earticle

영어

This study explores the English scores of freshmen engineering colleges in two universities and the professors' and instructors' perceptions on transition of English ability of the students and the situation of English education after the change of English section of College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) from a norm-referenced to a criterion-referenced system. For this study, 10 participants took part in in-depth interviews through a focus group, and the data were analyzed through descriptive coding, which reiterated themes or issues that showed consistent or unique patterns. The key findings of this study are as follows. First, engineering students' English skills have declined after the introduction of absolute evaluation on the English section of the CSAT. Second, engineering students have a tendency to regard English as an insignificant subject. Finally, in regards to the entrance examination policy, rather than going back to using relative evaluation on the English section of the CSAT, it is necessary to absolutely evaluate all subjects and make the CSAT a minimum requirement.