수능영어 읽기 문항 난이도 변인에 관한 코퍼스 기반 분석

A Corpus-based Analysis of Variables Related to Item Difficulty in CSAT English Test

High-stakes exams, such as the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), must maintain a consistent and predictable level of difficulty, given their significant social impact. However, since the transition in the evaluation method of the CSAT, the proportion of high-performing students has drastically decreased, leading to new issues within the Korean educational environment. Thus, this study aims to analyze the factors related to Item difficulty in CSAT English test. To that end, a corpus data of questions from the 2022 to 2024 CSAT English exams was created, which was a period that EBS-linked materials were fully transitioned from direct to indirect linkage. Based on previous studies, a total of seven indicators that impact the difficulty of reading comprehension in CSAT English test was selected. With the data drown form the above, a multiple regression analysis was conducted using the indicators and the corpus data. The results attested that the degree of lexical concreteness and the number of attractive distractors had the most significant impact on the item difficulty. Additionally, after excluding non-influential factors, the results showed that the two variables — lexical concreteness and the number of attractive distractors — accounted for 52.1% of the influence in the item difficulty of CSAT. Implications will be discussed hinged upon the findings.