Study on the Conditions of Writing Assessment in COVID-19 Era

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify the condition of non-face-to-face writing assessment and to analyze the problems faced by Korea language teachers to propose an effective non-face-to-face writing assessment method. To this end, 133 Korea language teachers were surveyed on the condition of writing assessment in 2020. The results are as follows. First, Korea language teachers who conducted only face-to-face assessment changed writing assessment task or assessment criteria in consideration of the decrease in the number of face-to-face classes. In particular, in terms of writing assessment tasks, changes such as ‘changing from collaborative writing to individual writing, lowering the level of difficulty in subjects, and reducing the amount of writing’ were notable. Second, Korea language teachers who conducted non-face-to-face assessment performed writing assessment mainly by using non-real-time online platforms or by submitting personal tasks rather than real-time non-face-to-face assessment. This suggests that results-oriented writing assessments were conducted rather than the performance process assessment, and that personalized feedback may not have been faithfully provided. Third, some Korea language teachers who conducted face-to-face assessment did not change their writing assessment task or assessment criteria because of the education authorities’ guidelines to avoid reflecting non-face-to-face writing assessments. And some Korea language teachers who conducted non-face-to-face assessment did not change their writing assessment task or assessment criteria because they performed writing assessment that did not differ from face-to-face assessment using real-time media. Based on these results, we proposed ways to implement effective non-face-to-face write assessment.