IELTS | Media Centre
2011 Caroline Clapham IELTS Masters Award
announced
The IELTS Research Committee, comprising representatives of the
British Council, IDP: IELTS Australia, and University of Cambridge
ESOL Examinations, is pleased to announce the awarding of the 2011
Caroline Clapham IELTS Masters Award to Kellie Frost, for her
dissertation submitted to The University of Melbourne entitled
“Investigating the validity of an integrated listening-speaking
task: A discourse-based analysis of test takers’ oral
performances.” The dissertation was supervised by Prof Catherine
Elder.
The award, which carries a prize of £1000, will be formally
presented to the winner at the annual Language Testing Research
Colloquium (LTRC) in April 2012.
The Caroline Clapham IELTS Masters Award is presented annually
to the Master’s-level dissertation or thesis in English which makes
the most significant contribution to the field of language testing.
Qualified individuals who would like to join the 2012 competition
are invited to visit the grants page for
details of the competition and submission guidelines.
Congratulations to Ms Frost!
The IELTS Facebook page is now live
Join us and IELTS test takers around the world
on the new IELTS official global Facebook page. We will be sharing
English language learning tips, IELTS preparation and test taking
tips and will be running polls, competitions and much more.
Click
here to join the IELTS Facebook community.
University Grants Committee announces 2010/2011 IELTS
results
Hong Kong (HKSAR) - The following is issued on
behalf of the University Grants Committee:
The University Grants
Committee (UGC) has announced the results of the
International English
Language Testing System (IELTS) taken by final year
students of UGC-funded undergraduate degree programmes under the
2010/11 Common English Proficiency Assessment Scheme (CEPAS).
About 12,400 final year students, or about 68 per cent of all
full-time and part-time final year undergraduate students,
participated in the 2010/11 round of CEPAS. This represents an
increase of about 3 per cent in terms of the number of participants
as compared with last year, and is a record high.
The average overall score attained by the students is 6.69 on a
nine-point scale. About 84.8 per cent of the students attained a
score in the 6-7.5 range, which means they are "competent" or
"good" users of the English language in terms of the IELTS scoring
system.
Among the four modules of the test, students did better in
"reading" and "listening", scoring overall 7.31 and 7.19
respectively. Their average scores in "writing" and "speaking" are
5.99 and 6.04 respectively. Institutions are encouraged to utilise
the CEPAS results with regard to their English language enhancement
strategies and programmes.
CEPAS is a voluntary assessment scheme intended to encourage
students to be more aware of the importance of English proficiency,
and to provide a common framework for assessing and documenting
graduating students' English proficiency. IELTS has been adopted by
the UGC as the main testing tool under CEPAS since 2002/03. Test
fees are reimbursed once if students agree to reflect their
participation in CEPAS in their transcript. The actual test score
however will not be shown.
An overall Band of 6.5 or above with no subtest score below Band 6
obtained in the same sitting in the Academic Module of IELTS within
the two-year validity period is accepted as equivalent to a "Level
2" result in the Use of English paper in the Government's Common
Recruitment Examination.
Source: HKSAR
Government
IELTS welcomes sentencing of offenders - 9th August,
2011
The IELTS partners today welcomed the sentencing of four
individuals convicted of offences related to conspiring to obtain
false IELTS scores at the Curtin English Language Centre (CELC) at
Curtin University.
“The sentences handed down in the District Court of Western
Australia are clear demonstration of what IELTS has been saying for
some time – that any attempt to cheat or commit fraud at an IELTS
test will be identified and sanctions will be imposed,” John
Belleville, Director of IELTS for IELTS Australia said.
IELTS security systems originally detected the anomalous results at
CELC, leading IELTS to brief the findings to Curtin University for
immediate attention. The charges followed an extensive
investigation supported by IELTS that was led by the Corruption and
Crime Commission of Western Australia (CCC) due to the university’s
status as a public institution.
“As evidenced in this matter, IELTS has sophisticated security
procedures in place to protect legitimate test candidates and the
organisations that use IELTS results,” Mr Belleville continued.
