Mixed-method Research in Language Testing: History, Practice and Trend

The study analyses 63 MMR studies used in Language Testing from seven dimensions: publication year, theme, purpose, research question, design, and integration manner. Results show that they: 1) were mainly published during 2010s, and the increase has doubled per decade from 1980s to 2010s; 2) have mainly covered such themes as rating, validation, speaking and writing; 3) have the purposes dominated by Triangulation and Complementarity; 4) have the research questions dominated by "each question for each phase"; 5) have the design dominated by concurrent and sequential design; 6) have the integration manner dominated by "integration in interpretation". Finally five implications are proposed.