Misuse of IELTS

No test is perfect, no test can do all things for all persons in all situations. One of the very serious problems with IELTS is that its ready availability has led to its being used for many purposes beyond what it was designed for.

IELTS is used not only for university entry but also for immigration purposes, to see whether an applicant for vocational registration has enough English to work, for example, as a teacher, a nurse or a tradesman. It is even used in Britain to check the English proficiency of overseas trained medical practitioners whose first language is English.

At best, such misuse is unethical, even if it is expedient. No test should be used for purposes for which it was not developed.

Predictive validity

Part of the problem being encountered with IELTS and the English levels of international students derives from the fact that there has been no completely convincing study of its 'predictive validity' and so there is no hard data on how well students who enter at different proficiency levels perform in university.

Most predictive studies try to correlate IELTS entry scores with subsequent academic results. However, there are too many other factors that determine academic performance and so predictive studies are rarely convincing…

Matters of policy

Despite the problems I have referred to, IELTS is a good test, one that has been carefully developed and is carefully and thoroughly maintained. It is a good test – provided that universities use it appropriately, interpret and apply its results appropriately, and set proficiency requirements that are appropriate for the course the students are entering. It is a good test, provided that universities realize that it is only a test of English ability and that there are many other factors, not least acculturation, that influence how a learner will cope with academic study…

Some years ago, I myself made the mistake of believing that two students applying to do PhDs with me would have adequate English. I did not make them take IELTS because they had recently completed Master degrees at two of the most respected universities in Australia. They showed me excellent theses written in faultless English. However, when I came to meet with the students, I found it almost impossible to converse with them. When they tried to write up their literature reviews, it was painfully evident that they barely understood what they had read and certainly could not write a coherent sentence or develop and express an argument. All I could assume was that their supervisors had given them too much assistance in writing their theses or had turned a blind eye to help they were getting from someone else. For the first and last time, I trusted the fact that they had done a degree in an Australian university without demanding that they take an English test.

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.