Intern with Michigan Language Assessment

“My internship at Michigan Language Assessment provided valuable hands-on experience in large-scale assessment that will inform my future career. My main project analyzed MET Speaking, focusing on scoring rubric and individual rater performance. This work deepened my understanding of rater performance and how psychometric modeling can support rater training and assessment quality.

Beyond the project, members from various teams invited me to meetings, which created excellent learning opportunities. I joined regular assessment team meetings and standard-setting sessions, and also had the chance to learn about marketing, business, and customer service. As someone who usually focuses on scores and statistical outcomes, I was especially fascinated and impressed by the level of detail and range of considerations in item review sessions. These experiences broadened my perspective on the meticulous work behind a successful testing operation, and I truly enjoyed learning from the members leading those discussions.

Everyone at Michigan Language Assessment created a truly warm and welcoming atmosphere, and openly shared their knowledge, expertise, and experience. I appreciated the many moments that made me feel included, from the staff picnic to trips to a local ice cream shop or nearby cafes with assessment team members.

I also loved exploring Ann Arbor – from visiting its cafes and bakeries to enjoying its beautiful nature. Combined with the warm and supportive environment at Michigan Language Assessment, this internship expanded my educational and professional experience. Most importantly, I am grateful to everyone there for their openness, kindness, and passion for their work, which left a lasting impression on me and inspired qualities I hope to carry into my own career.”

“The 2025 summer internship at Michigan Language Assessment was a great opportunity for me to learn about how language testing companies operate. I really enjoyed learning about various aspects of the testing industry beyond research, including marketing and customer service.

This internship opportunity allowed me to devote myself to using Large Language Models to automatically generate items and automatically evaluate the quality of items. A lot of staff members were very supportive by helping me to get access to resources and providing invaluable feedback for my work, which helped me to develop my project. Feedback from many staff members also allowed me to learn a lot about creating high-quality language testing items.

Beyond work, I really enjoyed meeting and talking with new people and going to wonderful places with them at Ann Arbor. Staff members were very welcoming, and spending time with them outside of work was a very joyful experience. I personally really liked having a cup of ice cream and lunch together. In addition, Ann Arbor is a beautiful place. I really enjoyed visiting amazing parks and watching movies with my family during the internship.

My experience as an intern at Michigan Language Assessment was not only very helpful but also very enjoyable. It allowed me to learn various aspects about language testing and a testing company. What I learned from here will be a great asset for me as a student interested in language testing.”

“When I received the offer to intern at Michigan Language Assessment, I was thrilled at the prospect of working on large-scale language testing and applying my academic knowledge in a real-world setting. My main project, focused on analyzing writing rubrics and rater behavior, turned out to be an invaluable opportunity to delve deep into the complexities of language assessment and contribute to meaningful improvements in rater feedback and training.

I conducted a study using a combination of G Theory analysis and many-facet Rasch measurement (MFRM) analysis. This hands-on experience greatly enhanced my understanding of test validation processes and rater behavior and introduced me to new methodologies and research topics. I’m now fascinated by rater behavior, and I’m excited to explore it further in my future research endeavors. It was also a rewarding process to collaborate with trained raters and consult with the statistician and psychometrician. Their insights were crucial in understanding the nuances of rater performance.

Throughout the internship, I was continually impressed by the welcoming and supportive environment at Michigan Language Assessment and the window into the operational side of language testing. I was regularly involved in assessment team meetings, standard-setting sessions, and item review sessions. Additionally, meeting with the business and marketing teams also gave me valuable insights into the marketing and strategic promotion of language tests in international markets, an aspect of language assessment I had not previously considered. The sense of community at Michigan Language Assessment made my internship particularly special. It’s wonderful to sit and chat with people and learn about their journey to language teaching and testing and learning their career path.

Outside of work, I also enjoyed exploring the charming town of Ann Arbor, MI. Whether it was enjoying meals in the downtown restaurants, visiting the local farmers’ market, or attending the Summer Festival and Art Fair, every moment added to the richness of my experience. The balance of professional engagement and personal enjoyment made this summer truly memorable.

