The Language Testing Research Colloquium (LTRC) was held online this year from June 14 to 17, and as has been the custom for several years, TIRF was represented there.
At the awards ceremony, plaques were given to seven TIRF Doctoral Dissertation Grant (DDG) recipients – five 2019 TIRF DDG recipients and two 2020 awardees. (Since last year’s LTRC event was cancelled due to the pandemic, recognizing the 2019 grantees was not possible.) Their names and the titles of their studies are listed here:
Heesun Chang (University of Georgia): Linguistic-Level Authenticity in ITA Assessment: A Corpus Analysis of Linguistic Characteristics of Prospective International Teaching Assistants
Scott Grapin (New York University): Investigating the Potential of Multimodal Tasks to Promote More Equitable Assessment of English Learners in Science
Qie Han (Teachers College, Columbia University): Investigating the Combined Effects of Rater Expertise, Working Memory Capacity, and Cognitive Functionality on the Scoring of Second-Language Speaking Performance
Hyunah Kim (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education): Effects of Cultural Familiarity on Canadian Elementary Students’ Performance on a Standardized Reading Test
Kathy MinHye Kim (Michigan State University): Exploring the Interface of Explicit and Implicit Second-Language Knowledge: A Longitudinal Perspective
Maria Treadaway (The University of Auckland): Developing and Validating Diagnostic Speaking and Listening Tests for Ab Initio Cadet Pilots
Wei Yan (Queen’s University):A Multiple Stakeholder Approach to the Interpretation and Use of Chinese High School Students’ Grades
Research on language assessment has been a TIRF Research Topic since 2008. TIRF Trustee Nick Saville had the following to say about these DDG awards and about the importance of language assessment as a research priority of the Foundation: “It is recognized that assessment plays a central role in language policy and practices and there is a need for more research into ways in which language assessment can be integrated with learning more effectively. In this respect, the TIRF DDG awards are highly effective in supporting early career researchers and in encouraging their interest in this field. Many previous awardees have benefited from this support and have become established academics in their own right.”
TIRF’s DDG awards are supported by Cambridge Assessment English, the British Council, and many individual donors. We remain grateful for our partners’ ongoing support.
