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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/

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Dan Isbell@danielrisbell.bsky.social · 18h ago

It will be interesting to see if the SKA expands meaningfully. While not quite as bad as the situation of the JLPT for international students seeking to study in Japan, the TOPIK exam is limited in testing opportunities - especially abroad and for the options speaking section.

As demand for Korean tests grows, a new exam is broadening access. But will more colleges recognize it?

The Sejong Korean Language Assessment offers free testing and an integrated speaking section, but Topik remains more widely recognized by universities and employers.

koreajoongangdaily.com

Dan Isbell@danielrisbell.bsky.social · last wk.

Maybe this is a bit salty (I'm not on the list!), but with a new Elsevier Top 2% scientists data release, I'm struck by how many people in my field (applied linguistics) making the list are spamming publications related to AI. I browsed one profile with 12+ pubs in 2026 alone with "AI" in the title.

Don Moynihan@donmoyn.bsky.social · last wk.

Over the last decade, there were two hypotheses: H1: the political right genuinely cared about threats to speech from the left. H2: they were using campus speech wars to impose their values and silence dissent. Today, the answer is clear, but I can't find any of the H1 people admitting their error.

Adam Serwer@adamserwer.bsky.social · last wk.

After years of championing "free speech," Texas lawmakers have enabled a dramatic rise of censorship in Texas universities, banning concepts, canceling courses and closing departments seen as "woke," and even using AI bots as censors. All in the name of freedom. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/1...

In other professors’ syllabi, the bot flagged the Pulitzer Prize–winning play Angels in America by Tony Kushner, essays by the Mexican American MacArthur genius grant recipient Sandra Cisneros, and materials related to a class about the Holocaust (that professor was told to drop material regarding Nazi persecution of LGBTQ people). Putting aside the ideological slant of the new rules, the bot, like many large language models, seems to “hallucinate,” or make mistakes. The AAUP lawsuit lists texts banned for their “sex-based ecofeminist framework” and “gendered ecofeminist frameworks.” These phrases might sound persuasively like academese, but the academics behind the lawsuit had never heard of them; these concepts “do not exist,” the complaint says. Matthew Pehl, a history professor at Tech, told me that he knew several people who’d received reports from the system that were “plainly written by an AI that had hallucinated content or confused content from one class to another.”
Dan Isbell@danielrisbell.bsky.social · 2w ago

Come work with me in Honolulu! We're looking for an applied linguist whose work addresses languages in workplaces and professional settings. #appliedlinguistics #lingsky go.hawaii.edu/RuF

Assistant Professor (Applied Linguistics in Multilingual Workplaces) (0083008)

Title: Assistant Professor (Applied Linguistics in Multilingual Workplaces)Position: 0083008 Hiring Unit: College of Arts, Languages & Letters/Department of Second Language StudiesLocation: University...

go.hawaii.edu

Dan Isbell@danielrisbell.bsky.social · 3w ago

Interesting plans to modernize the TOPIK, including AI item generation and scoring as well as home administration (for lower proficiency levels) and improved security. I hope the AI scoring will primarily be feature-based ML models, though - wholly GenAI scoring systems are sub-par.

Korea turns to AI to modernize TOPIK national language exam - The Korea Times

Korea’s national Korean language proficiency exam is preparing for a major digital overhaul, introducing artificial intelligence (AI) to draft test...

www-koreatimes-co-kr.cdn.ampproject.org

Dan Isbell@danielrisbell.bsky.social · 4w ago

Without disagreeing, we often also lack the infrastructure/resources to meaningfully bring undergrads into humanities/soc sci research. In many disciplines we lack actual 'labs' with ongoing, large-team projects that trainees can join as well as money to pay them.

Asheesh Kapur Siddique@asheeshks.org · 4w ago

One of the most unfortunate consequences for this is that doing research becomes a norm for undergrads in STEM but an exception for undergrads in the humanities. By claiming to “help” students by putting “pedagogy” before “research” we actually do them a disservice by drawing an artificial boundary.

Victor Ray@victorerikray.bsky.social · last mo.

Shout out to the student journalists at The Daily Iowan for reporting on the travesty that is Iowa's Center for Intellectual Freedom. With quotes from me dailyiowan.com/2026/09/15/u...

Uncertainty in leadership, curriculum surrounds UI Center for Intellectual Freedom

In the barren walls of his Calvin Hall office, where the Center for Intellectual Freedom resides, interim director and University of Iowa economics professor Luciano de Castro shuffles a stack of pape...

dailyiowan.com

Dan Isbell@danielrisbell.bsky.social · last mo.

Very good news. The proposed rule has had universities, from the top all the way down to individual departments, scrambling to figure out how to continue supporting international students. Good to be relieved of all that... for now.

Josh Gerstein@joshgerstein.bsky.social · last mo.

BREAKING: Judge Dennis Saylor (GWBush/MA) temporarily blocks Trump admin drive to impose a 4-year limit on student visas now issued for length of study. Calls the rationale for the new rule "exceptionally weak." Doc: www.documentcloud.org/documents/28...

Don Moynihan@donmoyn.bsky.social · last mo.

A recurrent theme in this excellent story about China’s progress is that people there regard Trump as essential to their success, including his ability to drive scientific talent from the US www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

In Beijing, a think tank at Renmin University recently published an assessment titled "Thank Trump," which wryly hailed his efforts to hasten the "twilight of an empire," by undermining America's alliances, civil service, scientific institutions, and democratic credibility. In the past two years, the international approval rating of the U.S. has dropped nearly forty points, according to a worldwide survey by the Alliance of Democracies; in multiple polls, China now rates higher than the U.S.
Michael Clemens@mclem.org · last mo.

The US President's new proposal to tax international students has been approved by the White House for release this week. It's an unprecedented $100,000 tax on int'l grads who stay to work after graduation on Optional Practical Training (most grads do), a crucial bridge to remaining by any channel.

Dan Isbell@danielrisbell.bsky.social · last mo.

I grudgingly use LinkedIn because it is useful for connecting with people in my field and keeping up to date on relevant industry news. But man, sometimes the slop and spam on that website...

Spammy linked in message regarding selection for a Notable Men feature, which is totally needed because men lack visibility. I am also guessing this is a weird matchmaking/dating service.
Trevon Logan@trevondlogan.bsky.social · last mo.

I can’t wait for the 18 part series in the Atlantic about “The Crisis at Business Schools” which will detail of every instance of academic fraud at the nation’s top business schools, the coverups, lack of accountability, and their implications for business ethics and academic standards at B schools.

Dan Isbell@danielrisbell.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Sad news for #linguistics. Lots of post-grad earnings pressure from (and soon to be on, from federal govt) universities is influencing programs and curricula, with language and linguistics getting pinched at many institutions. (ling/lang refugees welcome here at the University of Hawaiʻi)

‘My program’s going to sh-t’: Linguistics students move forward knowing major is being ‘phased out’

A small program at the university, the linguistics department has taken pride in documenting endangered languages and preparing the next generation to research language.

ntdaily.com

Emma Monk@monkemma.bsky.social · 2mo ago

One of the first "outrageous" claims I saw as Jason Arday's media hounding unfolded was that he ran 30 marathons in 35 days! Wow! What a thing to claim! And the newspapers all suggested there was no evidence he actually did it. Well, they clearly didn't look very hard 🙄 🧵 1/26

Photo after Jason's final marathon taken from his archived blog showing Jason surrounded by supporters in orange charity t-shirts