Professor Liying Cheng 程李穎 (PhD) has been appointed as the Dean, School of Education, City University of Macau since August, 2023. Prior to this position, Liying Cheng has been Professor and Director of Assessment and Evaluation Group (AEG), Faculty of Education, Queen's University, Canada. Her seminal research on washback focuses on the global impact of large-scale testing and the symbiotic relationship among classroom assessment, teaching, and learning. This research is strongly rooted in her on-going experiences as a test-taker, learner, teacher, and teacher educator and her passion in using assessment to support teaching and learning – the ultimately goal in education.

Liying had her formative education in China. She received an MA in Teaching English as a Foreign Language from the University of Reading in England, and a PhD in educational assessment from the University of Hong Kong. Liying was an assistant professor at the School of Education and Languages, Open University of Hong Kong (now Hong Kong Metropolitan University). Before she joined Queen's University in 2000, she held a prestigious Killam Postdoctoral Fellowship (1998-2000) within the Centre for Research in Applied Measurement and Evaluation (CRAME) and Educational Psychology, at the University of Alberta, Canada. The combined training in language education, educational assessment, educational measurement, and educational psychology reflects the inter- and intra-disciplinarity of her washback research to advocate for an ecosystem of teaching, learning, and testing. Her research interfaces with teachers, learners, parents, principals, and policymakers in international contexts and, more recently, with the linguistic and culturally diverse populations in public education, higher education, and in immigration, refugees, and citizenship contexts - an underrepresented population in the research, but one whose lives are greatly impacted by testing and assessment.

Liying's programs of research are supported by more than 2 million dollars of research funding and research dissemination endeavours through more than 170 publications (books, book chapters and journal articles) and 260 invited and conference presentations, in addition to her work with teachers and teacher educators in more than 50 countries and regions. Liying is one of the few scholars who has been awarded prizes in both Excellence in Research, and in Graduate Student Supervision. She has also been actively involved with the language testing community by serving on professional associations and editorial boards. She is the co-founding executive (president) for the Canadian Association of Language Assessment. Currently, Liying is Chair, Board of Trustees, the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington DC USA, and serves as the Senior Advisor for the journal Language Testing in Asia. Liying’s work aims at positively impacting on language and culture as they relate to access and equity in education and society around the globe.

Her newest program of research is on “Learning to Love Learning: Taking Control, Responsibility, and Pride through Self-Regulated Learning and Assessment”.

Research Interest

Language Education

Language Testing

Educational Assessment

Educational Measurement

Educational Psychology

Research and Publications

Books

Cheng, L., & Fox, J. (2017). Assessment in the language classroom: Teachers supporting student learning. London, UK: Palgrave McMillan. https://www.macmillanihe.com/page/detail/Assessment-in-the-Language-Classroom/?K=9781137464835

Cheng, L. (2013). Language classroom assessment. Alexandria, VA: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL).

Cheng, L., & Curtis, A. (Eds.). (2010). English language assessment and the Chinese learner. New York, NY: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/English-Language-Assessment-and-the-Chinese-Learner/Cheng-Curtis/p/book/9780415504782

Cheng, L. (2005). Changing language teaching through language testing: A washback study. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. https://www.cambridge.org/cu/cambridgeenglish/catalog/teacher-training-development-and-research/changing-language-teaching-through-language-testing

Cheng, L., Watanabe, Y., & Curtis, A. (Eds.). (2004). Washback in language testing: Research contexts and methods.  Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410609731 https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781410609731

Book Chapters

Cheng, L. & Sultana, N. (2022). Washback: Looking backward and forward. In Fulcher, G. & Harding, L. (Eds.). Routledge Handbook of Language Testing.Doi: 10.4324/9781003220756-12

Cheng, L., & Zheng, Y. (2021). Measuring anxiety. In P. Winke & T. Brunfaut (Eds.). Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Language Testing (pp. 177-186). https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Handbook-of-Second-Language-Acquisition-and-Language-Testing/Winke-Brunfaut/p/book/9781138490680

Cheng, L., & Im, G.-H. (2021). Translation of surveys for international research: Beyond equivalence. In G. Harbaugh & U. Luhanga (Eds.). Basic elements of survey research in education: Addressing the problems your advisor never told you about (pp. 219–236). Information Age Publishing, Inc. (IAP) https://www.infoagepub.com/products/Basic-Elements-of-Survey-Research-in-Education