In conclusion, my internship at Michigan Language Assessment was everything I hoped it would be and more. It provided me with hands-on experience in language test development, broadened my research capabilities, and introduced me to a network of professionals who are passionate about their work. As I move forward in my career, I will carry with me the lessons learned and the connections made during this incredible summer.”

“My internship at Michigan Language Assessment was an incredibly enriching experience that complimented my Ph.D. studies with practical, hands-on learning. Throughout my time there, I had the unique opportunity to participate in one-on-one meetings with various teams, from marketing to test security to item development, gaining a holistic understanding of how an assessment organization operates (and often finding myself in awe of how much thought and effort went into ensuring a smooth and collaborative operation). I also attended regular staff and standard-setting meetings, where I observed real-world challenges and solutions in action. A standout experience was attending a recording session for listening passages in a professional studio, where I saw firsthand the fun and meticulous behind-the-scenes work that goes into creating listening items.

Professionally, Michigan Language Assessment greatly contributed to my development. The environment encouraged deep engagement with my work and offered many opportunities to interact with assessment stakeholders who were always receptive to my ideas and available for questions and feedback. I presented three times to Michigan Language Assessment stakeholders, covering topics like automated scoring, my dissertation work on interactive academic listening with generative AI, and my Michigan Language Assessment project – a white paper on automated scoring quality control and assurance. These presentations allowed me to speak to stakeholders outside the classroom and boosted my confidence in applying theoretical knowledge to real-world scenarios and in communicating my work to a diverse assessment audience.

The support I received from the assessment team and other Michigan Language Assessment teams was exceptional. I felt like everyone went out of their way to make me feel welcome and included, whether it was by offering help whenever needed or inviting me to social outings like a trip to a local gelato shop or giving me tickets to a football (soccer) game. I even had the opportunity to show an interactive listening item from my dissertation work to the CEO of Michigan Language Assessment and hear her thoughts.

Ann Arbor, MI, has a magical, forest-like atmosphere, warm-hearted people, great food, and attractions like the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History and the University of Michigan Museum of Art. It has now earned a spot on my list of favorite cities in the U.S.

My time at Michigan Language Assessment was both educational and enjoyable. I’m deeply grateful to all the Michigan Language Assessment members for creating opportunities that allowed me to grow both personally and professionally.”

“The summer internship at Michigan Language Assessment was a great opportunity for me to experience the day-to-day operations of a language testing organization and understand the collaborative effort that goes into developing and administering a standardized language test. In addition, I really enjoyed working on my research project, which gave me a chance to delve deeply into MET’s construct and domain relevance. It was rewarding to engage in a topic that aligns so closely with my research focus on validation in testing. My mentors, Mika and Tahnee, provided invaluable advice and support while I was working on the project. Other team members at Michigan Language Assessment were also very welcoming and were willing to share their knowledge and expertise with me whenever I came to them with questions.

My previous language assessment internship was fully remote at the height of the pandemic, so working in a hybrid setting at Michigan Language Assessment in Ann Arbor was a very new and exciting experience for me. I was impressed by the productive and collaborative environment MLA has created through a balance between in-person and digital interactions. On the days I worked remotely, I often found myself at the University of Michigan’s libraries. Their architectural beauty, combined with the vast collection of books and resources available to me as an MLA staff member, made them a perfect sanctuary for work and research.

During the weekends, I was able to visit beautiful places in Michigan people had recommended, such as Mackinac Island, the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, and Traverse City. Attending local events like the Ann Arbor Summer Festival and the Ann Arbor Art Fair made my summer in Michigan even more memorable. I know I will miss the short walks and conversations I had with team members on our way to Argus and Blank Slate. I look forward to meeting team members again at future language testing conferences and in other professional settings.”