Mr Belleville advised that investigations by the CCC into alleged
misconduct at Curtin University have concluded. “Importantly, as
part of this work, no instances of wrongdoing have been identified
at other test centres by either IELTS or the CCC,” he said.
“Given the high stakes involved, IELTS recognises the significant
responsibility we have to ensure that organisations are issued with
a result that reliably reflects a candidate’s English language
proficiency.
“Around the world, we work closely with relevant authorities,
including immigration and law enforcement agencies, to prevent,
identify and where appropriate prosecute any cheating or fraud
attempt in accordance with local jurisdictions.
“IELTS will continue vigorously pursuing instances of alleged
cheating or other fraudulent activity to protect the integrity of
the IELTS test and the interests of legitimate test candidates,” Mr
Belleville concluded.
IELTS warns fraudsters - 31 May
2011
Claims that a small number of IELTS
candidates from China are seeking to use imposters to sit their
IELTS test in order to obtain their desired result has met with a
harsh warning from the IELTS partners. IELTS warned test
candidates that if they attempt to present fraudulent identities to
any IELTS test centre, they will be identified and action will be
taken, James Shipton, Director of IELTS for China, said today.
Reports surface from time to time of
fraudsters from mainland China seeking to make money from students
who will pay an imposter. “Students who pay large sums of
money are attracted by exaggerated promises of IELTS results, yet
they end up without results and are no more advanced in the process
of developing the English language skills to ultimately succeed in
a university or workplace where English is used,” James Shipton
said.
Most IELTS candidates study hard to
improve their English language skills, achieve the best possible
result in their IELTS test and then pursue education, immigration
or professional accreditation outcomes.
There will always be a small minority
of people who seek to attain results that they haven’t
earned. IELTS test centres are on constant alert to identify
people presenting a false identity before, during and after the
test day.
“Cheating attempts are not widespread.
However IELTS vigorously pursues instances of alleged cheating or
other fraudulent activity, to protect the integrity of the IELTS
test and the interests of legitimate test candidates.
James Shipton warned those students
tempted to pay money to someone offering to be an imposter to be
very mindful of the consequences of such actions.
“Around the world, IELTS works closely
with relevant authorities, including immigration and law
enforcement agencies, to prevent, identify and report any fraud
attempts. In China, for example, IELTS issues life bans on any
candidate identified as attempting to present a fraudulent
identity” confirmed James Shipton.
With more than 20 years experience, the
IELTS partners continually evolve security systems and procedures
in order to ensure that multi-layered protocols address security
risk across all test stages. Given the sensitive nature of
these measures, they are not disclosed publicly in detail.
IELTS is the most popular high stakes
English language test in the world, recognised by 6,000
organisations in over 135 countries. In 2010, more than 1.5
million IELTS tests were sat worldwide.
IELTS calls for applications for its research
grants
IELTS, the world’s most popular high stakes English language
test, is now accepting applications for 2011/2012 Research Grants.
Qualified individuals and education institutions can apply for
funding to undertake applied research projects in relation to IELTS
and English language testing. Selected papers are published in
IELTS Research Reports.
IELTS is jointly owned by British Council,
IDP: IELTS Australia and the University of Cambridge ESOL
Examinations (Cambridge ESOL). British Council and IDP: IELTS
Australia contribute up to AUD$36,000 / GBP£22,000 per research
project, to a select number of projects each year. A total of
approximately AUD$215,000 / GBP£130,000 is made available
annually.
Applications must be submitted by 30
June 2011 with research to commence by January 2012.
“Ongoing research has been a hallmark of the
continuous development of IELTS since its inception more than 20
years ago,” said Tony Pollock, Chief Executive of IDP: IELTS
Australia.
“Research projects undertaken as part of the
IELTS joint-funded research program have included subject areas
such as applied linguistics, language pedagogy and language
assessment,” continued John Gildea, Head of IELTS with the British
Council.
