In Memoriam

Vale Tim McNamara

Fri, 29 Sep 2023 17:49:47 GMT

Among the many personal tributes to the passing of Tim McNamara we, as the ILTA Executive Board, would like to express our profound sympathies and acknowledge Tim’s role as a founding member of ILTA. Tim’s impact on ILTA and its members, as well as on our field, cannot be overstated. Tim served in various positions on the Executive Board during his career including Secretary/Treasurer, Vice President and President (1998). Tim was a regular attendee at LTRC and played an important role in mentoring younger generations of researchers there. Tim shaped our whole field in an utterly unique way, and should be remembered as both a radical and a unifying voice who brought wisdom, intellect, criticality and generosity to his contributions and relationships with all his colleagues. We are in discussions with the conference organisers to provide a space to commemorate Tim’s legacy and contribution to the field at LTRC in Innsbruck next year.

Tim will live on in our memories, and our heartfelt sympathy goes out to his family, friends and colleagues in Australia and around the world.

In sadness
the ILTA Executive Board

Dr. Steven Ross

Wed, 17 May 2023 17:39:44 GMT

From University of Maryland School of Languages, Literatures, & Cultures (https://sllc.umd.edu/news/memoriam-dr-steven-ross)

Dr. Steven John Ross was born February 24th, 1951 and passed away, surrounded by his family, on April 27th, 2023 from brain cancer. He came to the University of Maryland in 2009 with a joint appointment in the Center for the Advanced Study of Language (until 2017) and the school of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. From 2013-2020, he served as Director of Graduate Studies for Second Language Acquisition M.A. and Ph.D. programs. He earned his PhD in Second Language Acquisition from the University of Hawai'i Manoa. He was a well published scholar and widely respected teacher and mentor to many students with a particular expertise in statistical studies and language testing. Over the course of his career, he taught research methodology and language assessment courses in Japan, Australia, Mexico, and the USA, served on the editorial boards of the TESOL Quarterly, Applied Linguistics, Language Testing, Language Assessment Quarterly, and Language Learning, and was the Associate Editor of the latter from 2010-2015. Due to his illness, Professor Ross stopped teaching at UMD in the middle of the Spring semester of 2022, but his scholarly life continued. Longitudinal Studies of Second Language Learning: Quantitative Methods and Outcomes, co-edited with his former student Megan C. Masters, was published in January of 2023. Throughout his years at UMD, he split his time between College Park and Japan, which was the family home; he was a fluent speaker of Japanese. During the pandemic, he often taught, attended committee meetings, and met with students in the middle of the night, his time. He will be sorely missed.

Liz Hamp-Lyons

Wed, 29 Mar 2023 02:29:44 GMT

It is with deep sadness that we announce the death on March 9, 2022 of Professor Liz Hamp-Lyons. Liz enjoyed a global reputation as one of the leading figures in language assessment as well as in English for Academic Purposes and Composition studies. After retiring from her most recent position as Professor in English Language Assessment at the Centre for Research in English Language and Language Assessment (CRELLA) at the University of Bedfordshire, she continued to be active in our field until shortly before her passing. Among her most recent projects was a book on writing assessment for Chinese learners of English which she co-edited with Professor Jin Yang.

Born in Northampton, UK on 25th May 1946 in the aftermath of the Second World War, Liz was always a pacifist and had a reputation for standing up for what she believed in. As a teenager, she ran away from her convent school to join an anti-nuclear ‘ban the bomb’ demonstration in London and she would bring same campaigning spirit to her professional life. She was well known for her strong stand on ethics and care for people was always at the heart of Liz's work. Her research was motivated by what she called the humanistic dimension of writing assessment: the impact and consequences of assessment on test-takers and students, the powerless upon whom assessments are often imposed.

After initial teacher training, Liz worked in adult education, switching her focus to language teaching after encountering many English language learners in her classes. Following spells teaching English for Academic Purposes in Greece, Iran, Malaysia and the USA, she went to Edinburgh in 1982 to pursue a PhD at the University of Edinburgh under the supervision of Alan Davies. While there, Liz developed and validated empirically derived scales for the British Council's ELTS writing and created rater training materials for staff in British Council centres around the world. Her work demonstrated the benefits of developing analytic, multiple trait rating scales to replace holistic scales and proved influential in changing practice. Her dissertation on ELTS (the precursor to IELTS) was a landmark in the assessment of second language writing and is still widely cited more than 30 years later.

After completing her PhD, Liz moved to the USA to take up the position of Assistant Professor and head of the writing assessment programme at the University of Michigan. There, she worked with Bill Condon to introduce portfolios as a form of assessment at the University of Michigan's English Composition Board. The eventual product of this collaboration was, Assessing the Portfolio (2000), the first book-length treatment of the topic.

