How Do Asian Candidates Fare in IELTS? A Look at 15 Years of Performance Data
Abstract
IELTS (International English Language Testing System) and its Asian test-takers have shared a heightening interdependency over the previous two decades. In order to achieve ambitions for an international education at Australian, Canadian, New Zealand, and UK universities, growing numbers of Asian prospective international students, particularly from China and India, find themselves required to undertake IELTS to demonstrate evidence of the sufficiency of their English language proficiency. Such is their importance to the tertiary education sectors of these countries that Asian candidates, who regularly constitute over 25 of the most common 40 cohorts of test-takers by nationality, have been key drivers of the more than ten-fold increase in the global IELTS candidature since 2003. The present study investigates how cohorts from 24 Asian nations fared in the Academic IELTS test from 2003 to 2018, utilising official performance data released by the IELTS partners. The study revealed that; 1) candidates from Hong Kong, Malaysia, and the Philippines registered the highest overall and section band scores across Asia; 2) the most sizeable overall score gains were made by Bangladeshi, Indonesian, and Jordanian candidates; and 3) worrying deteriorations in outcomes were exhibited by Emirati, Indian, and Iraqi test-takers. Implications of the findings are discussed in terms of Anglophone universities’ academic admission practices and the need for further research.
Keywords: IELTS; English language proficiency; language testing; test-taker performance; international students
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Allen, D. (2017). Investigating Japanese undergraduates’ English language proficiency with IELTS: Predicting factors and washback (IELTS Partnership Research Papers, 2). IELTS Partners: British Council, Cambridge English Language
Assessment and IDP. https://www.ielts.org/-/media/research-reports/ielts-research-partner-paper-2.ashx
Allwright, J. & Banerjee, J. (1997). Investigating the accuracy of admissions criteria: A case study in a British university (Language Testing Update, 22). International Language Testing Association Official Newsletter.
Alsagoafi, A. (2018). IELTS economic washback: A case study on English major students at King Faisal University in Al-Hasa, Saudi Arabia. Language Testing in Asia. 8(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40468-018-0058-3
Altbach, P. G. (1998). Comparative higher education: Knowledge, the university, and development. Hong Kong: The University of Hong Kong.
Barkaoui, K. (2016). What changes and what doesn’t? An examination of changes in the linguistic characteristics of IELTS repeaters’ Writing Task 2 scripts (IELTS Research Report Series, No. 3). British Council, Cambridge English
Language Assessment and IDP: IELTS Australia. https://www.ielts.org/-/media/research-reports/ielts_online_rr_2016-3.ashx
Barkaoui, K. (2017). Examining repeaters’ performance on second language proficiency Tests: A review and a call for research. Language Assessment Quarterly. 14(4), 420–431. https://doi.org/10.1080/15434303.2017.1347790
Chappell, P., Yates, L. & Benson, P. (2019). Investigating test preparation practices: Reducing risks (IELTS Research Reports Online Series, No. 3). British Council, Cambridge Assessment English and IDP: IELTS Australia.
https://www.ielts.org/-/media/research-reports/2019-3-chappell_et_al_layout.ashx
Davies, A. (2008). Assessing academic English language proficiency: 40+ years of U.K. language tests. In Fox, J. , Wesche, M., Bayliss, D., Cheng, L., Turner, C. E. & Doe, C. (Eds.). Language testing reconsidered (pp. 73–86). Ottawa:
University of Ottawa Press.
Education Counts. (2018). Tertiary education enrolments by international students. https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/statistics/indicators/main/student-engagement-
participation/international_students_enrolled_in_formal_tertiary_education
Education First. (2019). EF English proficiency index: A ranking of 100 countries and regions by English skills (EF EPI). EF Education First Ltd. https://www.ef.co.uk/__/~/media/centralefcom/epi/downloads/full-reports/v9/ef-epi-2019-
english.pdf
Ferguson, G., & White, E. (1998). A small-scale study of predictive validity. Melbourne Papers in Language Testing. 7(2), 15–63.
Gobert, M. T. (2019). Transformation in English language education in the UAE. In Gallagher, K. (Ed.), Education in the United Arab Emirates: Innovation and transformation (pp. 113–126). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore.
Hamid, M. O. (2016). Policies of global English tests: Test-takers’ perspectives on the IELTS retake policy. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education. 37(3), 472–487. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2015.1061978
Harding, L., Brunfaut, T. & Unger, J. W. (2020). Language testing in the “hostile environment”: The discursive construction of “Secure English Language Testing” in the UK. Applied Linguistics. 41(5), 662–687.
https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amz017
Hayes, B. & Read, J. (2008). IELTS test preparation in New Zealand: Preparing students for the IELTS academic module. In Cheng, L. , Watanabe, Y. & Curtis, A. (Eds.). Washback in language testing: Research contexts and methods (pp.
