IELTS Research Reports

A multiple case study of the relationship between the indicators of students’ English languagecompetence on entry and students’ academic progress at an international postgraduate universitySchoolOverall IELTSscoreListeningscoreReadingscoreWriting scoreSpeakingscoreCRH 6.5 7 5 6 7SAS 6 6 5.5 6 6SAS 6.5 5.5 9 4 7SAS 6.5 5.5 7 7 7SAS 6 7 6.5 5.5 5.5SAS 6.5 7 7.5 5 7SOE 6 5.5 6.5 5 6SOM 6 6 6.5 5 6SOM 6 6 6 5 5Table 4. IELTS scores for NNES students scoring 6 or above overall but below 6 on one subscore(taken from Registry data)At the same time it is important not to infer too much from the findings of what was functionallya pilot study. Firstly, sampling was purposive so precluding any generalisation to the institution atlarge. Secondly, it is safe to assume that the admissions data is incomplete, not in a regulatory sensebut because the records do exactly that, they record. There is no requirement to explain or justifydecisions, or to elaborate upon what takes place in an interview, however it may be conducted. Toinvestigate this further would require a more detailed exploration of Course Directors’ practices andexperiences of selection which follows in the next section.7 INTERVIEW STUDY WITH COURSE DIRECTORS7.1 MethodThe interview research study addresses the first aim in the proposal: to describe and explain CourseDirectors’ admission practices and experience in relation to students’ IELTS scores.As much decision making appears to be implicit, one to one semi-structured interviews were chosenas the method of data collection best suited to reveal, elaborate and discuss this aspect of the CourseDirector’s role. Nevertheless, in choosing the interview method, the limitations of the data wererecognised as a source of inference for reported action when compared to observed behaviour(Hammersley, 2006). What respondents report may not parallel their actions for a variety of reasonsbut interviews were preferred as a method suitable for discussion and elaboration of their decisionsand underlying rationales in the light of the Registry data and the research literature. In contrastto other studies, (Coleman et al, 2003; O’Loughlin, 2008), the interview study neither set out toinvestigate policy compliance nor to test academic staff’s knowledge of English language testing.IELTS Research Reports Volume 11147