After working at the University of Colorado at Denver, Liz moved to Hong Kong in 1996 as Chair Professor and Head of English and Director of the Asian Centre for Language Assessment Research (ACLAR) at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Subsequently, she was appointed as Distinguished Professor in Language and Education at the Open University of Hong Kong and Honorary Professor in Education at the University of Hong Kong, while there she co-led a series of government projects which resulted in the introduction of school-based assessment of speaking in all senior classes across the territory. Liz's career also included leadership of assessment research teams at the Language Testing Research Centre at the University of Melbourne, and the Centre for English Language Education at the University of Nottingham. She was a Guest Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, where she was the senior consultant to the College English Test (CET) and the Profile of Advanced Competence in English (PACE).

Liz made key contributions to scholarship in the fields of both English for Academic Purposes and writing assessment through her editorship/co-editorship of the Journal of English for Academic Purposes, which she founded in 2002 and edited from 2003 until 2016, and Assessing Writing, which she edited from 2008 to 2017. Believing that broadening the conversation on writing assessment to take in a more international perspective would benefit the whole community, one of Liz's first acts as editor of Assessing Writing was to expand the journal from its American origins. Liz committed much of her energy to nurturing these journals and infused the editorial process with a strong regard for mentoring new authors.

Liz's collaborations with colleagues and graduate students were similarly motivated by a desire to help others flourish. Among the founding members of ILTA, hosting LTRC in Hong Kong in 2002 and serving as President in 2003, Liz made a tremendous contribution to the development of the professional community of language testers. She supported young colleagues and advised on a wide range of practical problems in language test development and implementation. Many of those who responded to the news of her death wrote of how they had benefitted from Liz's warm and insightful advice and support even though they didn't know her personally. With her passing, we have lost a generous spirit and strong advocate for fairness.

With thanks to Bill Condon, David Slomp, Norbert Elliott and colleagues on L-Test-L and the BALEAP Listserv.

Jamal Abedi

Wed, 29 Mar 2023 02:24:38 GMT

We are saddened to announce the passing of Jamal Abedi in October, 2022.

Jamal Abedi was a Professor Emeritus of educational measurement at the University of California, Davis. Abedi’s research interests included studies in the areas of psychometrics and test development. His recent works include studies on the validity of assessment, accommodation, and classification for English language learners (ELLs) and ELLs with disabilities. Abedi served on assessment advisory boards for a number of states and assessment consortia as an expert in testing ELLs.

Abedi was the recipient of the 2003 Outstanding Contribution Relating Research to Practice award by the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award by the California Educational Research Association, the 2013 National Association of Test Directors: Outstanding Contribution to Educational Assessment, the 2014 University of California, Davis: Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award, the 2015 UC Davis School of Education Outstanding Faculty award and the 2016 national AERA E.F. Lindquist Award. He held a Master’s degree.

As shared by the National Council of Measurement in Education (NCME)

Ron Hambleton

Fri, 29 Apr 2022 20:37:49 GMT

From Steve Sireci, as shared on LTEST-L by Ardeshir Geranpayeh:

It is with profound sadness that I give the news that Ron Hambleton, one of the giants in the field of educational measurement, passed away this morning.

Ron was a great friend and mentor to so many of us, and made more contributions to educational measurement than perhaps anyone in our short history. Although best known for his pioneering work in item response theory, Distinguished Professor Hambleton made significant contributions to criterion-referenced testing, cross-lingual assessment, computerized-adaptive testing, test development, standard setting, and differential item functioning; among many other areas. He was President of NCME, the International Test Commission, and Division 5 of APA; and had won Career Awards from all these organizations as well as from the Association of Test Publishers. He was also a Fellow of APA and AERA, and a member of the National Academy of Education. Ron founded the Research, Educational Measurement, and Psychometrics program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst where he served as advisor and mentor to many of whom are now leaders in the educational measurement field. However, he was a role model and mentor to so many more than UMass students and alumni.

So many of us credit Ron for supporting our careers and for the many contributions he made not just to measurement, but to our personal lives. Ron was passionate about measurement, and passionate about life. He was inspiring and cared deeply about people. He always said he couldn’t believe he got paid for what he did, because he enjoyed it so much.

He was more than a great psychometrician—he was a great person.

For those of you who would like to make a donation in Ron’s memory, the Hambleton Legacy Fund, which supports UMass graduate student assistantships and travel, can be found at this link: https://minutefund.umass.edu/project/6373/donate?des_id=111492.

More importantly however, We encourage you also to raise a glass in his honor and remember his warm, supportive spirit that touched so many of us and made the educational measurement world a better place.

