The field of language testing and assessment—like the overall field of educational measurement—has been an earlier adapter and innovator of technological advances. As detailed in the 2025 special issue of Language Testing, the prevalence of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) presents significant promises and challenges. Many of these challenges exacerbate existing issues faced by culturally and linguistically minoritized (CLM) test-takers. It is within this landscape that this talk situates humanizing approaches for language assessment. Humanizing assessment presents an overall perspective that the lived experiences of test-takers are inherently valuable for practices of assessment design, development, implementation, interpretation, and understanding consequences of use. Humanizing practices are well-established as pedagogical and research approaches. There has been a growing emphasis on adopting humanizing assessment practices across multiple disciplines as well. As a complex area of intersecting research, the transdisciplinary lens of language assessment has been opening pathways for state-of-the-art contributions for understanding humanizing assessment practices through theoretical, empirical, and practice-based research that focuses on the humanity and dignity (cf ILTA Code of Ethics 2000 Principle 1; 2024 Principle of Respect) of CLM test-takers in particular. Using testimonio-as-methodology, I present narratives from CLM test-takers in the United States and Mexico who are leaders in the field of language education. CLM in these contexts means self-identifying as immigrant, transnational, Indigenous, and/or other less clearly delineated categorizations. Their narratives contribute to a complex mosaic of understandings of the peoples who are needed to take assessments and the potentials for assessments moving forward. Their perspectives provide a vast array of often underrepresented perspectives and approaches that serve to advance the field of language testing and assessment overall. To conclude, I discuss how engaging and galvanizing research focused on humanizing approaches for language assessment can guide the important work with CLM test-takers forward. 

Recent advances in technology have profoundly reshaped language assessment, influencing not only how tests are delivered and scored, but also how language ability is conceptualized and interpreted. As assessment practices increasingly integrate automation, generative artificial intelligence, and digitally mediated environments, long-standing assumptions about constructs, evaluation, and test use warrant renewed examination (Voss et al., 2023; Xi, 2023). In this plenary, I will position technology as a mediator in language assessment and examine this role through three interconnected perspectives in a digital-first assessment context.

First, I will consider construct representation through vocabulary assessment by examining how psychometric difficulty relates to underlying linguistic features. Differences between expected and observed response patterns invite reflection on how language constructs are represented in technology-mediated assessments. Second, I will turn to scoring and evaluation, exploring how human judgments of writing and speaking performance play a crucial role in automated scoring systems. Technology allows human evaluation to be scaled, supporting scoring that is consistent and aligned with the intended construct, while also highlighting the need to examine potential bias. Third, I will address assessment use and impact by exploring how digitally mediated practice environments influence test-taker affect and performance, extending the consequences of assessment beyond the test itself.

Together, these perspectives demonstrate the need to view language assessment as an integrated system in which design, scoring, and use are deeply connected through technological mediation. I will conclude by discussing implications for validity, ethics, and innovation in language assessment, and by reflecting on how the field might respond to the opportunities and challenges posed by technological advancements.