–111). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
Hemsley-Brown, J. (2012). “The best education in the world”: Reality, repetition or cliché? International students’ reasons for choosing an English university. Studies in Higher Education. 37(8), 1005–1022.
https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2011.562286
HESA. (2020). Where do HE students come from? Higher Education Statistics Agency. https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/where-from
Home Office. (2021). Student visa. https://www.gov.uk/student-visa
Hu, R. & Trenkic, D. (2019). The effects of coaching and repeated test-taking on Chinese candidates’ IELTS scores, their English proficiency, and subsequent academic achievement. International Journal of Bilingual Education and
Bilingualism. 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2019.1691498
Hyatt, D. & Brooks, G. (2009). Investigating stakeholders’ perceptions of IELTS as an entry requirement for higher education in the UK (IELTS Research Reports, Volume 10). IELTS Australia Pty Limited and British Council.
https://www.ielts.org/-/media/research-reports/ielts_rr_volume10_report1.ashx
IELTS. (2019a). Guide for educational institutions, governments, professional bodies and commercial organisations. Cambridge Assessment English, The British Council, IDP Australia. https://www.ielts.org/-/media/publications/guide-for-
institutions/ielts-guide-for-institutions-2015-uk.ashx
IELTS. (2019b). IELTS grows to 3.5 million a year. https://www.ielts.org/news/2019/ielts-grows-to-three-and-a-half-million-a-year
IELTS. (2019c). Test taker performance 2018. https://www.ielts.org/teaching-and-research/test-taker-performance
Li, M. & Bray, M. (2007). Cross-border flows of students for higher education: Push-pull factors and motivations of mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong and Macau. Higher Education. 53, 791–818. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-
-5423-3
Lloyd-Jones, G., & Binch, C. (2012). A case study evaluation of the English language progress of Chinese students on two UK postgraduate engineering courses (IELTS Research Reports, Volume 13). IDP: IELTS Australia and British
Council. https://www.ielts.org/-/media/research-reports/ielts_rr_volume13_report3.ashx
Lomer, S. (2017). Recruiting international students in higher education: Representations and rationales in British policy. Palgrave Macmillan.
MacDonald, J. J. (2019). Sitting at 6.5: Problematizing IELTS and admissions to Canadian universities. TESL Canada Journal. 36(1), 160–171. https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v36i1.1308
McNamara, T., & Roever, C. (2006). Validity and the social dimension of language testing. Language Learning, 56, 9–42. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2006.00379.x
Merrifield, G. & GBM & Associates. (2012). The use of IELTS for assessing immigration eligibility in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United Kingdom (IELTS Research Report, Volume 13). IDP: IELTS Australia and British Council.
https://www.ielts.org/-/media/research-reports/ielts_rr_volume13_report1.ashx
Murray, N. (2015). Standards of English in higher education: Issues, challenges and strategies. Cambridge University Press.
O’Loughlin, K. (2011). The interpretation and use of proficiency test scores in university selection: How valid and ethical are they? Language Assessment Quarterly. 8(2), 146–160. https://doi.org/10.1080/15434303.2011.564698
Oliver, R., Vanderford, S. & Grote, E. (2012). Evidence of English language proficiency and academic achievement of non-English-speaking background students. Higher Education Research & Development. 31(4), 541–555.
https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2011.653958
Parliament of Australia. (2019). Overseas students in Australian higher education: A quick guide.
https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1819/Quick_Guides/OverseasStudents
Pearson, W. S. (2019). “Remark or retake”? A study of candidate performance in IELTS and perceptions towards test failure. Language Testing in Asia. 9(17), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40468-019-0093-8
Pearson, W. S. (2020). Mapping English language proficiency cut-off scores and pre-sessional EAP programmes in UK higher education. Journal of English for Academic Purposes. 45, 100866. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2020.100866
Rahman, M. M., Islam, M. S., Karim, A., Chowdhury, T. A., Rahman, M. M., Seraj, P. M. I. & Singh, M. K. M. (2019). English language teaching in Bangladesh today: Issues, outcomes and implications. Language Testing in Asia. 9(9), 1–14.
https://doi.org/10.1186/s40468-019-0085-8
Rasti, I. (2009). Iranian candidates’ attitudes towards IELTS. The Asian EFL Journal. 11(3), 110–155. https://www.asian-efl-journal.com/861/main-journals/iranian-candidates-attitudes-towards-ielts/
Schoepp, K. (2018). Predictive validity of the IELTS in an English as a medium of instruction environment. Higher Education Quarterly. 72(4), 271–285. https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.12163
Shahrzad, S., Ma, J., May, L. & Cheng, L. (2019). Complexity of test preparation across three contexts: Case studies from Australia, Iran and China. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice. 28(1), 1–18.
https://doi.org/10.1080/0969594X.2019.1700211
Spolsky, B. (2004). Language policy. Cambridge University Press.
Statistics Canada. (2018). Canadian postsecondary enrolments and graduates, 2016/2017. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/181128/dq181128c-eng.htm
TakeIELTS.net. (2019). IELTS fees, dates and locations by country, 2019 update. https://takeielts.net/about-ielts/ielts-fees-dates-and-locations-by-country-2019-update/
Thorpe, A., Snell, M., Davey-Evans, S. & Talman, R. (2017). Improving the academic performance of non-native English-speaking students: The contribution of pre-sessional English language programmes. Higher Education Quarterly.
(1), 5–32. https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.12109
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17576/3L-2021-2702-03
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
eISSN : 2550-2247
ISSN : 0128-5157