Publishing in academic journals is a crucial component of higher education in advancing knowledge in the academic field, and publishing in high caliber academic journals proves to be more important in judging the levels of research by academia. Dr. Wei Wei, an Assistant Professor at the University International College (UIC) from Macau University of Science and Technology, recently published an academic paper in the journal of Computer Assisted Language learning, whose latest impact factor IF (a measure reflecting the yearly average number of citations to recent articles published in that journal within its field. The journal with the highest impact factor in the field of Linguistics is the journal of Applied Linguistics (IF=3.593)) is 2.12, making it a top-tier international journal, ranking 11th among 182 SSCI journals in the area of Linguistics. The significance of this publication lies with the fact that publication in humanity areas at such high level (commonly referred to as high impact factored SSCI publication) is more difficult, compared with hard science fields. While keeping teaching as a core component in the mission statement, Macau University of Science and Technology strongly endorses and supports high level research in all the academic areas the University offers. This publication provides one telling example of the efforts made by the University of its mission to be teaching-research centered as well as quality and excellence driven.
The article, an investigation of integrative and independent listening test tasks in a computerised academic English test, with Dr. Wei as the first and corresponding author, and Associate Professor Zheng Ying, Faculty of Humanities at the University of Southampton, UK, as co-author, conducted a comprehensive evaluation and validation of the listening section of a newly introduced computerised test, Pearson Test of English Academic (PTE Academic), whose results provide useful references for designing more effective assessment activities to evaluate language learning performances by English language learners. Degree programs in foreign languages (Portuguese, Spanish, and English) offered at UIC/MUST where Dr. Wei is an English faculty member, will definitely benefit from Dr. Wei’s research.