Dan Isbell
@danielrisbell.bsky.social
Associate Professor of Second Language Studies, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, specializing in language assessment. Associate Editor at Language Learning journal (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14679922). Views own. https://isbell.github.io/
Reposted by Dan Isbell
It is unclear to me how much traction Glossa: a journal of general linguistics is getting on BlueSky. I am thinking of switching communication about new papers to LinkedIn, which gives better insight into the # of views garnered. Give us a like if you want Glossa to stay on the Blue side of things.
December 29, 2025 at 7:34 PM
It is unclear to me how much traction Glossa: a journal of general linguistics is getting on BlueSky. I am thinking of switching communication about new papers to LinkedIn, which gives better insight into the # of views garnered. Give us a like if you want Glossa to stay on the Blue side of things.
This thread on a large Japanese language migration from Twitter to Bsky is super interesting. I was under the impression that Japan was a Twitter holdout, largely unconcerned with Elon's role in US (and other places') politics. (And on a side note, Korea never seemed big on Twitter but..
See that cluster on the top left? It's gonna get a whole lot bigger by the end of the week.
a zoomed out view looking at language. might need to pull out all the language specific posts and do individual clustering by language
December 25, 2025 at 7:21 AM
This thread on a large Japanese language migration from Twitter to Bsky is super interesting. I was under the impression that Japan was a Twitter holdout, largely unconcerned with Elon's role in US (and other places') politics. (And on a side note, Korea never seemed big on Twitter but..
Reposted by Dan Isbell
The official FAQ for the IELTS scoring screwup has been updated. We now know exactly how many tests were affected.
www.ieltsresultsupport.org/hc/en-gb/art...
www.ieltsresultsupport.org/hc/en-gb/art...
Frequently Asked Questions
What happened?IELTS identified a technical issue that led to a small proportion of test takers – less than 1% – receiving incorrect results between 24 August 2023 and 4 September 2025. The issue ha...
www.ieltsresultsupport.org
December 19, 2025 at 2:16 PM
The official FAQ for the IELTS scoring screwup has been updated. We now know exactly how many tests were affected.
www.ieltsresultsupport.org/hc/en-gb/art...
www.ieltsresultsupport.org/hc/en-gb/art...
This context of Wright's whinging is absolutely critical. Imagine your job prospects getting screwed over by your advisor/PI, who happened to be a white male in a tenure track job, and then turning around and blaming things on unnamed, totally-not-fabricated minorities taking all the jobs.
Wright's claims are particularly absurd. No one was getting jobs in ecology & evolutionary biology in 2020 straight out of grad school with no pubs.
Granted, Wright had a raw deal - most of his pubs were retracted, not because anything he did but because his collaborator was falsifying data
Granted, Wright had a raw deal - most of his pubs were retracted, not because anything he did but because his collaborator was falsifying data
December 19, 2025 at 6:26 AM
This context of Wright's whinging is absolutely critical. Imagine your job prospects getting screwed over by your advisor/PI, who happened to be a white male in a tenure track job, and then turning around and blaming things on unnamed, totally-not-fabricated minorities taking all the jobs.
Reposted by Dan Isbell
Big new blogpost!
My guide to data visualization, which includes a very long table of contents, tons of charts, and more.
--> Why data visualization matters and how to make charts more effective, clear, transparent, and sometimes, beautiful.
www.scientificdiscovery.dev/p/salonis-gu...
My guide to data visualization, which includes a very long table of contents, tons of charts, and more.
--> Why data visualization matters and how to make charts more effective, clear, transparent, and sometimes, beautiful.
www.scientificdiscovery.dev/p/salonis-gu...
December 9, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Big new blogpost!
My guide to data visualization, which includes a very long table of contents, tons of charts, and more.
--> Why data visualization matters and how to make charts more effective, clear, transparent, and sometimes, beautiful.
www.scientificdiscovery.dev/p/salonis-gu...
My guide to data visualization, which includes a very long table of contents, tons of charts, and more.
--> Why data visualization matters and how to make charts more effective, clear, transparent, and sometimes, beautiful.
www.scientificdiscovery.dev/p/salonis-gu...
The head of the Korean agency that develops the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT or 수능), a national college entrance exam, resigned due to the recent English language section being too difficult.
www.koreaherald.com/article/1063...
www.koreaherald.com/article/1063...
