IELTS Research Reports

Gaynor Lloyd-Jones, Charles Neame and Simon Medaney8.2.3 ScepticsAmongst the sampled group were two Directors, in SOE and SOM, who had considered selectionin some depth and had come to view English tests with a degree of scepticism. Whilst not majorityviews, their experience and subsequent reflections justify further exploration.The Course Director in SOE had more than 10 years of experience in the role and during this periodhad relied almost exclusively upon test scores to assess an applicant’s English language ability,without recourse to interviews. Two years previously, worried by the poor writing standards of hisstudents, he had raised the entrance requirement for the course to 7 but the desired consequenceshad not been realised. He now doubted his previous reliance upon English testing (Extract 10) andwas searching for alternative, additional means of assessment such as another test, a writing taskor an interview.Extract 10“Because, even now, having upped the barrier, even now we are getting students in the pastcouple of years who are still struggling on the course and I’m getting to the point of thinking,do you just keep on putting the barrier up? Or do we realise that maybe the measures, or thetest, perhaps, is not testing in the way that mirrors what they are expected to be able to dowhen they come to Cranfield.”SOE1 Course DirectorThe SOM Director had three years experience in the role but had set himself the task of developingthe admissions and selection process during his tenure. He also followed the institutional and Schoolguidelines on entry test scores but had seen many cases where the entry score had not correlatedwith either linguistic ability or academic progress. As a result, he had introduced interviews formost applicants and believed that the standard of candidates had improved as a result. He evokeda pragmatic view on testing, as displayed in Extract 11.Extract 11“These tests are not completely reliable. You may have two people with IELTS 6.5 and oneis outstanding …... but one of the concerns I have about examinations in general is that a testlike this is how someone performs in certain circumstances on a specific day according tocertain conditions and if they took the same test a month later under different circumstancesthey may well get a different result. We know that from people doing examinations. SoI think it is not a completely reliable test so I like to have a bit of a second test by doinginterviews. An interview is not a test of English language ability but it does give you somequite good indicators about their ability to communicate which is quite important.”SOM1 Course DirectorNearly all Course Directors had similar cautionary tales of students with test scores that did notcorrelate well with subsequent linguistic and academic progress, including a student who failed anMSc despite having gained an undergraduate degree in the UK. These tales, which are grounded inexperience, give primacy to experience rather than to the statistical evidence underlying formal testing.8.2.4 Management of the selection process and learning how to selectWhilst some Course Directors were firmly of the belief that interviews gave good guidance forselection decisions, there were those with contrary views who were content to rely on the test score as156 www.ielts.org