This presentation will provide an overview of fundamental considerations in research on pronunciation assessment in adult second language learners of English. We will begin by overviewing the ways in which pronunciation instructional priorities and assessment targets have shifted over time, including reasons for its neglect and resurgence and competing tensions between key global constructs. Content coverage will also include, in brief, sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic perspectives as they relate to standards and learner attainment, human evaluative judgments and the transformative role of technology in the assessment terrain, and finally, the challenges that global Englishes poses in transnational communication and developing authentic pronunciation assessments.