Suneung agency chief resigns over too-difficult English exam
The chief official in charge of the administration of the country's annual national college entrance exam stepped down Wednesday to take responsibility for the
www.koreaherald.com
December 10, 2025 at 6:31 AM
The head of the Korean agency that develops the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT or 수능), a national college entrance exam, resigned due to the recent English language section being too difficult.
www.koreaherald.com/article/1063...
www.koreaherald.com/article/1063...
Being forced to upgrade to Windows 11 because the free MS Office for educators program expired and the copy of Office 24 doesn't work with Win10...
Not going to be a very productive close to this week!
Not going to be a very productive close to this week!
December 5, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Being forced to upgrade to Windows 11 because the free MS Office for educators program expired and the copy of Office 24 doesn't work with Win10...
Not going to be a very productive close to this week!
Not going to be a very productive close to this week!
Reposted by Dan Isbell
Taking to my vet just now I realized vets : pets :: linguists : languages.
Vets often have lots of pets because they like pets and that’s why they became vets. But having a bunch of pets isn’t what makes you a vet.
Vets often have lots of pets because they like pets and that’s why they became vets. But having a bunch of pets isn’t what makes you a vet.
December 4, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Taking to my vet just now I realized vets : pets :: linguists : languages.
Vets often have lots of pets because they like pets and that’s why they became vets. But having a bunch of pets isn’t what makes you a vet.
Vets often have lots of pets because they like pets and that’s why they became vets. But having a bunch of pets isn’t what makes you a vet.
So Purdue allegedly has an unofficial ban on admitting grad students from countries designated as adversaries by the Trump admin.
Purdue effectively bans grad students from China, other countries, faculty say
Administrators have apparently urged departments to turn away certain international students.
www.jconline.com
December 4, 2025 at 6:44 AM
So Purdue allegedly has an unofficial ban on admitting grad students from countries designated as adversaries by the Trump admin.
Keep this in mind the next time your uni administration talks about tightening the belt to meet budget challenges. Many universities are losing tens of millions on athletics - shortfalls that lead to stoppages, closures, and layoffs in academic units.
For folks who think that "most" college athletics programs are revenue-positive for their schools, go to this table and sort by "percent allocated." sportsdata.usatoday.com/ncaa/finances
NCAA Finances: Revenue & Expenses by School - USA TODAY
Which are the most profitable college athletic programs in the country? See a ranked listed, including total revenue and expenses. Brought to you by USA TODAY.
sportsdata.usatoday.com
November 30, 2025 at 10:18 PM
Keep this in mind the next time your uni administration talks about tightening the belt to meet budget challenges. Many universities are losing tens of millions on athletics - shortfalls that lead to stoppages, closures, and layoffs in academic units.
Co‐Authorship in Applied Linguistics Research: Patterns and Trends, 1991–2023 - Pearson - International Journal of Applied Linguistics - Wiley Online Library doi.org/10.1111/ijal...
We are an increasingly collaborative discipline!
We are an increasingly collaborative discipline!
Co‐Authorship in Applied Linguistics Research: Patterns and Trends, 1991–2023
It has been 18 years since Greene's featured article in Nature, The demise of the lone author. In that time, there have been enormous shifts in how educational research has been conducted, with a mov...
doi.org
November 30, 2025 at 8:36 PM
Co‐Authorship in Applied Linguistics Research: Patterns and Trends, 1991–2023 - Pearson - International Journal of Applied Linguistics - Wiley Online Library doi.org/10.1111/ijal...
We are an increasingly collaborative discipline!
We are an increasingly collaborative discipline!
Reposted by Dan Isbell
Susie Kim and @danielrisbell.bsky.social's chapter explores the implementation of #Korean #Pronunciation #Diagnostic (KPD) in an #intermediate-level Korean language course. The chapter also discusses future use of the KPD, including incorporating DA as a part of it doi.org/10.1515/9783...
3 Diagnostic assessment of pronunciation in a Korean language classroom: An action research study
3 Diagnostic assessment of pronunciation in a Korean language classroom: An action research study was published in Dynamic and Diagnostic Language Assessment on page 53.
doi.org
November 27, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Susie Kim and @danielrisbell.bsky.social's chapter explores the implementation of #Korean #Pronunciation #Diagnostic (KPD) in an #intermediate-level Korean language course. The chapter also discusses future use of the KPD, including incorporating DA as a part of it doi.org/10.1515/9783...
Reposted by Dan Isbell
“These results show that current AI systems are not yet capable of supporting low-resource languages.”
www.hawaii.edu/news/2025/09...
www.hawaii.edu/news/2025/09...
