Abdulrahman Alharthi is a PhD student in the Applied Linguistics and Technology program at Iowa State University. He has a bachelor's degree in English Language from King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia and a master's degree in Applied Linguistics from the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom. His research interests include language assessment (in particular listening tasks in high-stake tests such as IELTS and TOFEL), L2 listening comprehension, vocabulary acquisition, language motivation, and Directed Motivational Currents (DMC).