I really like this article from Cambridge about “Ethical AI for language learning and assessment.” If I were trying to position the IELTS to thrive in today’s brave new world, this is the sort of message I would use. I would express that the test is keeping up with the times, but that the makers of the test take a more cautious and thoughtful approach than its competitors. Sounds easy, right? Perhaps not. Monday I’ll write about some not-helpful articles out of Cambridge that will get in front of many more sets of eyeballs in the days ahead.

This month I read the March 21, 2024 issue of the London Review of books.  A few articles caught my attention

“I Adjure You Egg” is a short history of magical amulets and charms in medieval Europe.  A really fun exploration of a corner of European history we don’t often hear about.  People believed in such charms with a lot of sincerity, for a very long time.   It was interesting to know that charms were often scraps of written words rather than some object with more physicality, which is what we often picture when we think of charms.

“Llamas, Pizzas, Mandolins” is a long look at AI and its implications.  Yeah, you are probably sick of this topic, but it is one that many still want to read about.  And I bet it will be asked about on the TOEFL for some time to come.

After that, I read “Assessing Academic English for Higher Education” by John M. Norris and Xiaoming Xi of ETS.  As I think I mentioned in an earlier column I am working my way through all of the books on my shelf (about tests or otherwise) that I have actually paid for with my own money.  This one has been on my shelf for a couple of years at least.  This was the perfect time to read it, as it serves as a sort of coda for the “old ETS” before the TOEFL gets blown up into something unrecognizable and mostly unconnected from what came before.  The book is almost sorrowful, as it describes page after page of good research and good ideas about assessing English for academic purposes that never made it into the TOEFL iBT.  Instead of using these ideas, ETS just sort of left the test in its original form, basically unchanged for two decades.  It is no wonder that so many bright minds left to build the Duolingo English Test.  

Finally, I read Richard Sennett’s “The Corrosion of Character,” a short book (really an essay) about work at the turn of this century.  There is some stuff in here that ETSers might appreciate too, especially about the futility of companies trying to reform into something new by “reengineering” themselves.  I was going to quote a relevant part of the book, but it was too long.  So here’s a dramatic reading:

This part may hit home:

“…institutions become dysfunctional during the people-squeezing process: business plans are discarded and revised, expected benefits turn out to be ephemeral; the organization loses direction. Institutional changes, instead of following the path of a guided arrow, head in different and often conflicting directions: a profitable operating unit is suddently sold, for example, yet a few years later the parent company tries to get back into the business in which it knew how to make money before it sought to reinvent itself.”

While I was traveling around at the beginning of the month, I read another issue of the London Review of Books.  I can’t remember which issue, ’cause I threw it away when I finished with it.  But a couple of fun articles stood out:

• “Even the Eyelashes” is about the role of mummies in Inca society.  It’s a shorter than usual LRB article, which probably makes it better as a study resource.  This topic could make a fun TOEFL reading passage.
• “When Paris Sneezed” explores the reasons why people were so pissed off in Paris between 1748 and 1789.

Meanwhile, continuing my journey through the Norton Library Podcast, I read Charles Chesnutt’s “The Marrow of Tradition.”  Chesnutt’s book is a work of fiction set before and during the Wilmington Massacre of 1898.  I strongly recommend this book; for a 127 year-old novel, it is surprisingly accessible.  For some listening practice, you can check out the two-part podcast episode starting here.

For a little more listening practice, you might enjoy this Paul Wells podcast from a few days ago about the topic of book burning – mostly in Canada, but also elsewhere.  It also touches on the value of reading “the classics,” which matches one of the ongoing themes of this column.

It’s the last day of 2024!  How about that?  We made it!

So I read the September/October 2024 issue of Analog Science Fiction & Fact .  I know that I should probably stop bringing up this magazine here because the stories aren’t available for free, but I am what I am.  I must mention Adam-Troy Castro‘s “Minnie and Earl Have a Kitten.”  This is the fourth (and final?) “Minnie and Earl” story to appear in the magazine.  The first appeared in, I guess, the late 1990s.  If you want to experience a warm hug of a science fiction series, you can find an ebook of the first three stories on Amazon or on Hoopla.  They concern a friendly old couple who are discovered, by early Earth astronauts, to be living on the moon.  How they got there isn’t immediately clear.

