Ben Fenton-Smith

… And we are conditioned to ‘perform objectivity’, which can mean the laudation of the tedious. Life squeezed out of writing like a dried up old lemon that once sat, resplendent and natural, on a tree.

National rules for global agents: Challenges of regulation In the coming years, we can expect to see policy directives, legislative instruments and training regimes implemented by governments around the world ...

A new piece on the ‘professionalisation’ of education agents, from the perspective of Vietnam. Thanks to my wonderful PhD student Phuoc Hoang, and @lytran10.bsky.social, for this collaboration.

www.universityworldnews.com/post-mobile....

2. Practitioners can feel guilt-tripped for not measuring up. The academics may be well-intentioned but have the luxury of not having to implement anything. Sometimes they adopt a judgemental tone. Is there a word for this phenomenon? Need it for something I’m writing. Thank you.

1. Sometimes in the field of education, academics who haven’t taught for a long time (outside theoretical uni courses) propose ‘best practice’ principles that sound great but are completely out of touch with those at the coalface.

Pet peeve: ‘international’ journals that label issues by northern hemisphere seasons.

People question Test cricket’s relevance in today’s world but it’s the best sport on TV when you have Covid. #AUSvIND 🏏

Stoked to learn about over 1,500 registrations to our webinars to introduce the Guides to support #internationalstudents.
Next webinar tomorrow: Guide for enhancing international students’ mental health & wellbeing, 2-3 pm (AEDT). Registration: www.englishaustralia.com.au/events/event...
#intled

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A critical policy analysis of the Australian Strategy for International Education 2021–2030

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

New publication with Laura Gurney.

Incoherent coherence? Using systemic functional linguistics to improve oral language assessment literacy - The Australian Journal of Language and Literacy This paper discusses the challenges of defining coherence in the context of oral language assessment literacy and proposes that better understanding of the construct can be achieved through a systemic...

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Open access publication with Desiree Kawabata. ‘Coherence’ is a ubiquitous term in language testing but hard to pin down. This has consequences for people’s lives, who rely on scores as ‘proof’ of competency (e.g. to enter a country, a university or a profession).