IELTS Research Reports

Lynda Taylorof the test.Finally, it is worth noting that a particularly valuable outcome of this and the previous study is thattogether they enable a cross-national overview and breakdown of the English language proficiencystandards set by a broad range of professional associations and regulatory authorities in some keyinternational employment domains. As such, it is hoped that the two studies will prove a useful and upto-dateresource for policy discussion and decision-making in professional bodies more widely.2 LEARNING TO PLAY THE ‘CLASSROOM TENNIS’ WELL: IELTS ANDINTERNATIONAL STUDENTS IN TEACHER EDUCATIONWayne Sawyer and Michael Singh’s research study focuses on the role of IELTS in selectinginternational students for teacher education courses in the Australian context. It has an interesting synergywith Merrifield’s research since the latter study also surveyed the use of IELTS by two professionalteacher associations within the Canadian context.Sawyer and Singh set out to address the question of an appropriate IELTS score for graduate entryteacher education courses. They did so by investigating the extent to which current IELTS scores forentry into such programs are considered adequate by three key stakeholder groups – course lecturers,prospective teacher registration authorities, and students themselves. This was followed up withexploration of what an appropriate score might be for entry to such courses. The methodology adoptedfor the study involved analysis of relevant policy documents on course entry requirements complementedwith semi-structured interviews with a range of stakeholder constituencies. Academics from fourFaculties of Education and one student cohort were interviewed, along with representatives of one stateteacher registration authority.The report of the study begins with an overview of the available research literature relating tointernational students, English language proficiency, testing instruments and teacher education. Thoughthe focus is here on its relevance to Australian higher education, the review should prove useful andgeneralisable to other English-speaking contexts since it identifies a range of language skills requiredby teachers in the classroom. The focus for concern is that teacher education students whose languagebackground is not English not only need to perform adequately in English for the purposes of theiracademic study, but they also need to be fluent in the public situation of teaching their own classes onpracticum and in their future careers. For teacher education students from international backgrounds,successful course completion means that the language issues they must address encompass not justlistening and reading comprehension or success in academic writing, but ‘performance’ of oral andwritten English in classrooms, along with issues such as the differences in school cultures whencompared with their own backgrounds.Not surpisingly, perhaps, the study’s findings suggest that the situation is complex and multifaceted,partly because the issue of language testing for students is not just one of entry-level, i.e. ability to copewith the linguistic demands of teacher training; it is also one of exit-level competence at the end of thecourse. (Readers may like to note that the issue of IELTS exit score gains was the focus of a study byO’Loughlin and Arkoudis in IELTS Research Reports, Volume 10, 2009.) As we have seen so oftenin studies investigating the setting of language proficiency requirements, there exists no magic IELTSband score formula which can suit multiple contexts of use. Instead, a process of careful analysis andconsidered judgement is necessary by each institutional user of IELTS scores, taking into accountfactors such as course length, level of language and other support available post entry, as well as culturalexperience and expectations. Sawyer and Singh suggest that the extent of opportunity for languagedevelopment during a course may be an important consideration in this regard: thus higher IELTSscores may be deemed advisable for accessing shorter courses (e.g. one-year Diplomas), lower scores12 www.ielts.org