A Twenty-Year History of the TEPS and Its Prehistory

Abstract

In commemoration of its 20th anniversary, we look back on the brief history of the TEPS as well as the social and historical contexts that prompted research efforts to develop the TEPS in this article. Towards this goal, we first review, as the prehistory of the TEPS, the tradition of foreign language testing at the Language Education Institute (LEI) of Seoul National University. Second, we survey a series of research projects undertaken to develop the TEPS. Third, we examine several milestones in the history of the TEPS and its family of tests, which symbolize important milestones of further growth, expansion, and transformation in various aspects of test development, production, and administration. Fourth, we discuss major research studies conducted to improve and validate the TEPS. Finally, we conclude the article with future prospects of language assessment and TEPS in Korea.