for testing literal comprehension ability and to make suggestions for appropriate paraphrasing based on the results obtained through test-item analysis. Three main criteria were set for evaluating the level of adequacy in paraphrasing, which includes the adequacy of the paraphrased unit, the consistency of meaning between the original and the paraphrased texts, and the linguistic level of paraphrased text. The unit of the paraphrasing should be done at the syntactic level rather than at the lexical level, and the meanings of the original and the paraphrased texts must exactly match. In addition, the language level of the paraphrased text ought to be equal to or lower than that of the original text. Based on these criteria, the items measuring literal comprehension ability in the TOPIK(Test of Proficiency in Korean) were analysed. First, observing the adequacy of the paraphrased unit, it was found that although paraphrasing was done mostly at the syntactic level, there were more lexical-level paraphrasing in the beginner level than the intermediate and advanced level. Next, the results showed that there were more discrepancies of meaning in the intermediate and advanced level than the beginner level, and more cases of inconsistencies in syntactic-level paraphrasing than thelexical-level paraphrasing. Lastly, it revealed that the ratio of the linguistic level of the paraphrased text being higher than that of the original text were somewhat higher in the beginner level than the intermediate and advanced level. Thus, when creating multiple-choice items for assessing literal comprehension ability, it is necessary to construct the questions based upon these criteria of the adequacy and to check the items against the criteria in the editing stage.

한국어 듣기와 읽기 평가 세부 정보 파악하기 문항의 선택지 제시 방법 연구

This study examines how the method used to provide answer options for multiple choice questions in listening and reading tests of the Korean language affects test results by focusing on the questions that involve understanding specific information. In this study, 160 foreign undergraduate students took Korean listening and reading tests. For the evaluation, ten multiple choice questions that involved understanding specific information were selected from each of the listening and reading examinations of the intermediate-level Test of Proficiency in Korean. The answer options were provided in two different ways: the first was according to the length of each sentence, and the second was according to the order in which information was provided. The results showed that the listening test was more strongly impacted than the reading test by the composition of the answer options. In the case of the listening test, in particular, results were better when the answer options were listed in the same order as the information was provided in the passage than when listing the options according to the length of each sentence. Advanced learners’ results did not vary for the reading test, regardless of the way the multiple answer options were provided. However, the listening test showed different results depending on how the answer options were listed. Intermediate learners showed different test results depending on the listing method of the answer options in both listening and reading tests, but the difference was more prominent in the former. Based on the results above, this study suggests that listing the multiple answer options according to the order in which the information was provided to the participant in the passage is more effective for measuring the learners’ own ability to understand Korean.

한국어 교육에서 이유 표현 ‘(으)로 인하여’, ‘(으)로 말미암아’ 연구 - 조사·불완전 용언 활용형 결합의 복합 형태의 관점에서 -

This study set out to develop a discussion about ‘(eu)lo inhaye’ and ‘(eu)lo malmiama’ with a focus on compound forms in which fixed postpositions were combined with incomplete verbs and propose implications for their instructional plans. Previous studies recognized the importance of reason expressions and conducted active research on overall and individual items of reason meanings, but none of them examined ‘(eu)lo inhaye’ and ‘(eu)lo malmiama’. The study thus analyzed teaching materials and grammar books for Korean and examined the current presentations of ‘(eu)lo inhaye’ and ‘(eu)lo malmiama,’ finding out that ‘(eu)lo inhaye’ was presented in the intermediate and advanced level but had no unity in their forms and that there was a shortage of presentation for ‘(eu)lo malmiama’. The study then conducted syntactic analysis of ‘(eu)lo inhaye’ and ‘(eu)lo malmiama’ and analyzed example sentences in teaching materials for Korean and the Test of Proficiency in Korean, raising a need to provide explicitly the information about their formal restriction due to the combination of a fixed postposition ‘(eu)lo’ and incomplete verbs to express a reason ‘inhada’ and ‘malmiamda’ Nouns, noun phrases, or noun clauses should come before ‘ (eu)lo inhaye’ and ‘(eu)lo malmiama’ which means that verbs and adjectives should undergo the step of nominalization. There are also imperative and requesting limitations in predicates in the following part. The analysis results in terms of meanings and uses show that topics in the intermediate or advanced level made frequent appearances before ‘(eu)lo inhaye’ and ‘(eu)lo malmiama’ including “weather(climate and natural disasters), daily life, events and accidents, environment, economy, health, science, social phenomena, work and occupation, nature, psychology, politics, culture, language, law and institution(international relations), and education.” There were many passive forms of such vocabulary as ‘badda, danghada, and doeda’ in the following part along with many predicates including ‘ge doeda’ and ‘eojida’ Based on these findings, the study proposed its implications to contribute to educational plans for ‘(eu)lo inhaye’ and ‘(eu)lo malmiama’ thus holding its significance.

