The 12th International Conference of the Asian Association for Language Assessment (AALA 2026) was recently held at Taipa campus, City University of Macau (CityU). This marked the first time the AALA annual conference held in Macao. Hosted by the School of Education (SOE), the conference was themed “Humanistic Approach to Assessment, Standards, Innovation, and Accountability”. The four-day event attracted nearly 300 participants from 97 universities and institutions across 19 countries and regions, making it the most attended edition among those in other Asian countries and regions.
AALA Chair Yasuyo Sawaki and Co-Chair Jason Fan stated that, the theme of this year’s conference highlights the need to re-examine the key role of “people” in second language teaching, learning, and assessment against the backdrop of rapid technological development.
In her opening address, Liying Cheng, Local Chair of the conference and dean of SOE, noted that the conference serves as a platform for participants to learn together and to gain occupational and professional development. She encouraged participants to cherish their time at the conference, learn from each other and grow together.
Rector Jun Liu stated that in the AI era, university education should redefine its own value from knowledge transmission to competence development, strengthening humanities and social sciences, and focus on the learning process rather than AI output. He expressed the hope to break down geographical boundaries through the Network University model to safeguard students’ learning outcomes.
This year’s conference featured three keynote speeches, 17 invited talks, three thematic panel discussions, over 100 breakout presentations and 20 poster displays. Topics covered areas including “Human-Centered Assessment Design and Practice”, “Standards, Fairness, and Equity in Diverse Contexts”, “ Generative AI, multimodal analytics, and automated feedback”, and “ Accountability, Policy, and Public Trust”.
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In the keynote session, Professor Eunice Eunhee Jang from University of Toronto, Canada, spoke on “Learning-Oriented Assessment”, exploring how assessment can shift its focus from evaluating language output to promoting learners’ cognitive and metacognitive abilities in the era of generative AI. She pointed out that what educators need is not only the ability to navigate tools, but also critical AI literacy to question the limitations and biases of algorithms.
Professor Xun Yan from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, United States, used the evolution of a school-based writing assessment as an example to argue that localized assessment can become an experimental ground for innovation, preventing “argumentative competence” from being reduced to structure or task completion.
Professor Ying Zheng from the University of Southampton, United Kingdom, focused on “Chinese Language Education Research beyond Asia: Evidence, Challenges, and Collaboration,” sharing recent empirical studies conducted by her team on learning motivation, cross‑border teacher professional development, and the alignment of the UK’s A-Level Chinese examination with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). She proposed a “reflective collaboration” approach, encouraging teachers to participate as researchers and bridge the gap between research and practice.
The conference also featured four workshops:
- Professor Dina Tsagari from Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway, gave a workshop on English language assessment and assessment practices for students with special educational needs, such as dyslexia.
- Gwan-Hyeok Im from Konkuk University, South Korea, presented on validity and validation in language assessment: concepts, evidence, and argument-based approaches.
- Yuanyue Hao from University of Oxford, UK, gave an introductory and hands-on workshop on deep learning and neural networks.
- Professor Quan Zhang from the South China Business College of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies delivered sharing on item analysis and test equating (Rasch model) in the AI era.
AALA 2026 was supported by 12 organizations, including the British Council, the Duolingo English Test, The Language Training & Testing Center (LTTC), the ETS TOEIC program, Pearson, LanguageCert, City University of Macau, FLTRP, Language Testing in Asia, the Hong Kong Elite and Education Association, the Sejong Korean Language Assessment (SKA), and the Hong Kong-Macao Institute of China Research in International Education. The preparatory work was carried out by an organizing committee composed of scholars from three universities including CityU, the University of Macau, and Macao Polytechnic University, with over 30 undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral students from the three institutions serving as volunteers to support the conference’s organization.
