The Item Analysis of English Linguistics in the Public Secondary School English Teacher Employment Exams: 2019-2022

The study aimed at examining the number of English linguistics questions, question formats, and test trends of the Public Secondary School English Teacher Employment Exam (PSSETEE) from 2019 to 2022. The results of the study revealed that the proportion of English linguistics questions had the highest proportion on the exam, comprising more than 26 percent in the PSSETEE. When analyzing the ratio by sub-field, phonology/ morphology and syntax/semantics showed the largest proportion in English linguistics questions, comprising more than 90 percent of the items. In particular, the ratio of phonology/morphology was more than that of syntax/semantics in the recent 4 years. This was different from the fact that syntax/semantics had the largest proportion in English linguistic questions from 2014 to 2018. Regarding question formats, the English linguistics questions tended to show more extended-response essay formats (n=16) than short-answer formats (n=10). Finally, the discrepancy between the rate of English linguistics courses in the Teachers College curriculum and that of English linguistics questions on the exam was discussed with future suggestions.