IELTS Research Reports

Gaynor Lloyd-Jones, Charles Neame and Simon Medaneyfinal month. Class teaching takes place each morning followed by a variety of individual and groupactivities in the afternoon. A range of writing tasks is set regularly. Assessment is largely formativeand students meet with a tutor on a weekly basis to set goals and discuss progress. At the end of thecourse, a report is sent to their Course Director commenting upon the student’s achievement and theirongoing need for English support. Each language skill is graded (range A to E) and accompanied bycomments. The grade E indicates a student’s language skills are inadequate for successful study atMasters level. Around 10% of Summer Programme students do not reach the required standard toenter a Masters programme.The reports may also advise a student to continue with weekly English tuition for academic writingthat is provided by the academic English staff. In 2008 the sessions were opened to other NNESstudents who responded with such enthusiasm that a screening test had to be used to assess eligibility.Occasional students may have one to one tuition where resources allow. Other support is providedat School level; the School of Management offers oral English classes but places are neither free norunlimited. Nevertheless, students from other Schools are welcome to join these classes if consideredappropriate by their Course Director.6.2.3 Analysis of selected application formsSome of the complexity and subtleties involved in the admissions and selections process is apparentin the 177 hand searched records from students where evidence of English language proficiency wasmade a condition of entry. Were the model of algorithmic selection to prevail, then almost all studentswould be expected to present test scores and other forms of evidence would not be prominent (seeTable 2). This is not the case as only two thirds (118) of the sampled students possessed a test scoreand 50 of these students were interviewed. It is not possible to identify from the records whether thetest or the interview takes precedence in terms of either time or significance. In just over a third ofapplicants (68) the test score is the sole cited evidence of English language proficiency.The Registry records suggest that the interview plays a frequent role in the assessment of Englishlanguage which is sometimes conducted by telephone. 61 students were interviewed and the Englishtest score requirement was waived for 11 of them. Again, the records are not always informative on thereasons for the waiver but experience of degree level education or working in England or in Englishare cited. In view of the diverse population found in postgraduate education (Sastry, 2004), thesewaivers do not necessarily imply that institutional policy is being flouted, as there are many reasonswhy applicants for postgraduate study may have good English language skills which can render aformal English test irrelevant. Because the reasons for waiver are not always supplied, it is likelythat the number of recorded interviews in the figures is inaccurate, probably an underestimation. Therecords do, however, validate the Registry staff data by demonstrating that interviews are conductedby a Cranfield representative or, specifically, by Course Directors and, sometimes, together. They sharethe load almost equally between them but this is likely to vary with the number of EPP students in thesample. A larger number of non-EU students will favour the Course Directors.144 www.ielts.org