Becky Huang, PhD

Dr. Becky Huang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies, College of Education and Human Development, at the University of Texas San Antonio (UTSA). She is also the Director of the Language Learning and Assessment Laboratory at UTSA. She received her doctorate in Educational Psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and completed the Linguistic Society of America’s Summer Institute in Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley. She did her postdoctoral training at Harvard University and at Educational Testing Service’s English Language Learning and Assessment research division. 
Dr. Huang’s research areas span across applied linguistics, psychology, and education. Her research program focuses on two interrelated areas that address the goal of promoting language and education outcomes for bilingual/English learner (EL) students: language/literacy development and assessment of bilingual/EL students. The first line of research focuses on language and literacy development among bilingual/dual language learners, particularly those who learn English as a second language. She examines the cognitive (e.g., age of learning) and environmental (e.g., language input, literacy practices, socioeconomic status) predictors of bilingual language and literacy outcomes. Her second line of research investigates the reliability, validity, and fairness of language/literacy assessments for bilingual learners. For this line of work, she focuses on the validity of placement and language proficiency tests as well as rater reliability in assessments that involve human judgments (e.g., speaking assessments and formative assessments).   
Dr. Huang uses mainly quantitative research methods, but also conducts mixed methods studies and collaborates with colleagues with qualitative orientations. She has published in leading applied linguistics, education, and psychology journals such as Teachers College Record, International Journal of Bilingualism, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Reading Research Quarterly, Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, System, Language Testing, and Language Assessment Quarterly. She has also published conference proceedings, handbook chapters, research reports, and encyclopedia entries. She has recently co-edited two special issues for System and International Journal of Bilingualism. Dr. Huang’s work has been supported by funding from research institutions in the US and abroad. She was also a finalist for the National Academy of Education Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship.  
Dr. Huang holds a Teaching Foreign/Heritage Language Certificate from UCLA and an English language teacher certification in secondary education from the Ministry of Education in Taiwan. She is a former middle school teacher and has also taught English as a Second/Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) to various age groups. At UTSA, she has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in Linguistics, Second Language Acquisition, Assessment of Bilingual/Second Language Learners, Language Teaching Methods, Second Language Listening and Speaking, and Research Design and Statistics. She has also taught in face-to-face, hybrid, as well as fully online formats. 

http://education.utsa.edu/faculty/profile/becky.huang@utsa.edu