IELTS Research Reports

Learning to play the ‘classroom tennis’ well:IELTS and international students in teacher education(things) that we don’t work on enough (are)face-to-face interviews… interaction withcolleagues in school, or… interactions with parents. We may deal with this in the very lasttutorial of the year, ‘By the way you will be expected to do interviews with parents. Hereare a few hints … or a few “do’s and don’ts.”’ But those pragmatic and strategic aspects ofcommunication need to be dealt with much more explicitlyIt seems we cottonwool them throughout their teacher training year or years, but once theyare out on their own in the school situation there seems to be another big step which isanother enculturation shock which then often affects their language. So they might haveexited from our course with good communication skills in listening, speaking and writing.But the initial shock when they are on their own in a school, particularly a country or a cityschool where they are the only non-native speaker, then they can go backwards for the firstterm or semester. We had graduates drop out within a term because they were physicallysick; they couldn’t cope with the actual situation. They feel they haven’t been prepared forthis during their pre-service training.Communication-wise some Asian students are quite amazed at the way in which we ‘thinkaloud’ in conversations. In South East Asian cultures what is said is more or less the summaryof what has been thought through. (Given the time this takes) they therefore come acrossas being hesitant and not participating in meetings and discussions. They have problems ininterviews for jobs and interacting with staff in meetings and working on projects.In terms of classroom language, international student-teachers need to at least recognise thecomplexity of the issue if they’re going to be able to teach well in Australia. One academic in Scienceeducation argued:One of the difficulties… becomes if they can’t recognise this, then they just give informationto (pupils) who don’t have an opportunity to learn that scientific language either - certainlynot in a meaningful way. International students need a flexible understanding of the languageof Science, the concepts of Science, in order to communicate it well. For somebody whosefirst language is not English, that’s quite a challenge. It’s possible if the international studentsare open-minded and prepared to give it a go. Being able to practice is important and gettingsupport in the school from the supervising teacher who isn’t judging the internationalstudents just on their ability to use the English language but as much on their willingness totry.Finally, one comment on the issue of student competence did encapsulate the feelings of a number ofacademics interviewed and takes up a quite different perspective on the issue:It always worries me that we only talk about language proficiency at entry. We must also talkabout responsibilities we have for students’ learning, and taking advantage of the knowledgethat international students and others bring. This means looking at linguistic diversity as abenefit rather than a deficit.7.3 Are you doing any internal testing of the English language proficiency ofsuch students?One Faculty of Education conducts a literacy test of all students in the course at orientation in orderto check their academic literacy. Invariably, students who have had to take the IELTS test are madeIELTS Research Reports Volume 11107