A Study on the Performance Differences in Translating the Written Texts Derived from the KCSAT English

Abstract

Translation was a crucial element of English teaching for a long time in Korea, but it has been a significant missing part to measure communicative competence in English because of the arrival and dominance of communicative methodologies in English teaching and learning. This paper aimed at investigating the performance differences in translating the English written texts derived from the English listening and reading passages of the Korean College Scholastic Ability Test into Korean. The two texts had differing characteristics in terms of context, vocabulary, and format. More specifically, this study examined the impact of translation of the two different texts on students’ English level proficiency. A total of 38 high school seniors participated in the study. Findings revealed that the participants performed differently in translating the two different texts. One of the findings was that the students attained much higher scores in translating the listening passage than the reading passage. In addition, the students’ results of the practice test had high correlation with the translation scores on the reading passage.