Endangered languages AI tools developed by UH researchers | University of Hawaiʻi System News
UH researchers created the first AI benchmark for endangered Austronesian languages, paving the way for more inclusive language technology.
www.hawaii.edu
November 27, 2025 at 4:19 AM
“These results show that current AI systems are not yet capable of supporting low-resource languages.”
www.hawaii.edu/news/2025/09...
www.hawaii.edu/news/2025/09...
The American people do want to hear more about Dershowitz, but not for the reasons Weiss imagines:
![Wikipedia screencap that reads: In 1995, Dershowitz served as the appellate adviser on the murder trial of O. J. Simpson as part of the legal "Dream Team" alongside Johnnie Cochran and F. Lee Bailey.[9] He was a member of Harvey Weinstein's defense team in 2018[6] and of President Donald Trump's defense team in his first impeachment trial in 2020.[5] He was a member of Jeffrey Epstein's defense team and helped to negotiate a 2006 non-prosecution agreement on Epstein's behalf.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:hoaguzdazr4ckmsh7bscps2i/bafkreib2h36spimmadap35fj5iboececyyqfbbbcua42tjqjpdd2kaeop4@jpeg)
November 25, 2025 at 9:35 PM
The American people do want to hear more about Dershowitz, but not for the reasons Weiss imagines:
Reposted by Dan Isbell
"Toner-Rodgers’s illusory success seems in part thanks to the dynamics he has now upset: an academic culture at MIT where high levels of trust, integrity and rigor are all—for better or worse—assumed"
Uh huh, now just who is given the assumption of rigor?
(🎁 link)
www.wsj.com/economy/aida...
Uh huh, now just who is given the assumption of rigor?
(🎁 link)
www.wsj.com/economy/aida...
An MIT Student Awed Top Economists With His AI Study—Then It All Fell Apart
Aidan Toner-Rodgers shot to academic fame in a field hungry for new insights and revelatory research. But a computer scientist thought something seemed off.
www.wsj.com
November 22, 2025 at 6:00 PM
"Toner-Rodgers’s illusory success seems in part thanks to the dynamics he has now upset: an academic culture at MIT where high levels of trust, integrity and rigor are all—for better or worse—assumed"
Uh huh, now just who is given the assumption of rigor?
(🎁 link)
www.wsj.com/economy/aida...
Uh huh, now just who is given the assumption of rigor?
(🎁 link)
www.wsj.com/economy/aida...
This is one of the wildest local news stories I've ever read - could be from a near-future dystopian sci-fi novel - and a mind-blowing failure of law and governance:
www.civilbeat.org/2025/11/hono...
www.civilbeat.org/2025/11/hono...
Honolulu Officials Are Doing Little To Help ‘Hell-Hole’ Tenants
City officials have been unable to serve violation notices to building managers, who also have repeatedly failed to show up for court dates.
www.civilbeat.org
November 22, 2025 at 5:06 AM
This is one of the wildest local news stories I've ever read - could be from a near-future dystopian sci-fi novel - and a mind-blowing failure of law and governance:
www.civilbeat.org/2025/11/hono...
www.civilbeat.org/2025/11/hono...
Some sort of technical error has resulted in incorrect IELTS scores being issued for an undisclosed number of test takers;
thepienews.com/ielts-apolog...
thepienews.com/ielts-apolog...
IELTS apologises after technical issue leads to score changes
IELTS has announced that some test results issued between August 2023 and September 2025 are incorrect, with candidates now receiving revised scores.
thepienews.com
November 16, 2025 at 12:43 AM
Some sort of technical error has resulted in incorrect IELTS scores being issued for an undisclosed number of test takers;
thepienews.com/ielts-apolog...
thepienews.com/ielts-apolog...
Regretting the Japanese class for my 2nd grader:
November 15, 2025 at 5:50 AM
Regretting the Japanese class for my 2nd grader:
This would impact everyone in my humble applied linguistics dept. It'd also make the large majority of most engineering, computer science (including AI researchers...), and biosciences faculty ineligible for grant funding.
How do you attract 600k Chinese students and push AI research like this?
How do you attract 600k Chinese students and push AI research like this?
Academics who have advised a graduate student from China over the past years would be banned from federal funding. This would give the federal government one more lever to attack scientists. And how long before they expand the list of "hostile foreign" countries?
November 14, 2025 at 11:12 PM
This would impact everyone in my humble applied linguistics dept. It'd also make the large majority of most engineering, computer science (including AI researchers...), and biosciences faculty ineligible for grant funding.
How do you attract 600k Chinese students and push AI research like this?
