Professor Tineke Brunfaut

Professor in Linguistics and English Language

Research Interests

My main research interests are language testing, and reading and listening in a second/foreign language. In recent research, I have focused on:

A. Cognitive and affective factors and processes in testing:

reading (see Kremmel, Brunfaut & Alderson, 2017)
listening (see Brunfaut & Revesz, 2015; Revesz & Brunfaut, 2013; Brunfaut, 2016)
writing (see Michel, Kormos, Brunfaut & Ratajczak, 2019; Brunfaut, Harding & Batty, 2018)
integrated skills (see Brunfaut & Rukthong, 2018; Kormos, Brunfaut & Michel, 2020; Rukthong & Brunfaut, 2020)

B. Methodology in language testing research

eyetracking (see Brunfaut, 2016; Brunfaut & McCray, 2015; McCray & Brunfaut, 2018)
critical discourse analysis techniques (see Harding, Brunfaut & Unger, 2019)

C. Language test development

language assessment literacy (see Brunfaut & Harding, 2018)
diagnosing second and foreign language proficiency (see Alderson, Brunfaut & Harding, 2015; Harding, Alderson & Brunfaut, 2015)
testing Less-Commonly Taught Languages (see Ryan & Brunfaut, 2016)

I am a recipient of the ILTA Best Article Award, the e-Assessment Award for Best Research, and the TOEFL Outstanding Young Scholar Award.

I regularly conduct language test development and consultancy work for professional and educational bodies around the world.

Current Teaching

I teach on the MA in Language Testing (online), the MA TESOL (online) and the MA in Applied Linguistics and TESOL (campus-based):

Language Test Construction and Evaluation
Classroom Language Assessment
Exploring Language Constructs
Issues in Language Testing
Research Issues in Applied Linguistics
Statistical Analyses for Language Testing

On the undergraduate programmes, I contribute to:

Introduction to Linguistics

During summer, I teach on the Language Testing at Lancaster summer school.

Profile

Research Group:

I coordinate the Language Testing Research Group, together with my colleagues Luke Harding and John Pill.

Some recent presentations:

Brunfaut, T. (2021). Through the eyes of the reader: The use of eye-tracking to advance insights into reading in another language. Symposium keynote. International Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA), Groningen (The Netherlands; online).

Brunfaut, T., & Harding, L. (2021). International language proficiency standards in the local context: Interpreting the CEFR in standard setting for exam reform in Luxembourg. European Association for Language Testing and Assessment (EALTA). online.

Brunfaut, T. (2020). Garbage in, garbage out: Assessing data collection instruments. Keynote. IRG2020 Symposium: From data to knowledge in the language sciences. Fribourg/Freiburg (Switzerland).

Brunfaut, T. (2019). What’s in a measure? Validity in L2 complexity research. Keynote. Colloquium: Broadening the scope of L2 complexity research. VUB Brussels (Belgium).

Harding, L., & Brunfaut, T. (2019). Trajectories of language assessment literacy in a teacher-researcher partnership: Locating elements of praxis through narrative inquiry. Language Testing Research Colloquium (LTRC), Atlanta (USA).

Rossi, O., & Brunfaut, T. (2019). Towards social justice for item writers: Empowering item writers through language assessment literacy training. Language Testing Research Colloquium (LTRC), Atlanta (USA).

Research Overview

My main research interests are language testing, and reading and listening in a second/foreign language. In recent research, I have focused on a) cognitive & affective factors and processes in language testing, b) methodology in language testing research, and c) language assessment literacy. I also regularly conduct language test development and consultancy work for professional and educational bodies around the world.

Additional Information

Follow me on Twitter.

For more information, please visit my Academia or Research Gate page.

PhD Supervision Interests

I am especially interested in supervising PhD students in the area of language testing, second language reading and listening. Topic areas covered by my current and graduated PhD students include: testing listening/reading/speaking/language-in-use, testing integrated skills, language assessment literacy training, rating, and test validation.