Linguistics professor Xun Yan has been chosen to receive the Test of English as a Foreign Language Essentials New Scholar Award this year.
The award recognizes an early career scholar in the field of foreign or second-language assessment whose scholarship or other major professional activities have already made an outstanding contribution. It is the highest achievement award for young scholars in language testing.
“It is an important recognition of my work in the past seven years at Illinois and at the start of my career,” said Yan.
Professor James Yoon, head of the Department of Linguistics, said Yan’s receipt of this award also has a wider meaning.
“It means that UIUC Linguistics is recognized as a world-wide destination for students interested in language testing research. Xun is a junior scholar, but one who is establishing a solid reputation in the field through his accomplishments,” said Yoon.
Yan’s work broadly focuses on speaking and writing assessment, with a goal of helping better understand the construct of language proficiency, psychometric qualities of test scores, and validity and fairness of language tests.
As the director of the English Placement Test at Illinois, Yan said the immediate impact of his work is the test itself. In his time at the university, he has worked with the EPT team to revise the content and structure of the test and develop a new online version of the EPT.
“The new test allowed us to better assess the writing and speaking abilities of international students with greater flexibility and gauge their needs for post-admissions English as a Second Language instruction,” said Yan. “Even during the COVID-19 pandemic last year, we were able to accommodate over 1000 international students in online testing without much disruption.”
Yan said his broad research interests have also afforded him opportunities to work with graduate and undergraduate students across departments, many of whom have gone on to win presentation awards at language testing conferences, publish articles in applied linguistics journals, and get internships at language testing companies. His broad research interests have also allowed him to collaborate with scholars from different fields.
“In the past few years, I worked with many colleagues on grant projects to help language testing companies examine validity and fairness evidence of their tests [such as] TOEFL, International English Language Testing System, Duolingo English Test, Aptis, and Michigan English Test,” said Yan.
Outside of the university, Yan has also served different roles in both regional and international language testing associations, including the president of the Midwest Association of Language Testers.
As for what’s next, Yan said he will continue to work on innovations in language testing research and practice. While this recognition has given him confidence to continue advancing the theory and practice of language testing, both at Illinois and in the larger field, he doesn’t see this award as his own personal achievement.
“It is impossible without the support I have received from the Department of Linguistics and SLCL,” said Yan. “I am grateful to all colleagues and students who have supported me during my pre-tenure years and have helped strengthen the area of language testing at Illinois.”
Dania De La Hoya Rojas