Language Assessment: Critical Issues—An Interview With Antony John Kunnan

ABSTRACT

This interview provides a panoramic view of Antony’s research interests, which includes his language-related experiences of early life, his study at UCLA, the PhD dissertation research he conducted under Lyle Bachman’s supervision, and his idea of fairness. Given the specific context in which the interview was conducted, the interviewer approached Antony’s close links with Asian cultures by discussing the impact of world Englishes on language assessment, his concerns with the Chinese Scale of English, his viewpoint of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) tests, and his contribution to the Asian Association for Language Assessment.

Appendix A

Selected publications by Antony John Kunnan

• Bachman, L. F., & Kunnan, A. J. (2005). Statistical analysis for language assessment. Workbook and CD. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
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• Geranpayeh, A., & Kunnan, A. J. (2007). Differential Item Functioning in terms of age in the Certificate of Academic English exam. Language Assessment Quarterly, 4, 190–222.
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• Kunnan, A. J. (Ed.). (1998). Structural Equation Modeling. Language Testing, 15, 3. [Special issue].
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• Kunnan, A. J. (Ed.). (2007). Differential Item Functioning. Language Assessment Quarterly, 4, 2. [Special issue].
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• Kunnan, A. J. (Ed.). (2014). The companion to language assessment. Malden, MA: Wiley.
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• Kunnan, A. J. (Ed.). (2015). Language testing and assessment. New York; NJ: Routledge.
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• Kunnan, A. J. (Ed.). (2015). Talking about language assessment: The LAQ interviews. New York; NJ: Routledge.
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• Kunnan, A. J. (1992). An investigation of a criterion-referenced test using G-theory, factor and cluster analyses. Language Testing, 9, 30–49.
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• Kunnan, A. J. (1994). Modeling relationships among some test-taker characteristics and tests of English as a Foreign Language. Language Testing, 11, 225–252.
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• Kunnan, A. J. (1995). Test taker characteristics and test performance: A structural modeling approach. [ Studies in Language Testing, Volume 2]. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
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• Kunnan, A. J. (1997). Chinese Proficiency Test. In J. C. Coloney, & J. Kramer (Eds.), The 13th Mental Measurements Yearbook (pp. 247–248). Lincoln, NE: Buros Institute of Mental Measurements.
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• Kunnan, A. J. (1997). Chinese Speaking Test. In J. C. Coloney, & J. Kramer (Eds.), The 13th Mental Measurements Yearbook (pp. 250–251). Lincoln, NE: Buros Institute of Mental Measurements.
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• Kunnan, A. J. (1997). Connecting validation and fairness in language testing. In A. Huhta, et al. (Ed.), Current developments and alternatives in language assessment (pp. 85–105). Jyväskylä, Finland: University of Jyväskylä.
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• Kunnan, A. J. (1998). An introduction to structural equation modeling for language assessment research. Language Testing, 15, 295–332.
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• Kunnan, A. J. (1998). Approaches to validation in language assessment. In A. J. Kunnan (Ed.), Validation in language assessment (pp. 1–16). Mahwah, NJ: LEA.
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• Kunnan, A. J. (2000). Fairness and justice for all. In A. J. Kunnan (Ed.), Fairness and validation in language assessment (pp. 1–13). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
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• Kunnan, A. J. (2004). Test fairness. In M. Milanovic, & C. Weir (Eds.), European language testing in a global context (pp. 27–48). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
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• Kunnan, A. J. (2005). Arabic Proficiency Test. In J. C. Impara, & B. S. Plake (Eds.), The 16th Mental Measurements Yearbook (pp. 57–59). Lincoln, NE: Buros Institute of Mental Measurements.
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• Kunnan, A. J. (2005). Language assessment from a wider context. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Handbook of research in second language learning (pp. 779–794). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
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• Kunnan, A. J. (2007). Test fairness, test bias & DIF. Language Assessment Quarterly, 4, 109–112.
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• Kunnan, A. J. (2008). Towards a model of test evaluation: Using the Test Fairness and Wider Context Frameworks. In L. Taylor, & C. Weir (Eds.), Multilingualism and assessment: Achieving transparency, assuring quality, sustaining diversity. Papers from the ALTE Conference in Berlin, Germany (pp. 229–251). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
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• Kunnan, A. J. (2009). Politics and legislation in citizenship testing in the U.S. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 29, 37–48.
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• Kunnan, A. J. (2009). The U.S. Naturalization Test. Language Assessment Quarterly, 6, 89–97.
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• Kunnan, A. J. (2010). Fairness matters and Toulmin’s argument structures. Language Testing, 4, 183–189.
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• Kunnan, A. J. (2010). Publishing in the era of electronic technologies. The Modern Language Journal, 94, 643–645.
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• Kunnan, A. J. (2010). Statistical analysis for test fairness. Revue Française de Linguistique Appliquée, 16, 39–48.
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• Kunnan, A. J. (2012). Language assessment for immigration and citizenship. In G. Fulcher, & F. Davidson (Eds.), The handbook of language testing (pp. 152–166). New York, NY: Routledge.
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• Kunnan, A. J. (2014). Fairness and justice in language assessment. In A. J. Kunnan (Ed.), The companion to language assessment (pp. 1098–1114). Malden, MA: Wiley.
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• Kunnan, A. J., & Carr, N. (2012). Statistical analysis of test results. In C. Chapelle (Ed.), The encyclopedia of applied linguistics (pp. 5396–5403). Malden, MA: Wiley.
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• Kunnan, A. J., & Grabowski, K. (2013). Large scale second language assessment. In M. Celce-Murcia et al. (Eds.), Teaching English as a second or foreign language (4th ed.) (pp. 304–319). New York, NY: Heinle/Cengage.
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• Kunnan, A. J., & Wagner, E. (2014). Review of the Examination for the Certificate of Competency in English. In J. Carlson, K. Geisinger, & J. Jonson (Eds.), The 19th Mental Measurements Yearbook (pp. 286–288). Lincoln, NE: Buros Institute of Mental Measurements.
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• Kunnan, A. J., & Zhang, L. (2015). How can teachers be responsible language assessors? In H. Yang (Ed.), The sociology of language testing (pp. 210–231). Shanghai, China: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. [Chinese version: 教师如何成为负责任的语言评测者? pp. 143–149].
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• Liu, S., & Kunnan, A. J. (2016). Investigating automated essay evaluation to Chinese undergraduate essays: A case study of WriteToLearn. CALICO Journal, 33, 71–91.
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• Sims, J., & Kunnan, A. J. (2016). Developing evidence for a validity argument for an English placement exam from multi-year test performance data. Language Testing in Asia, 6(1). doi: 10.1186/s40468-016-0024-x
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• Wagner, E., & Kunnan, A. J. (2014). Review of Computerized Oral Proficiency Instrument (Arabic and Spanish). In J. Carlson, K. Geisinger, & J. Jonson (Eds.), The 19th Mental Measurements Yearbook (pp. 189–191). Lincoln, NE: Buros Institute of Mental Measurements.
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• Wagner, E., & Kunnan, A. J. (2015). Review of the Duolingo Test. Language Assessment Quarterly, 12(3), 320–331.
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• Zhang, L., Goh, C., & Kunnan, A. J. (2014). Analysis of test takers’ metacognitive and cognitive strategy use and EFL reading test performance: A multi-sample SEM approach. Language Assessment Quarterly, 11, 76–102.
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