Band width

None of this makes IELTS a bad test, but the nature of the test needs to be taken into account when its results are being used and interpreted.

Not least, its 'broad brush' validity and reliability suggest that the proficiency levels specified for university entry should be generous enough to allow for some variation in the actual levels specified in the students' results.

In fact, each proficiency level is not a narrowly defined point but a band with a considerable difference between the upper and lower edges.

So, for example, a student with a Speaking proficiency in the upper part of Band 6 might just be able to present a reasonable seminar paper; but a student in the lower part of Band 6, while able to cope in a social situation, would struggle in the more demanding context of a seminar presentation.

Consequently, an entry system that sets the barest minimum English proficiency requirements will inevitably admit students who cannot cope even if their proficiency has been specified accurately.

What does IELTS actually test?

It is also important for anyone interpreting IELTS scores to understand that IELTS is no more than what it claims to be, a test of English language proficiency.

Students' ability to perform in academic and other contexts depends not only on their language ability but on many other factors, not least their understanding of the education culture in which they are undertaking their studies. This affects many aspects of student performance including, for example:

• how students relate to their lecturers
• how they participate in a seminar
• how they organize their writing to present a logical argument
• their willingness to develop and express their own ideas or to disagree with a lecturer
• how they use resources and acknowledge references, and
• how they fit into the Australian community, especially the Australian university community.

IELTS cannot and does not try to measure these vitally important factors that help to determine students' success - and nor do any other language tests.

IELTS scores and their implications

In other words, people interpreting and using IELTS test results need to understand exactly what the results mean. An IELTS score reflects the students' English proficiency and not their academic skills, their background knowledge, or their acculturation. For this reason, also, the IELTS scores of students who take the test overseas without the benefit of learning English or doing other studies in Australian educational contexts are likely to have more difficulties coping in their studies than do students of the same proficiency levels who have acquired some of their proficiency through English language programs in Australia, especially in programs in English for academic purposes…

Universities should also provide acculturation programs for newly arrived international students to help them settle into Australia and, in particular, to become more familiar with the culture and expectations of the Australian education system. Very few universities provide such programs or, if they do, for any time long enough to make a significant difference.

This is part of an edited version of a talk entitled 'English Language Problems in Universities' by Professor Ingram broadcast on the ABC's Lingua Franca program on Saturday, July 2, 2005.