IELTS Research Reports

Wayne Sawyer and Michael Singh7.9 What is required by your local Teacher Registration body in terms of languageproficiency? Is this more or less demanding than the equivalent universityentrance requirement?It will be noted from Section 4 above that only one Faculty of Education in Sydney has the sameIELTS requirement on entry to the course as its state teacher registration authority. One MelbourneFaculty meets the VIT standard on entry, though this is lower than the NSW standard. One AdelaideFaculty meets the standard of the South Australian TRB, though again this is lower than NSW. Ineach case, there is an implicit assumption that time in the course itself will enable students to meet theteacher registration authority requirement (cf next question).7.10 In the light of this, what do you believe is an adequate IELTS score for entryinto teacher education?Part of the answer to this question depends on the length of the degree in which students are enrolled,since it can be (is) assumed that time in the course itself improves students’ English – hence theUniversity of South Australia in the Tables in Section 4 above can be seen to have a lower IELTS scorefor an international (student visa) cohort than for a more general cohort on the basis that the course forthe more general group is shorter. Hence arguments from academics such as the following:(The entry level) should be tied to what the (teacher registration authority) requires. Ifthey’re going to do a 4- year teacher education course it mightn’t have to be ‘7’; but on theother hand, they would be going out to the practicum, so I think it’s sensible for it not to goany lower than ‘7’, because those students will go out on teaching rounds early on in theircourse. They could fall into a hole almost immediately on their teaching rounds and be putoff. It’s not really very fair on the students. They have to be at a higher level where they’regoing to be required to go into a practicum early on.… if there was enough support available it would be alright for starters to be at ‘6.5’at thebeginning of the 4-year degree. However, if there’s no language and acculturation support,then no. If the Faculty doesn’t have this support it makes a major difference to students. Thisincludes what kind of lecturers they have, whether the lecturers will give them extra timeto support them adequately. International students often don’t ask for help; they don’t usethe lecturer like a local student would. They don’t make an appointment to see you abouttheir assignments when they should. The support is pretty important. In today’s climateof lecturers’ heavier workload, of having to do more and more, including more and moreadministration as well, it is understandable that lecturers may not say, ‘Please come and seeme anytime.’ A more structured intervention where they meet a support person, have readinggroups, is needed.In the case of graduate entry programs, on which we have focused here, course length is considerablyshorter (often one year in the case of a DipEd) and most academics have doubts about the capacityof these to provide the necessary English language development required for teacher registration andemployment if the entry IELTS score is lower than that required for such registration. In such cases,the support provided by employers for beginning teachers becomes even more important:In terms of finding a long term solution and support for international students who are becomingclassroom teachers, the pre-service course is going to be too rushed and too crowded. The level andthe nature of the support that they have as beginning teachers in classrooms are going to be veryimportant. The mentor is going to be very important. Pairing such teachers with a native speaking116 www.ielts.org