Sociopolitical and Contextual Influences on Teacher-produced Achievement Tests of English in Korean High Schools

Abstract

The increasing importance of classroom-based assessment has resulted in extensive studies of teacher-produced tests in a variety of foreign language learning contexts. While this area of research has established a substantive procedural framework for constructing teacher-produced tests, not much effort has been directed towards exploring the quality as well as the relevance of actual testing materials that are developed by local schoolteachers. One of the key issues to consider in analyzing teacher-produced tests is whether the test is designed to measure what it purports to measure. Employing both quantitative and qualitative approaches, the present study first explored the distinctive characteristics of teacher-produced English language achievement tests at eight Korean public secondary schools and conducted semi-structured interviews with teachers to determine the factors influencing the constructs of the tests, Results indicate that the constructs of teacher-produced English language achievement tests are profoundly affected by dominant external forces-namely, a high priority given to college admissions test preparations as well as a range of limitations imposed by policy regulations and restrictions.