“I am so grateful that I’ve met many great people here. Everyone was willing to share knowledge about the company and patient to answer questions. When I applied for the summer internship at Michigan Language Assessment, a well-known language testing company, I was excited about the opportunity that I might gain much practical knowledge and experience in large-scale standardized language proficiency tests. That’s indeed what I learned when I got here. This truly has broadened my eyesight as I previously worked in a local test held in a university setting. It was also an interesting experience that I worked hybridly after the pandemic.

I was assigned a research project to find factors that affect item difficulty to help item writers/developers produce more difficult items. The project focused on discrete listening and grammar items on the MET. I first studied the literature to identify what factors the field has already found. Then, I extracted a wide array of textual features using NLP tools for items at different difficulty levels and performed a statistical analysis to determine which features tend to affect (i.e., increase or decrease) item difficulty and which ones contribute more than others. I enjoyed the whole process, having a chance to utilize my skill set to solve problems in the real world. The moment I heard from the team that my findings might help made my day.

In addition, I was invited to meetings with different teams, both online and in-person, where I had the opportunity to learn the overall structure of a testing company, the primary responsibilities of each team, and how those teams cooperate. This has allowed me to get some basic ideas about areas other than assessment, such as marketing, operation, and business management. It was particularly intriguing when people discussed the same topic from different perspectives.

Patrick and Jay gave me a lot of support on my research project throughout the whole process, encouraging me to ask for help. Tahnee was always there, caring about what I might be interested in and my feelings about working hybrid. She also gave me helpful suggestions on my project and future career. It was a wonderful experience working here.

During weekends, I immersed myself in adventuring the town. Ann Arbor is a lovely place full of excellent restaurants, cute markets and stores, and beautiful gardens. I was also in love with its diverse culture and jolly atmosphere.”

“My mentors Sharon and Patrick were extremely patient and supportive. They were always available to answer my questions and direct me to the right resources. I would highly recommend this internship to anyone who is looking for short-term working experience and/or long-term research collaboration. Michigan Language Assessment (MLA) is a wonderful place for a summer internship, as it allows me to get a taste of large-scale international language assessment and apply my knowledge in SLA and language assessment to actual test development. It has been a truly enjoyable and rewarding experience.

During my internship, I was tasked with two assignments which required me to work both independently and collaboratively. The first assignment was to prepare a literature review that summarizes and synthesizes scholarship on training standard-setting panelists and proposes a new standard-setting study. The second assignment was to work collaboratively with a Writing Revision Team to develop a new rating scale for ECPE writing and plan the pilot study and data analysis. Both assignments allowed me to actively engage with the most updated research and constantly explore the intersections between theory and practice in a large-scale assessment setting. While working on my assignments, I learned how to use FACETS in conducting multi-facet Rasch analysis with the help of Gad and Patrick. I also attended different test development meetings regularly where I gained numerous practical insights from my colleagues with different backgrounds and years of test development experience.

The MLA community is very welcoming and efficient. Thanks to their well-planned orientation program, I was able to quickly adjust myself to the new working environment without feeling overwhelmed.

During my free time, I enjoyed chatting over lunch breaks and taking a walk in the neighborhood with my colleagues. It was also very nice to live in Ann Arbor again – I met with some old friends and went to the Summer Festival and the Art Fair which I didn’t have a chance to explore in the past.”

“I am especially thankful to Gad for his guidance and support throughout the project. His extensive knowledge, expertise, and experience in language testing have all inspired me profoundly. When I received the internship offer from Michigan Language Assessment, I imagined with great excitement what it would be like to work in a well-known testing company. I dreamed of myself working on interesting projects, learning from testing professionals, and participating in the day-to-day business operations. Not only did all my dreams come true at Michigan Language Assessment, but I was also given much more.

My main task here was to develop a toolkit for investigating the impact of the Michigan English Test (MET) and its sister test for young learners, the MET Go!. This project provided me with an opportunity to further develop my research interest in test impacts. It required me to dig deep into the literature of test washback and impacts, to understand the constructs of the MET and MET Go!, and to create instruments that are appropriate for the specific context of South America, where the MET and MET Go! are currently being used. With the help of my mentor, Dr. Gad Lim, I also had the opportunity to pilot some of the survey questions with test takers in Costa Rica and Colombia.

