earticle

영어

A large number of foreign students enroll at Korean universities each year. Although a good command of the Korean language is crucial for them to be successful in their studies, and both university authorities and teaching staff now agree that students’ language ability needs to be tested before their admission, a valid and reliable test of academic Korean is still to be developed. The aim of this paper was twofold: to determine the Korean language proficiency level and language task types that are necessary to succeed at the university level in Korea; and to determine test specifications that could be used by examiners to appraise university candidates’ language skills. To develop such specifications, Common European Framework (CEF) descriptors of language proficiency were used. These descriptors can be used as indicators showing which language tasks a candidate should be able to do at a certain level. To create test specifications, academically relevant descriptors were selected and task types associated with each were analyzed. Many descriptors associated with the B2 level of the CEF were used to determine the language achievement level necessary for university students in Korea. Information about linguistic input and output associated with each language task type was also gained and applied from CEF descriptors.