Design Statement

1. Test Purposes
  • To place students into the appropriate level of Korean language class (annual enrollment in Korean: approximately 1000 students at UCLA)
  • To serve as an assessment tool for an exit exam for foreign language requirements
  • To provide more flexible and frequent scheduling
  • To measure differences in Korean language proficiency between heritage and non-heritage speakers.
  • To implement the resulting curriculum and material development.
2. Description of TLU domain & Task type
  • Syllabus-based definition
  • Real-lifes situation which students may encounter in the context of contemporary Korean culture. The examples of TLU situations will include phone message, public announcement, advertisement, newspaper, academic text, daily conversation, academic lecture, academic reading text, etc.
3. Characteristics of Test Takers
  • Ethnic background: The majority of test takers are from Korean-ethnic backgrounds.
  • Test Takers' purposes of taking the test: - To be placed into an appropriate Korean class - To be exempted from fulfilling foreign language requirements (More than half of test takers were exempted in 1998 academic year)
  • Linguistic background: disparity between oral skills and literacy skills
4. Definition of Construct
  • Syllabus-based construct definition
  • To measure ability to perform meaningful communicative tasks in contemporary Korean
5. Test Item Types
Listening Usage Reading Composition
  • Multiple Choice
  • Short answer
  • Conversation- completion
  • Multiple Choice
  • Open-ended
  • Cloze Type
  • Multiple Choice
  • Short answer
  • Summary
  • Essay
6. Plans for evaluating usefulness of the test
  • Reliability: Reliability will be estimated both quantitatively and qualitatively.
  • Construct Validity: We will analyze the syllabus of Korean program and also TLU tasks.
  • Authenticity: The correspondence between Target Language Use tasks and Test Tasks and test takers' & teachers' perception on authenticity will be investigated.
  • Interactiveness: We will examine to what degree test takers' topical knowledge, language ability, metacognitive strategies, and affective response are involved through all the procedure of test development.
  • Impacts: Feedback will obtained by asking teacher and test takers after the test. In addition, we will collect an information in regard to the impact on Korean program and other education system.
  • Practicality: Human resources and material resources will be allocated according to pre-specified plan.
7. Inventory of available resources and plan for their allocation and management
  • Personnel (Test developers, Test writers, Editors, Raters, Administrator, Computer technician)
  • Space (Test development, Test administration)
  • Equipment(computers with internet access, headsets)
8. Implication and Future Implement
  • The test result and data analysis will be used to enhance the Korean language education at a college-level
  • Test takers in the future can be extended to include Korean/English bilingual teachers (180 teachers in the LA Unified School District) and prospective Korean teachers
  • The Korean placement examination will serve as a measurement tool for standardizing a curriculum goal for the Korean textbook Integrated Korean (total 12 volumes from beginning to advanced to level, used more than 30 universities/college in the US.)
  • The Korean examination will be used as a basis for designing and developing a computer-based Korean proficiency test for Korean American students in the LA Unified School District
  • The test results will enable us to have better student-profile.