"I think, I’ll spend the next 20 years in this field and never get bored responding to the same questions [...]"

 

I am visiting the University of Innsbruck because...

The Language Testing Research Group Innsbruck (LTRGI) in the Institute for Specialised Didactics is world-renowned for its professionalism, high-caliber research, and outstanding publications. For my sabbatical, there is nowhere else I would rather be! The LTRGI is an extremely active group that has hosted major conferences in the past at the University of Innsbruck, including the International Language Testing Association’s Language Testing Research Colloquium (LTRC 2024), which I attended as a presenter. While here at the University of Innsbruck, I have been honored to work with the LTRGI faculty in hosting the December 2024 European Association for Language Testing and Assessment (EALTA) Winter School, which we held at the University Center in Obergurgl. The Winter School brought together approximately 50 researchers and practitioners from around the world who focus on task-based language teaching and assessment for an intimate, one-week discussion and seminars on cutting-edge theory and practice in the field. It was my greatest joy to be able to participate as a co-trainer with the LTRGI at events. And that is just one of the highlights of my work as an LFUI guest professor within the LTRGI! 

 

At the University of Innsbruck, I am...

At the University of Innsbruck, I am working with the LTRGI Director, Dr. Benjamin Kremmel, to launch an Open-Access book series on “Syllabi in Applied Linguistics,” with the first book in the series to be focused on syllabi in language testing. The series will focus on sharing state-of-the-art methods in pedagogy within the applied linguistics field. What is most exciting is that the series will extend our cooperation between Innsbruck University and Michigan State University far out into the future, and by inviting other professors to be editors of volumes and authors of chapters in the series, we will help build our and others' professional networks. As part of the guest professorship, I am also helping to advise graduate students in the LTRGI on their research projects, which is highly social and tons of fun, and I am drafting an Open Access book on language testing using LTRGI and Innsbruck University library resources. The resources, culture, and work ethic in the LTRGI and within the Institut für Fachdidaktik are inspirational, so I am also gaining ideas and perspectives to take back with me to Michigan State.

 

What still surprises me about academic research is...

I have been researching and designing language tests since 1996. My first job was to work on a team at the   Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) to develop German reading and listening proficiency exams for Minnesota universities and for the state’s high-school German programs. Later, I moved to Washington DC, where I worked in test development at the   Center for Applied Linguistics, where I helped develop computer-adaptive tests of Arabic and Russian for the U.S. Department of Education. Thiry years later, the questions in research are the same, with the main ones being: (1) How can we best build language tests that are fair, inclusive, and meaningful? And: (2) How can we publicly provide robust, triangulated, and trusted evidence that the tests are fair, socially responsible, and produce meaningful scores for all people who take them? Certainly, the tests are more complex: Modern tests today include integrated speaking and writing tasks that rely on multimodal listening and reading content as part of the prompting. But we still ask: Is the test fair? How does the test make the test takers feel about themselves? Are the scores meaningful for their intended purposes? Are the tests and their systems good for society? I think, I’ll spend the next 20 years in this field and never get bored responding to the same questions, because the tests themselves change so much and in such interesting ways over time.