Hi Stephen!
You asked whether anyone had experience of delivering IELTS or/and mapping
the ESOL CC Level 1 and Level 2 with IELTS. I have had some experience
delivering IELTS and my special area of interest is in testing, assessment
and evaluation. I assume that you want to try to map IELTS on to the ESOL
core curriculum to see what sort of target IELTS grade your Level 1 students
are likely to achieve [or should be aiming at].
My initial reaction is to ask why you would want to map ESOL CC Level 1 and
Level 2 with IELTS and to develop schemes of work for IELTS and Level 1. It
seems to me to be a rather pointless exercise given the nature of the IELTS
examination. I certainly do not think that you can micro-map the two, if
only because the IELTS descriptors and the descriptors in the curriculum are
too disparate [and, in the case of IELTS, too woolly at most levels].
Probably all you can do is macro-map the two.
With ESOL CC Level 1 and Level 2 you are dealing with moderate-level
learners at best {Level 1 is equated with GCSE Grades D to G, or Council of
Europe CEF Vantage Level and Level 2 with GCSE Grades A to C, or Council of
Europe CEF Operational Proficiency Level]. In terms of IELTS these appear to
equate with IELTS Bands 5 to 6.5 [see Trinity Certificates in ESOL Skills
for Life Introductory Booklet and my attached table]. If you wish to be able
to make statements about specific levels of ESOL learner performance, it
might be better to tie the course to the 5 ALTE levels and the Cambridge
ESOL Main Suite. In other words, IELTS might not be the best instrument for
your purpose.
Let me explain my views [although this may incur the wrath of Cambridge ESOL
and IELTS].
My first problem is with the reference to ‘delivering’ IELTS. This seems to
imply that IELTS is a deliverable course and has a suitably specific and
specified syllabus upon which teaching [or instructional delivery] can be
based. IELTS is not really like this. It is only a fairly restricted
examination. The appropriate delivery mode for IELTS is an intensive
examination preparation course, which is hardly healthy TESOL. Having said
this, however, I suppose that it would always be possible to design and
write a course targeted on Vantage Level plus that could be tested through
IELTS, should anybody see the point of doing so. It strikes me that it would
be the equivalent of reinventing a rather eccentric wheel.
Essentially, my view is that IELTS is an inappropriate qualification at any
level: it is only a selection test and is not a ESOL qualification in any
real sense of making statements about proficiency at any level [except
perhaps around band 6 but even then I am not sure what is represents in
terms of proficiency levels]. IELTS offers a limited statement about
proficiency that is only valid within a narrow band and within a narrow
range of operational contexts.
A more substantial problem for me concerns the nature of the IELTS
examination. Although widely used [and probably misused] for other purposes,
in practice IELTS was originally created for a very specific purpose, to
identify and select suitable candidates for entry into Higher Education [in
much the same way that TOEFL originated], as I have suggested above. In the
case of non-native users of English, most universities in the UK nominally
ask for an IELTS Band 6 or better, and this appears to be the target level
upon which IELTS is predicated. IELTS primary purpose remains the
identification of relatively higher-level users of English, and it is
probably reasonably effective in doing this.
In connection with the nature of IELTS, I would be concerned that a focus on
IELTS as a curricular driver in FE TESOL might encourage learners to develop
unrealistic perceptions about the ease with which they might meet language
requirements for university entrance or other forms of HE. In my experience,
they find it difficult to appreciate that IELTS Bands 4 or 4.5 or 5 or 5.5
represent an inadequate performance [let’s call it failure]. I have
significant current experience with undergraduate students who have been
allowed to enter an Honours course with IELTS 4.5 or the equivalent.
Incidentally, I recognise that IELTS is also [mis]used as a selection tool
for non-degree HE/FE courses. Foundation courses or pre-sessional courses,
for example, may require relatively low IELTS Bands for entry, perhaps as
low as 4.5, an achievement that is almost meaningless.
