Sookmyung Concludes MOU for National English Ability Test (NEAT)
- Views 1690
- Writer 커뮤니케이션팀
- 보도일자 2012-10-16
In a ceremony to make the agreement official, Jooho Lee, the minister of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Sunhye Hwang, the president of Sookmyung, Yeunchun Oh, the president of Seoul National University, Jaeho Yum, the vice president of Korea University, Kyoungwon Jeong, the vice president of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Kyungsik Son, the president of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry and administration officers of other consortium universities were in attendance. According to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, the Korean government’s NEAT initiative will lower Korea’s dependence on other countries’ English ability tests and contribute to creating profit by exporting the system to other countries so that it has international circulation and availability.
It is especially noteworthy that all universities participating in this project have their own projects. Sookmyung Women’s University, Seoul National University, and the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies are already carrying out their home-developed state-authorized English ability tests: Sookmyung’s MATE, Seoul’s TEPS, Hankuk’s FLEX. It was thus with a collective wealth of know-how and experience that these universities gathered to collaborate on the NEAT project. Korea University has since joined the ranks, bringing the project to completion by contributing specialized research on test validity.
Sookmyung especially has played a major role in NEAT’s creation by contributing its unique MATE test approach that focuses on reading and listening ability. Myunghee Kim, a professor of English Language & Literature at Sookmyung who was deeply involved in the development of NEAT, said that “in developing a test system for speaking and writing, which form the fundamental basis of NEAT, our cumulative know-how gained through MATE was well put to use. During the test development, we saw an admission of public confidence in MATE.”