IELTS Research Reports

Wayne Sawyer and Michael Singhwell as other issues for LBOTE students, such as familiarisation with Australian schooling cultures.Such an approach then depends, of course, on specific programs being in place for these studentsin order to support them towards such growth, which was certainly the case in this Faculty. Suchspecially designed support programs have been shown to assist students (Weisz and Nicolettou, 2004).Obviously then, universities need to be prepared to invest adequately in the course preparation andschool familiarisation necessary for these students to succeed. Programs in this particular Facultyincluded both language and acculturation support. Previous literature has identified the need forsuch multifaceted support and in that aspect which is focused on language, it should ideally addressboth areas of Elder’s ‘desirable features of teacher communication’ and of her and Ellis’ ‘inventoryof typical teacher tasks’. The inventory of tasks suggest the contexts around which such supportcould be structured and the ‘desirable features’ suggest the qualities to be aimed for in pursuing thetasks. Extending communicative competence into important areas of pedagogical usage, such asclarity of explanations, should also be the aim of such programs (Viete, 1998, p 172; Ryan and Viete,2009). Ultimately, as Elder argues (1993b, p 88), entry level thresholds regarding English languageproficiency should be set by universities in accordance with their capacity to provide such support.Addressing the range of unfamiliar cultural contexts – above all, local schooling cultures - probablyinvolves a gradual introduction to practicum (Spooner-Lane et al, 2007) and to local schoolingcultures, mentor training in schools and a targeted practicum experience involving much structuredreflection. The importance of mentor training in schools was stressed by our academic intervieweesas part of their view that schools needed to recognise their joint role in the preparation of LBOTEstudent-teachers. It is preferable for all support programs – whether focusing specifically on languageor on schooling cultures - to be embedded in academic-credit-bearing studies so as not to place anunfeasible burden on teacher education Faculties (Gill, 2007; Skyrme, 2007). It is also preferable forthem to be discipline-focused (Carpenter, 2005; Ryan and Viete, 2009).Language proficiency alone is no guarantee of either success or failure (Cotton and Conrow, 1998;Dooey and Oliver, 2002). Our interviewees emphasised strongly the complex of factors whichcontributed to success or failure and suggested that in teacher education there is clearly a case for asystem of richer testing, such as that discussed by O’Loughlin at Lancaster University (2008) andthat may include interviews. Our academic interviewees showed that such measures have founderedin the past in some Faculties over the issue of the burden of workload. This seems a clear case forteacher education Faculties and teacher registration authorities to work together more closely on theissues of entry and exit requirements and ways to share the burden of a richer entry testing regimewhich includes, but goes beyond, language testing such as through IELTS. In terms of language testingspecifically, the DEOTE instrument pioneered by Viete (1998) would appear to be one such usefulinstrument for diagnostic entry testing. The form taken by the NSW PEAT instrument which attemptsto account for some aspects of context specificity is a useful model for exit testing, though no widelyused test as yet would appear to deal in a nuanced way with ‘pragmatic or strategic competence suchas simplicity and clarity’(Elder, 1994a, p 56). While ‘rich’ occupation-specific language testing wouldobviously not want such ‘pragmatic or strategic competence’ to totally replace the kinds of skillstested by PEAT or ISLPR, exit-level competence could include them, as they are obviously aspects oflanguage use important to teachers and are given emphasis in teacher education programs. Moreover,this would go some way to ensuring ‘a reasonable degree of fit between behaviours elicited fromcandidates in the artificial environment of the test and actual performance in the target domain’ (Elderand Brown,1997, p 77). Any future move which IELTS might consider into teacher-education-specifictesting would most usefully include a diagnostic component on entry and ‘pragmatic or strategiccompetence’ for exit testing.120 www.ielts.org