The Language Testing Research Colloquium (LTRC), which is the annual meeting of the International Language Testing Association (ILTA), was held in Palermo, Sicily (Italy), June 20–24, 2016. LTRC is an important event for TIRF, particularly because each year, thanks to a generous donation from Cambridge English Language Assessment, we recognize TIRF Doctoral Dissertation Grant (DDG) Awardees in language assessment at the LTRC Annual Awards Banquet on the final evening of the conference.

Recognized at the banquet in Palermo were Ms. Bai Ying from the University of Melbourne and her supervisor, Professor Tim McNamara; Ms. Xu Yueting from the University of Hong Kong and her supervisor, Professor David Robert Carless; and Ms. Yi Mei from Queen’s University and her supervisor Professor Liying Cheng. Ms. Mei’s project was also honored with the Russell N. Campbell Award for the top-ranked DDG proposal in 2015. Professor Cheng accepted the recognition on behalf of Ms. Mei.

Two former DDG award winners in language assessment also presented at LTRC—2010 DDG awardee, Dr. Ching-Ni Hsieh (the 2010 recipient of the Russell N. Campbell Award) from Educational Testing Service (ETS); and 2009 DDG awardee, Dr. Cecilia Guanfang Zhao from the Shanghai International Studies University. In addition, Dr. Kimberly Woo, 2013 DDG Award winner (also a recipient of the Russell N. Campbell Award) received the 2016 ETS Jacqueline Ross TOEFL Dissertation Award at the banquet.

TIRF Trustee MaryAnn Christison announced that Studies in Language Testing (SiLT) Volume 46 would be published in late August/early September and that it features 11 chapters on language testing written by TIRF DDG awardees in language assessment. The upcoming volume is exciting in part because it is the first collaboration between TIRF and Cambridge English Language Assessment. Dr. Hsieh, Dr. Zhao, and Dr. Woo all have chapters in the volume, which is edited by TIRF trustees, MaryAnn Christison and Nick Saville, and features an epilogue by TIRF President, Kathi Bailey.

Representing TIRF at LTRC and making the DDG Awards for 2015 were three members of the Board of Trustees—MaryAnn Christison from the University of Utah, Spiros Papageorgiou from the Educational Testing Service, and Nick Saville from Cambridge English Language Assessment. Several photos from the Colloquium featuring TIRF Grantees, grantees’ doctoral supervisors, and TIRF Trustees are featured below.

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