The National English Ability Test in Korea and Its Legitimising Discourses

Autor/inn/en	Shin, Dongil; Cho, Eunhae
Titel	The National English Ability Test in Korea and Its Legitimising Discourses
Quelle	In: Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 42 (2021) 6, S.537-550 (14 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Shin, Dongil) ORCID (Cho, Eunhae)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0143-4632
DOI	10.1080/01434632.2020.1745818
Schlagwörter	Discourse Analysis; Language Tests; Second Language Learning; English (Second Language); Language Usage; Agenda Setting; Foreign Countries; Language Styles; Educational Policy; Educational Assessment; Policy Analysis; Test Construction; High Stakes Tests; Language Proficiency; Preferences; College Entrance Examinations; South Korea + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Diskursanalyse; Language test; Sprachtest; Zweitsprachenerwerb; English as second language; English; Second Language; Englisch als Zweitsprache; Sprachgebrauch; Ausland; Sprachstil; Politics of education; Bildungspolitik; Education; assessment; Bewertungssystem; Politikfeldanalyse; Testaufbau; Language skill; Language skills; Sprachkompetenz; Aufnahmeprüfung; Korea; Republik
Abstract	This study uses Fairclough's critical discourse analysis (CDA) paradigm to analyse Korean Ministry of Education (MOE) policy documents legitimising the National English Ability Test (NEAT) and consolidating a testing regime wherein educational testing is strongly positioned as a social technology facilitating practical English use. Focusing on discourse, style, and genre, this study illustrates how representational, identificational, and actional meanings of policy texts are socially constituted but also shape/reinforce the test's surrounding structure, which it describes with reference to the concept of technopoly. To begin with discourse, one's English competence is represented as an entity, where practical English use is specified as test construct; and NEAT development is represented as a technology aimed at facilitating practical use of English. As for style, the analysed documents show frequent use of transitivity and measurement registers, along with authorial self-assertions as experts and authorities. Last, the policy documents share a positivistic genre structure within which the mandate for test development is intertextually interwound to reinforce the underlying belief in efficiency, standardisation, and progress. The documents, in which test-driven policies are articulated, serve as an arena for agenda-setting in terms of sociopolitical discourses, but there remains little critical analysis of materials for language testing. Future research works should consider how agents of social change can legitimize or challenge testing-related policy discourses. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01