Item Analysis of Test of Proficiency in Korean: Classical Test Theory and Item Response Theory

ABSTRACT This study aimed to examine the quality of both individual items and overall test construction of the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK) by applying classical test theory and item response theory. The item-level responses of 30 listening items and 30 reading items in each of the three different levels of test from the 28th TOPIK administration were analyzed. Item difficulty and item discrimination parameters were estimated based on classical test theory (CTT) and item response theory (IRT). The item characteristic curves, item information functions, and test information functions based on IRT were also examined. The findings suggest that most items were found to be satisfactory in item difficulty and discrimination, with high correlation between the results analyzed by CTT and IRT. However, the analysis of the IRT-based test information functions revealed that the TOPIK is useful in providing information regarding the examinees with an ability level in only a considerably narrow range. The tests did not provide sufficient information regarding examinee groups who had a high ability or low ability. The findings of this study offer implications in advancing the test by adopting the IRT-based approaches that can provide more information about examinee groups spanning a wide range of abilities so that it can better serve the assessment purpose.

The Study on the Changes of Reading Questions in Test of Proficiency in Korean -focused on the 'main ideas identifying items' in the literal comprehension area-

The Study on the Changes of Reading Questions in Test of Proficiency in Korean -focused on the 'main ideas identifying items' in the literal comprehension area-

A Study on the Development of Test of Proficiency in Korean for Children and Adolescent learners: Focused on the development of questions and application.

A Study on the Development of Test of Proficiency in Korean for Children and Adolescent learners: Focused on the development of questions and application.

국내외로의 자국어 보급을 위한 국가 대표 누리집 비교 연구

This study aimed to analyze the status of major countries’ online national language dissemination for overseas learners. This was done by the representative national organizations founded with governmental support. The study comparatively analyzed the dissemination status of the representative organizations of other countries and representative Korean organizations for Korean language education. The results of the comparative analysis of the major websites of the seven countries investigated in this study revealed the following characteristics. First, the websites were categorized into integrated single and divided dual websites according to their characteristics. Second, the language and cultural content varied depending on whether the websites provided information on offline education service or not. Third, there was a major difference in the number of service languages available on each website. Further, it was distinguished by its strength in providing a variety of specialized learning materials including self-learning modules, video clips, webtoons (internet-based comics), and study materials. However, it was also revealed that further improvements were required in promoting offline education programs and introducing the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK). This study is valuable because the analysis results suggest implications for improvements to be made to the website of the Korean language for better dissemination.

한국어 말하기 교육의 연구 현황 및 제언

This study analyzed 122 research papers from the 1990’s, collecting the data by extracting certain topics of ‘Korean speaking’ and ‘speaking’. The paper draws the following conclusions. First, a new theory that fits the structure of Korean language is needed. Second, some teaching-learning methods that fit Korean grammar characteristics are needed. Third, instructional materials for presentations and textbooks for KFL need to be developed in association with teaching-learning methods and discussion class plans. Fourth, some practical education plans by language groups and Korean levels are needed. Fifth, some pragmatic education plans that are customized for students that love Korean songs (K-pop), plays, movies, dramas, musicals, public advertisement and so on are needed. Finally, a speaking test should be included on the TOPIK (Test of Proficiency in Korean).

L2 한국어 학습자의 인지적 변인과 구어 통사 발달 : 규칙성과 변이성

In the present study, we examined regularities and variations of the syntactic structure of L2 Korean spoken by L2 learners along with their cognitive factors. The participants were 61 L2 learners of Korean whose L1s were English, Chinese, Japanese, and others; in addition, 30 native speakers of Korean were tested as the control group. In the study, we employed the letter span test, paired associates test, serial response test, visual memory test, spatial memory test, and phonological memory test to measure the participants’ executive functioning and working memory. A mini Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK) was conducted as an index of learners’ general linguistic proficiency, and spoken production was transcribed after participants watched a short video clip. The study applied the Pearson correlation coefficient to find out the relationship between the types of syntactic structures and the cognitive factors. The study showed three main results. First, each learner’s cognitive uniqueness produces variation of syntactic development. Second, general learning factors, including the period of learning and level of proficiency, produce regularities between learners. Lastly, the use of complex predicate forms seems to be an index of native-likeness, where learners with high statistical learning abilities used these forms more than others did.