earticle

영어

The purpose of this study was to investigate some measurement characteristics of an English listening test for high school students annually developed and administered by the 15 provincial Offices of Education in Korea. The study applied item response theory (IRT) models and a series of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis (EFA, CFA) procedures to a data set from 284 students at a local high school. The IRT analyses showed the test could not distinguish students properly along the continuum of listening proficiency because the test items were too easy and the test was too short with a relatively low reliability for such a large scale test. Subsequent EFA and CFA procedures revealed that the test was primarily unidimensional and should function as a summative test but not as a diagnostic one. Further implications from the analyses were discussed together with some suggestions to improve the test quality.