Ohtomo Kenji

Tue, 26 Jan 2021 15:05:54 GMT

We are sorry to say that Ohtomo Kenji, Professor Emeritus at the University of Tsukuba, sadly passed away on the 19th of January, 2021. His long-standing contribution to the field of applied linguistics in general and language testing in particular helped promote assessment literacy in Japan and elsewhere. His enthusiasm made it possible to host LTRC '99 in Japan, which is only one of many contributions he made.

May his spirit rest in peace.

Japan Language Testing Association
Yoshinori J. Watanabe

Don Porter

Fri, 2 Oct 2020 15:32:49 GMT

Following British Council posts at universities in Syria, Poland and Egypt, Don joined the University of Reading in 1979 where he worked at CALS until his retirement. During his years there his enthusiasm and innovative thinking helped to increase and consolidate the reputation of the Centre for Applied Language Studies, and especially the Testing and Evaluation Unit in the 1980s. During that period, he developed a strong reputation for his teaching and international advisory work. In addition, he brought the Test of English for Academic Purposes, developed by Cyril Weir in 1983, to the University and undertook the first major revision of the test in the late 1980s; and encouraged another revision a decade later. This drive for modernisation and constant renewal typified his approach. Perhaps most importantly, he founded and edited the Language Testing Newsletter, which in 1984 morphed into the Language Testing Journal, which he co-edited with his Reading colleague Arthur Hughes.

In early 1991, at the Language Testing Research Colloquium meeting at Educational Testing Services, Princeton, Don was elected to serve as a member of the steering committee to draft a constitution for the yet to be formed association, which was to be called the International Language Testing Association. He went on to serve one term on the steering committee and two terms on the executive board of the association immediately after the founding of ILTA. He continued to support ILTA, offering to make Language Testing the official journal of ILTA.

Don was an extremely significant figure in the development of the British approach to communicative language testing in the 1980s, a very rich period of conceptual and practical advance in the field. The books of conference papers he-co-edited had a powerful influence, particularly on the testing of English in academic and work contexts (EAP/ESP), and on the testing of speaking, perhaps the greatest area of innovation in the communicative movement. His early research on the area of affect in tests of speaking had a significant influence on the field, underpinning later work on the effect on performance of characteristics of the interlocutor. This work in turn helped move the focus of test development on to the individual within the test event, an idea that lies at the heart of the socio-cognitive approach to test development and validation.

He also contributed to the pedagogy of aural comprehension, arguing for the systematic use of natural spoken English and authentictasksin a 1981 article later included in Long & Richards’ influentialMethodology in TESOL: a book of readings.

Don was also a hugely generous and supportive friend, colleague, supervisor and mentor. He was an ideas person whose influence on those he worked with was immense. He is remembered for his boisterous good humour, originality and insightful and challenging questions during presentations, lectures and tutorials, which forced speakers and listeners to think deeply into issues, especially those of ethicality. Many responses to the news of his death commented on his humour and humanity, while his former colleagues agree that they looked forward to going to work when Don was there, for the same reason.

Following his retirement from the university Don and his late wife Jan continued to study, both taking undergraduate degrees in Archaeology. Displaying his usual focus, drive and intellect, he graduated with a First! While Don’s interest shifted from the language testing world to that of Roman sewage systems and how Romans citizens knew a slave when they saw one, his erudition, sense of invention, mischief and humour never left him.

Professor Barry O'Sullivan OBE FAcSS FAALA| Head of Assessment Research & Development | English & Exams

British Council | 10 Spring Gardens | London | SW1A 2BN | United Kingdom

Advisory Professor Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China

Visiting Professor University of Reading, UK

Vale Cyril Weir (1950 - 2018)

Tue, 9 Oct 2018 14:37:04 GMT

On behalf of ILTA I would like pay tribute to Professor Cyril Weir and express our sadness at the news of his death on Saturday 29 September 2018.

Cyril was one of the first in our field to write about issues of communicative language testing and went on to produce a comprehensive socio-cognitive framework which has been highly influential in guiding the test development and validation work of his many students and other language testing professionals. Over the course of his career, spanning more than thirty-five years, through his writings and various consultancies he played an important role in forging links between academia and language testing practices in a range of contexts. He worked tirelessly to ensure that academics, practitioners and policymakers had access to the necessary understanding and skills to create and use language tests in an appropriate and professionally responsible manner. His scholarship and services to language assessment were recognized with the ILTA Cambridge Distinguished Achievement Award in 2014 and with an OBE in the 2015 Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

I trust that all members of the language testing community who knew Cyril or were familiar with his work will join me in offering condolences to his family and friends, in sharing memories and in expressing sorrow at the loss of this important figure in our field.

Cathie Elder, ILTA President