IELTS Research Reports

Learning to play the ‘classroom tennis’ well:IELTS and international students in teacher educationthey did find the reading module the better predictor of academic success as it was the only subtest ofthe four macro-skills to achieve a significant correlation. Dooey and Oliver went on to suggest that‘overseas students who do not fully meet admissions criteria in terms of their language may well havethe potential to succeed academically’(2002, p 51).Feast (2002) investigated the relationship between English language proficiency (as measured by IELTS)and performance at university (based on GPA). Feast also investigated the related issue of the trade-offbetween raising IELTS scores and the consequent loss of international students, i.e. should the currentminimum entrance IELTS scores be increased so that the students who gain admission to universitycourses have a reasonable chance of success? Using multilevel regression analysis on the results of101 international students, Feast found a positive, but weak, relationship between English languageproficiency, as measured by IELTS scores, and performance, as measured by GPA. Feast recommendedthat the overall IELTS score be kept at 6.0 for undergraduate students and raised to 6.5 for postgraduatestudents (but that students be required to have a score of 6.0 minimum in the reading and writingmodules in both cases). Feast projected that the implementation of this recommendation would involve aloss of just over 40% of prospective undergraduate international students and result in a GPA gain of 0.9percent and a loss of 70% of postgraduate students with a GPA gain of 4%. Recognising that these figuresmay be ‘unacceptably high’, Feast recommended raising support levels for international students.Bayliss and Ingram (2006) investigated the questions:1 To what extent is the language behaviour implied by their IELTS scores reflected in thelanguage behaviour (in all four macro skills) of university students during the first sixmonths of their degree program?2 To what extent is the language behaviour observed adequate for the study program beingundertaken by the student?3 Are there implications for raising or lowering common IELTS requirements for entry toundergraduate or graduate courses?Twenty-eight international students were interviewed, given a questionnaire and observed in a varietyof class types, and a rating scale was used against which researchers could measure the students’language performance and compare their language behaviour with that implied in their IELTSscores. On question (1), findings suggested that IELTS scores could quite accurately predict students’language behaviour in the first six months of their study program but that individual students mightperceive their language proficiency levels quite differently. On questions (2) and (3), answers variedwith the Faculty in which students were enrolled, however Bayliss and Ingram cautiously suggestedthat there may be implications for raising the IELTS entry levels for courses which require students touse spoken English in vocational training contexts in the early stages of their studies.Phakiti (2008) reported on a study aiming to predict international postgraduate students’ academicachievement using three variables, viz. English language proficiency, English reading proficiencyand metacognitive knowledge of strategic reading. The participants were 125 Chinese internationalpostgraduate students who were in their second semester in an Australian university. Their Englishlanguage proficiency was measured by the IELTS tests, in particular their English reading proficiency,and their metacognitive knowledge of strategic reading was measured by a Likert-scale questionnaire.Through the analysis of the questionnaire, it was found that their English language proficiency, Englishreading proficiency and metacognitive knowledge of strategic reading accounted for 7%, 10% and 5%of their academic performance respectively.IELTS Research Reports Volume 1185