I also read the November 30, 2023 issue of the London Review of Books.  A few stories captured my attention:

• Searching for the Bee, about a very old book called The Wonders of Creatures and the Marvels of Creation, which was apparently one of the most widely read books of the 13th century.  I won’t try to describe the peculiar contents of the book here.  Check out the article if you want to learn more.
• A National Evil, which is about how everyone in Switzerland used to have big goiters.  The history this article tells is so strange.  Apparently for many decades Switzerland was known as a place of goiters, deafness and developmentally disabled children.  Apparently this was all due to a lack of iodine in the diets of people there.  Tourists would travel to the country just to see the goiters.  I’m pretty sure this is the second article I’ve linked to on this topic since I began this column.

Finally, I read Nicholas Lemann’s new book “Higher Admissions: The Rise, Decline and Return of Standardized Testing.”  This slim volume is something of a followup to Lemann’s brilliant “The Big Test,” published about 25 years ago.  It tells the story of (mostly) the SAT – how it came to become dominant, the impact it has had on American education, and why many schools have recently abandoned it.  I actually penned a few words about the book a few days ago.  Do check out that post.

That’s all for now! I will spend most of next month traveling, but I should find time for at least a short list of recommendations.

Continuing along with the Norton Library Podcast, this month I read Bram Stoker’s “Dracula.”  You can check out the podcast episodes starting here.

One unique feature of this classic horror novel is that it is an epistolary novel.  That refers to how the book is presented as a collection of letters, diary entries, phonograph transcripts, newspaper articles and telegrams written by characters in the novel.  While the topic of vampires has likely never appeared on the TOEFL, I am quite certain that at some point there has been an article or lecture about this kind of writing.  So instead of reaching for Dracula, perhaps take a moment to sharpen your reading skills by exploring the wikipedia article on this topic.

Next, I read the 16 November 2023 issue of the London Review of Books.  Yeah… I have another pile of unread magazines.  Fortunately, this is one of my favorite publications and I look forward to working through all of the old issues on my shelf.  A few stories stood out in this issue:

• “Kettle of Vultures” is a quick look at the history of interest.  The charging of it, the collecting of it, the religious implications of it, and more.
• “Red Flag, Green Light” is the story of famous fraudster John Ackah Blay-Miezah.  He may have invented the famous “Nigerian Prince” scam.
• “I Thought You Were Incredible” is a fun read for film fans.  It’s a quick overview of the life of Elizabeth Taylor, with special consideration paid to her relationship with Montgomery Clift.

More of this sort of thing in 30 days.

I’m very happy that I can mark the 50th monthly installment in this column with a few words about Sanaz Toossi’s Pulitzer Prize winning play “English.”  As I’ve mentioned a few times in this space, this play is set entirely in a TOEFL classroom in Iran.  It is a very sparse play, but is a touching exploration of what it means to learn a language and to be able to (or not able to) express ourselves when we desire to do so.  It is also quite funny at times.  Highly recommended!

This month, while flying home from India, I plowed through the final four “New Yorker” magazines in my collection.  A few articles stood out.

• First up, in the April 24 & May 1 2023 issue I read “How Much Can Duolingo Teach Us?” Of course this one is worth mentioning here!  The article briefly mentions the Duolingo English Test and the TOEFL Test!
• Next, in the May 15, 2023 issue I read “Buzzfeed, Gawker and the Casualties of the Traffic Wars” about what it dubs “publishing in the age of web traffic.”
• Moving along, in the May 22, 2023 issue I liked “Earth League International Hunts the Hunters,” about an anti-poaching organization.  Very cloak-and-dagger stuff.
• Finally, in the May 29, 203 issue I read “Two Weeks at the Front in Ukraine.”  I don’t usually include reporting from the war in this column.  I liked this article, though, as this sort of embedded reporting that tells personal stories seems the best we can do in an era where accurate “big picture” reporting seems impossible to find.

More links in a month!