Professor Gui Shichun, a well-known figure in the academic field in China , is credited with being the first scholar who introduced applied linguistics studies into China . He has established severalother records of “the first in China ,” hence has long been called “the brave pioneering explorer” in his field in his country. For example, he established the first applied linguistics ( AL ) MA program in 1978, the first AL certificate program in 1980, and the first AL Ph.D. program in 1986. He also established and held the first national symposium on applied linguistics and English teaching in 1980 and the first international symposium on foreign language teaching in China in 1985. Further, in 1978, he also started advocating the application of international mainstream language testing theories and established the nation-wide English Proficiency Test (EPT) in China . According to Li (Dong & Wang, 2001), the establishment of EPT is significant in at least three aspects: First, it was the first time in Chinese testing history that language testing was regarded as an autonomous area of scientific enquiry; second, the test results of the EPT were soon admitted and accepted by a certain range of institutions in the United States and Canada; third, through the establishment of this test, a group of testing specialists, who later became major forces behind other new tests, were trained. Generally regarded as the founding father of language testing in China , he is also the advisor of the National College English Test committee. Over the years, he has supervised many MA students as well as Ph.D. students who are now very active in the field of language testing and applied linguistics.

China . LanguageAssessment Quarterly, 7: 359–371, 2010.)