Contact Information
707 S. Mathews Ave. | MC-168
Urbana, IL 61801
Research Interests
Language testing
Writing assessment
Computational linguistics
Quantitative research methods
Education
M.A. Foreign Languages and Applied Linguistics, Zhejiang University, China, 2020
B.A., English Language and Literature, Zhejiang University, China, 2017
Grants
LTTC Joint-Funded Research Grant (August 2024); Project: Development of Feature-Based AI-assisted Scoring System for BESTEP's Integrated Writing Tasks.
LTTC Joint-Funded Research Grant (August 2022); Project: What makes listening comprehension difficult?: A technology-enhanced approach to examining the psychometric quality and construct validity of GEPT listening test.
Awards and Honors
C.W. Kim Research Award, Department of Linguistics, UIUC, Urbana, IL (May 2024)
Graduate Student Award Nominee, American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) (March 2024)
Conference Travel Award, Department of Linguistics, UIUC, Urbana, IL (November 2023)
Graduate Student Award Nominee, American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL), (March 2023)
Conference Travel Award, Department of Linguistics, UIUC, Urbana, IL (February 2023)
Courses Taught
LING 448 Introductory Machine Learning (TA)
LING 413 Corpus Linguistics (TA)
LING 402 Tools & Technology in Speech and Language Processing (TA)
ESL 522 Introduction to Business Writing (Instructor)
Highlighted Publications
Cai, H. & Yan, X. (2024). Examining the direct and indirect impacts of verbatim source use on linguistic complexity in integrated argumentative writing assessment. Assessing Writing, 61, 100868.
Cai, H. & Yan, X. (2024). Triangulating natural language processing (NLP)-based analysis of rater comments and many-facet Rasch measurement (MFRM): An innovative approach to investigating raters’ application of rating scales in writing assessment. Language Testing, 41(2), 384–411.