In addition to the impact project, I was involved in another research project that was aimed at investigating the cognitive diagnostic validity of the two-skill MET (listening and reading only). I worked with five assessment staff members to identify the skills that are necessary to answer the MET listening and reading items. I tagged two MET forms independently based on a skill list prepared by the team leader and discussed my tags with other members. Altogether, we resolved the differences in our tags and refined the original skill list through group discussion. This project has greatly expanded my knowledge of the application of structural equation modeling in test validation and has prompted me to explore the use of cognitive diagnostic modeling in my own research.

Aside from research experience, I also gained insight into the nuts and bolts of test development. I participated in all assessment staff meetings and content review sessions. Through these meetings and sessions, I learned a great deal about item writing, item review, and item analysis. I also had the opportunity to interview three business managers in South America and learned how tests are promoted to test takers and test centers in that region.

This internship program is the best way I can think of to spend my summer. All the staff members were warm and friendly and were eager to help me with any questions and concerns. Additionally, they gave me so many interesting ideas for spending my weekends that enabled me to maximize my stay in Ann Arbor. Thanks to them, I enjoyed every bit of my internship program. I will definitely miss the people here and Ann Arbor’s restaurants, peony garden, farmer’s market, civic concerts, summer festival, and art fair.”

“My internship was only for eight weeks, but I feel I not only learned a lot about language assessment but also met great people. The friendly environment where all staff members are eager to help each other and learn new things was one of the best parts of the internship. One of the main reasons I applied to intern at Michigan Language Assessment was to gain experience in quality assurance practices in a large-scale assessment context. Most of my previous hands-on experiences in language testing have been writing test specifications, writing items, and developing rubrics, but I have not worked with post-development phases. I was excited when I learned that Michigan Language Assessment provides opportunities to work on quality management of existing tests.

I was tasked with laying out possible revisions of one of the tests, and I learned a great deal about stakeholder interests and practical concerns regarding a large-scale international English test. This was invaluable experience for me because I learned to consider a big picture of the whole test administration rather than just focusing on test constructs and individual items at the micro level. In addition, interns were invited to staff meetings, and it allowed me to understand how staff members with different specialties work as a cohesive team.

Outside of work, I did my best to try different cuisines in Ann Arbor’s famous restaurants. Ann Arbor is such a vibrant city with great restaurants and coffee shops, and I will miss having a variety of options for food. I was also able to enjoy the Ann Arbor Summer Festival to the fullest.

I’d also like to thank Gad Lim and Rachel Basse for their support and very accommodating supervision they provided. This was an amazing opportunity for me to develop as a language tester.”

“Overall, this internship was a valuable experience for me to grow professionally. And this experience was perfected by the beautiful, multicultural Ann Arbor, which I totally fell in love with. My future career goal is working for language testing agencies to develop language tests and investigate the extent to which language tests are well-designed to elicit valid, reliable, and relevant information about examinees. I applied for an internship at Michigan Language Assessment because I knew that it was a perfect place to experience firsthand how professionals collaborate in designing high-quality assessments and to broaden my perspective as a language tester/researcher.

During my time as an intern, I was involved in many projects related to the new MET Go! test. Most of my time was spent researching the use of checklists as a rating tool, examining the functionality of the rating tools for the speaking and writing tests, and helping test developers revise the rating tools and draft test development reports. These projects not only allowed me to apply what I had learned from my graduate programs, they also broadened my horizons. I learned many things from my mentors, Patrick and Gad, and other test developers, including knowledge about learning-oriented assessment and new R packages. I also appreciated being involved in various meetings with different test development teams, which helped me understand the enormous amount of time, organization, collaboration, and creativity needed before launching a new test. I also enjoyed the supportive working environment and the friendly staff at Michigan Language Assessment and the fact that our collaboration will extend beyond the internship.”