Cheng, L., Im, G-H., & Jabeen, R. (2021). Whose English(es) are we assessing and by whom? In B. Lanteigne, C. Coombe., & J.D. Brown (Eds.), Challenges in language testing around the world: Insights for language test users (pp. 169-179). Singapore: Springer. https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789813342316

Im, G.-H., Cheng, L., & Shin, D. (2020). Sociopolitical factors surrounding the rise and demise of the National English Ability Test (NEAT) in South Korea In S. Mirhosseini & P. De Costa (Eds.), The sociopolitics of English language testing (pp. 147–164). Bloomsbury Publishing.https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/the-sociopolitics-of-english-language-testing/

Refereed Journal Articles

Cheng, L., Baidoo-Anu, D., DeLuca, C. (2023). Understanding School Principal’s Conceptions of Assessment and Grading Practices. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 69(1), 41-65 https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/ajer/

Baidoo-Anu, D., Rasooli, A., DeLuca, C. & Cheng, L., (2023). Conceptions of Classroom Assessment and Approaches to Grading: What do Teachers and Students Say? Education Inquiry. 10.1080/20004508.2023.2244136

McLeod, M. & Cheng, L. (2023). The Canadian English Language Proficiency Index Program (CELPIP) Test. Language Assessment Quarterly, 20(3), 339–352.  https://doi.org/10.1080/15434303.2023.2237487

Jones, D. M., Cheng, L., and Tweedie, M. G. (2023) Automated Scoring of Speaking and Writing: Starting to hit its stride. The Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, 48(3). https://cjlt.ca/index.php/cjlt/article/view/28241

Lu, S., Cheng, L. & Chahine, S. (2022). Chinese University Students' Conceptions of Feedback and the Relationships with Self-regulated Learning, Self-efficacy and English Language Achievement. Frontiers in Education: Educational Psychology. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1047323/full

O'Sullivan, B. & Cheng, L. (2022). Lessons from the Chinese Imperial Examination System. Language Testing in Asia, 12:52 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40468-022-00201-5

Douglas, S., Landry, M., Doe, C., Cheng, L. (2022) English for Academic Purposes Student Reflections: Factors Related to Their Additional Language Socialization at a Canadian University. TESL Canada, 39(1). https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v39i1/1373

Raudienė, I., Kaminskienė, L., & Cheng, L. (2022). The education and assessment system in Lithuania. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice. https://doi.org/10.1080/0969594X.2022.2103516

Rasooli, A., DeLuca, C. & Cheng, L. (2022). Teacher Candidates’ Approaches to Grading and Assessment Conceptions: Implications for Teacher Education in Assessment. Educational Research for Policy and Practice https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10671-022-09320-5

Braund, H., DeLuca, C., Panadero, E., Cheng, L. (2021). Exploring Formative Assessment and Co-Regulation in Kindergarten through Interviews and Direct Observation. Frontiers in Education: Educational Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2021.732373

Cheng, L., DeLuca, C., Yan, W., Braund, H., & Rassoli, A. (2020). Teachers’ Grading Decisions and Practices across Cultures: Exploring the Value, Consistency, and Construction of Grades across Canadian and Chinese Secondary Schools. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 67 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stueduc.2020.100928

Peng, Y., Yan, W., & Cheng, L. (2020). Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK): A multi-level proficiency testing. Language Testing https://doi.org/10.1177/0265532220957298

Baldwin, S. & Cheng, L. (2020). Internationally Educated Nurses and the Canadian English Language Benchmark Assessment for Nurses: A Qualitative Analysis of Test-Taker Perceptions. Canadian Journal for Applied Linguistics, 23(2), 96-117. https://doi.org/10.37213/cjal.2020.30435

Wang, P., Strachan, A., Coetzee, K., Monteiro, S. & Cheng, L. (2020). Examining Rater Performance on the CELBAN Speaking: A Many-Facets Rasch Measurement Analysis. Canadian Journal for Applied Linguistics, 23(2), 73-95. https://doi.org/10.37213/cjal.2020.30436

Cheng, L., Im, G.-H., Douglas, S., & Doe, C. (2020). Identifying English language use and communication challenges facing entry-level workplace immigrants in Canada. Journal of International Migration and Integration. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-020-00779-w

Douglas, S., Doe, C., & Cheng, L. (2020). The role of the interlocutor: Factors impeding workplace communication with newcomers from linguistically diverse backgrounds. Canadian Modern Language Review, 76(1), 31-49. https://utpjournals.press/doi/10.3138/cmlr.2018-0161