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Xun Yan's research broadly focuses on speaking and writing assessment, with specific interests in scale development and validation, rater behavior training, psycholinguistic approaches to language testing, assessment literacy for language teachers, and the use of test scores in educational settings. He employs a largely linguistic approach to examine the characteristics of speaking and writing performances to aid in understanding the constructs of language proficiency, psychometric qualities of test scores, and validity and fairness evidence for language tests. At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he directs the English Placement Test (EPT) and the Oral English Assessment Interview (OEAI), and is involved with the undergraduate program in Linguistics and Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL). Additionally, he is a faculty advisor for the student-led Language Testing Research Group and an active member of the Midwest Association of Language Testers, currently serving as a co-editor for the journal Language Testing. He encourages students interested in studying language testing at Illinois to reach out via email.
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