Jung Min-ho has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2012, mostly covering social and political issues. He currently belongs to the Politics & City Desk where he covers topics such as health, labor and human rights. Prior to joining the team, he was responsible for covering North Korea and sports. His article about a biosecurity breach of Middle East respiratory syndrome won him an award from the Korea Science Journalists Association in 2016. He is also the co-author of the book, "Medical Pioneers of Korea" (2019). He served as the head of the international relations committee at the Journalists Association of Korea from 2021 to 2023.
US scholar defends English section of Korea's college entrance exam
Students prepare to take the College Scholastic Aptitude Test at Busan JungAng Girls' High School on Nov. 15. Yonhap
By Jung Min-ho
By Jung Min-ho
Robert Kluender
The English section of Korea's annual college entrance exam has again become a target of massive criticism.
Many people, including teachers and native speakers, think the test is not designed to reflect students' true language abilities. Some even say the test is nothing more than a weeding-out process that keeps the majority out of the limited openings at reputable schools.
But some language experts disagree.
Robert Kluender, a linguistics professor at the University of California San Diego, believes the English part of the College Scholastic Aptitude Test (CSAT) is a fair assessment measure and such a question format is not unique to Korea.
“I find the exam challenging but fair, and as best I can tell, it seems to accomplish that which it sets out to do,” Kluender told The Korea Times.
“The reading comprehension questions seem comparable to the kinds of questions that one typically finds in English-language university entrance exams.”
Whether the test is an effective evaluation tool depends on one's perspective. For example, one can certainly argue that texts at a lower level of difficulty ― but still testing the same reading comprehension skills ― might be in order for non-native speakers, he said.
But as a professor who teaches American and foreign students, he said he would prefer ― and expect ― incoming students who can handle the CSAT's level of questions.
“We really do need students to be able to deal with texts of at least this level of difficulty in our classes,” Kluender said. “I myself require my undergraduate students to read primary scientific literature difficult even for native speakers. If students cannot master the level of English reading comprehension tested in the Korean college entrance test, they would never survive in a class of this nature.”
The scholar, who has experience constructing questions for the national German Adult Education Association's Certificate in English, said Korea is not the only country that uses the format of CSAT-style questions to evaluate test takers' English-language abilities.
“The reading comprehension questions seem to require only that the test taker gets the gist of the text in question, and then chooses the answer that best reflects the gist,” he said. “That's what questions of this type are meant to do. One need not necessarily understand every word of the text in order to do this, nor does the test taker need to have access to culturally specific knowledge in order to answer correctly.”
“The questions are taken from a variety of text types, both practically oriented and more abstract, at varying levels of difficulty. This is again standard practice in such exams.”
The CSAT English test, which largely focuses on measuring students' reading comprehension ability, has long been criticized for failing to improve their pragmatic English communication skills. To address the problem, former President Lee Myung-bak attempted to replace it with a Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL)-style exam, known as NEAT (National English Ability Test), during his term, but the project eventually fell apart.