Investigating the Affordances of Scenario-Based Language Assessment for Measuring Situated Korean Language Proficiency in Korean as a Foreign Language Setting

This paper examines the use of scenario-based language assessment (SBLA) to measure situated Korean language proficiency in a Korean as a foreign language (KFL) setting. Specifically, this study investigated how a Korean SBLA (K-SBLA) serves as a valid and reliable measure of test-takers’ ability to use Korean to build, consolidate, and share knowledge within a goal-oriented scenario. With 51 participants, the results suggest that the K-SBLA reliably elicited performances indicative of situated Korean proficiency. The study also explored performance differences between heritage and non-heritage Korean learners on the culminating scenario goal task: a proposal-pitching speaking task. These findings highlight the potential of SBLA as an innovative approach to assessing situated language proficiency in KFL contexts.