The attraction of IELTS may lie in its purported levelling [or banding] of
performance, and indeed IELTS sets out to report performance in terms of 9
bands. This appears to make it a type of proficiency test. However, in my
view, it is best seen as essentially a selection test rather than a true
proficiency test. For me, true proficiency tests are represented classically
by the Cambridge ESOL Main Suite examinations, where there is a specified
body of target language and detailed descriptions for each proficiency
level. IELTS may possibly be viewed as a placement test with clear levels,
but I do not believe this to be the case. The 9 IELTS levels do not have 9
discrete descriptions of language. It has one level that can be
characterised as the target level [Band 6 to Band 7] plus 3 levels that
represent more than sufficient performance and 5 less than sufficient
performance.
There is a further dimension to this argument. The test items for IELTS have
to be designed to discriminate accurately at the cut-off point [probably
around Band 6.5]. A consequence of this is that the test items in IELTS
certainly do not appear to be graded over the full range of proficiency
represented by the bands and their descriptors. Indeed the descriptors for
Bands 1 to 4 seem to me to be essentially negative statements about
performance, and test outcomes below IELTS Band Five, in my view, tend to
tell us more about what candidates cannot do rather than what they can do.
This is one of the systemic design feature that make IELTS an inappropriate
qualification aim for people below, say, ALTE Level 4 [NQF Level 2].
Let me explain a little more closely. As a selection test, IELTS focuses on
a specified cut-off point: by their nature, all selection tests have this
pre-determined cut-off point below which learners are rejected and cannot
take the target course of instruction [and are often excluded from the
target learning programme altogether]. Selection tests are constructed
around that cut-off point in terms of reliability and validity: a selection
test is predicated on a specific and narrow band of scores, no matter what
comprehensive range of proficiencies it might claim to sample. This focus in
practice often means that selection tests such as IELTS [and, incidentally,
TOEFL] generally operate more efficiently around their cut-off point and
increasingly less efficiently as scores move away from that point. This is
basically because at the cut-off level, the test outcomes enable statements
to be made about what individual learners can do in terms of the target
language, whereas the further scores move down from this norm the more
statements will actually be about what individual learners cannot do in
terms of the target language [and because the criterion point is placed
relatively high in the scale, this is especially true of the reliability of
scores below the cut-off]. The corollary is that as scores move up from the
norm, they will increasingly fail to make statements about what individual
learners can do in terms of the target language.
I suggest that IELTS cannot work equally well as a test at each of its
levels largely because doubts about the reliability and validity of
selection tests increase the further test scores move away from their
central norm. In my experience, IELTS requires a very high upper
intermediate [that is a good FCE] or an advanced [CAE] level of proficiency
in English for candidates to have a realistic expectation of a worthwhile
band result [that is a Band Six or better]. It seems logical to suggest that
IELTS outcomes below Band 5 may not necessarily be worth the paper that they
are printed on. I would not be sure what sort of performance Band 4 actually
represented reliably and I would certainly regard IELTS Bands 1 to 3 as
essentially meaningless statements about performance.
Another issue that seems very pertinent is variation in ability across
skills and the problems this can cause in reporting IELTS. It seems quite
typical to find ESOL students testing at one level for speaking and
listening, while testing at a significantly different level for reading and
writing. Indeed there may be significant variation between speaking and
listening and between reading and writing levels. This can make IELTS bands
less than useful as statements of performance [and even harder to map IELTS
levels to the ESOL core curriculum.
ATB,
David Thornton.
>From: stephen woulds <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: stephen woulds <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: IELTS and Trinity
>Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2007 15:20:20 -0000
>
>Hi there
>
>
>
>Does anyone have experience of delivering IELTS or/and mapping the ESOL
>CC Level 1 and Level 2 with IELTS? The ESOL team at Leeds Thomas Danby
>is currently attempting to develop schemes of work for IELTS and Level
>1. Our previous 'expert' at these levels has left and those that have
>taken over his classes are adrift without a paddle. Any thoughts and
>suggestions would be most welcome.
>
>
>
>Regards
>
>Stephen
>
>
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ESOL-Research is a forum for researchers and practitioners with an interest in research into teaching and learning ESOL. ESOL-Research is managed by James Simpson at the Centre for Language Education Research, School of Education, University of Leeds.
To join or leave ESOL-Research, visit
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