How do you attract 600k Chinese students and push AI research like this?
One actually useful function of genAI being everywhere: Easy to extract text from images. That and translation are the main reasons why I have the browser widget for Gemini. But it'd be great to see that built seamlessly into social networking sites for alt text generation for uploaded images.
November 14, 2025 at 9:31 PM
One actually useful function of genAI being everywhere: Easy to extract text from images. That and translation are the main reasons why I have the browser widget for Gemini. But it'd be great to see that built seamlessly into social networking sites for alt text generation for uploaded images.
Another year, another story about how difficult Korea's College Scholastic Ability Test (수능, similar to SAT) is. This year, Kant showed up in several places, including the English portion of the exam:
www.koreaherald.com/article/1061...
www.koreaherald.com/article/1061...
![A test question with the following text:
34. Kant was a strong defender of the rule of law as the ultimate guarantee, not only of security and peace, but also of freedom. He believed that human societies were moving towards more rational forms regulated by effective and binding legal frameworks because only such frameworks enabled people to live in harmony, to prosper and to co-operate. However, his belief in inevitable progress was not based on an optimistic or high-minded view of human nature. On the contrary, it comes close to Hobbes's outlook: man's violent and conflict-prone nature makes it necessary to establish and maintain an effective legal framework in order to secure peace. We cannot count on people's benevolence or goodwill, but even 'a nation of devils' can live in harmony in a legal system that binds every citizen equally. Ideally, the law is the embodiment of those political principles that all rational beings would freely choose. If such laws forbid them to do something that they would not rationally choose to do anyway, then the law cannot be ______________________________. [3점]
benevolence: 자비심
① regarded as reasonably confining human liberty ② viewed as a strong defender of the justice system ③ understood as a restraint on their freedom ④ enforced effectively to suppress their evil nature ⑤ accepted within the assumption of ideal legal frameworks](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:hoaguzdazr4ckmsh7bscps2i/bafkreiccadt6l6r5hltnpltsyi5duyjlgnprftstyv3icihhu5g7eyigym@jpeg)
November 14, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Another year, another story about how difficult Korea's College Scholastic Ability Test (수능, similar to SAT) is. This year, Kant showed up in several places, including the English portion of the exam:
www.koreaherald.com/article/1061...
www.koreaherald.com/article/1061...
My PhD alma mater program recently celebrated its 20th anniversary! Here's to 20 more years (and beyond).
cal.msu.edu/news/celebra...
cal.msu.edu/news/celebra...
Celebrating 20 Years: Second Language Studies Program Honors Its Past and Looks to the Future
While Michigan State University’s Second Language Studies (SLS) Ph.D. program may have started by being in the right place at the right time, the efforts made by its administrators, faculty, alumni, a...
cal.msu.edu
November 13, 2025 at 10:09 PM
My PhD alma mater program recently celebrated its 20th anniversary! Here's to 20 more years (and beyond).
cal.msu.edu/news/celebra...
cal.msu.edu/news/celebra...
We've gotta get this sentiment trending universally. I think the Roman sculpture avatar crowd could be brought on board too:
Fiat justitia ruat caelum
Fiat justitia ruat caelum
"This could take down Democrats, too."
I know. And I frankly wouldn't give even an itty bitty damn if it implicated every Democratic man in Congress, every Democratic hopeful for 2028 and every Democrat who has even thought about running for office.
Down with the sex predators, wherever they are.
I know. And I frankly wouldn't give even an itty bitty damn if it implicated every Democratic man in Congress, every Democratic hopeful for 2028 and every Democrat who has even thought about running for office.
Down with the sex predators, wherever they are.
November 13, 2025 at 6:15 AM
We've gotta get this sentiment trending universally. I think the Roman sculpture avatar crowd could be brought on board too:
Fiat justitia ruat caelum
Fiat justitia ruat caelum
Long but interesting read on AI tutoring - there's reason for optimism, but it doesn't come from unfettered use of off-the-shelf consumer AI platforms.
carlhendrick.substack.com/p/the-algori...
carlhendrick.substack.com/p/the-algori...
The Algorithmic Turn: The Emerging Evidence On AI Tutoring
Are We Approaching A Turing Test for Teaching?
carlhendrick.substack.com
November 11, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Long but interesting read on AI tutoring - there's reason for optimism, but it doesn't come from unfettered use of off-the-shelf consumer AI platforms.
carlhendrick.substack.com/p/the-algori...
carlhendrick.substack.com/p/the-algori...