Shiken Across 23 Years: James Dean Brown’s Statistical Advice

Abstract

J.D. Brown (JD) served as the author of an instructional column titled "Statistics Corner" in the Shiken: JALTTesting & Evaluation SIG Newsletter for an extensive period spanning over two decades, from 1997 to 2019.This publication was under the auspices of the Testing and Evaluation Special Interest Group, a subdivision ofthe Japanese Association of Language Teaching. The audience for the columns was diverse, and includedlanguage teachers, graduate students, and language practitioners encountering real-world issues with languageassessment. Throughout his tenure, JD addressed over 40 reader-submitted inquiries related to testing andquantitative research. The subjects explored in these columns can be broadly classified into two thematic areas:Second Language Testing and Second Language Research. This present article aims to provide an exhaustiveexamination of the diverse range of topics covered within each of these thematic categories and to trace theevolution of these subjects over the course of JD’s twenty-year involvement with the newsletter. Its goal is tohelp situate JD’s abiding concern with connecting theory and practice.