“These studies complement internal research
and validation projects conducted or commissioned by Cambridge
ESOL,” explained Dr Mike Milanovic, Chief Executive of Cambridge
ESOL. “Since 1995, more than 90 external studies by over 130
unique researchers from around the world have received grants under
this jointly-funded scheme promoted by the IELTS partners.”
Volumes 1 to 11 of IELTS Research
Reports are now available online,
free of charge. This page also provides links to other IELTS
publications such as Studies in Language Testing and
CESOL Research Notes.
For more information about IELTS Research Grants visit www.ielts.org/researchers.
IELTS Shows Support for International Educators
at NAFSA 2011
LOS ANGELES - IELTS is proud to support NAFSA: Association of
International Educators as Co-Sponsors of the Teacher Education
Colloquium “Challenging Bias and Building World-mindedness in
Teacher Education” and Platinum Sponsors of the Annual Conference
& Expo in Vancouver, British Columbia, May 31-June 3, 2011.
The Teacher Colloquium is a two-day series of lectures, sessions
and discussions that will address best practices in cross-cultural
teacher education programs, and develop new strategies to
internationalize curriculum and foster the development of teachers
with global perspectives. The Colloquium will take place Wednesday,
June 1, 12:30-5:00 pm and Thursday, June 2, 7:30 am-12:00 pm,
during the NAFSA Annual Conference.
The NAFSA Annual Conference is an opportunity for professionals
in international education and exchange, campus leaders, policy
experts, industry partners, experienced practitioners, students and
international colleagues to participate in more than 250 workshops,
sessions, seminars and networking opportunities. NAFSA expects
record-breaking attendance of more than 8,000 attendees in
Vancouver.
“As NAFSA Global Advisors, we are pleased to support this key
annual event, engage with our colleagues in all aspects of
international education and learn from the thought leaders in our
field,” said Beryl E. Meiron, Executive Director, IELTS
International.
This year’s NAFSA Conference will include an IELTS presentation
titled “Putting People First: IELTS Quality, Fairness and Service”,
which will include an international panel of IELTS representatives
discussing ways in which IELTS puts people first while achieving
high standards of English language test quality, fairness, and
customer service. The discussion will outline fundamentals and
current IELTS best practices in research, validity, and reliability
studies, and discuss test security measures and updates. The
presentation is scheduled Wednesday, June 1 and Thursday, June 2 at
3:45 pm at the Vancouver Convention Centre.
For more information and to speak with international
representatives from IELTS offices around the world, visit the
IELTS booth #901 at the NAFSA Conference at the Vancouver
Convention Centre next week.
Further details about NAFSA can be found at www.nafsa.org.
IELTS breaks the 1.5 million tests mark - 9 March
2011
IELTS has cemented its position as the world’s most popular high
stakes English language test with latest figures revealing a record
1.5 million tests were taken around the world in 2010.
Representing over 15 consecutive years of
global growth, the number of tests taken has increased year-on-year
annually since 1995.
North America followed by the Philippines and
Hong Kong experienced the largest growth over the year, whilst
China, Australia and India continue to retain their positions as
the largest markets for IELTS.
Tony Pollock, Chief Executive of IDP: IELTS
Australia, speaking on behalf of the three IELTS partners said, “We
believe the increase in the number of IELTS tests taken can be
attributed to two key factors. Firstly, we have seen greater
test accessibility with 800 locations in 130 countries now
available.
“There are also over 6,000 institutions
globally that rely on the rigour and reliability of the IELTS test
to make informed decisions where English language skills are a key
requirement, including universities, employers, professional bodies
and immigration authorities,” he continued.
IELTS provides a reliable measure of a
candidate’s ability across the four skills of listening, reading,
writing and speaking.
Candidates cited the number one reason for
taking the test in 2010 was in pursuit of entry into an academic
institution, followed by migration purposes.
“IELTS continues to help change people’s lives
as they look for opportunities around the world – whether that be
in education, for migration or employment. That’s why IELTS
is a high stakes test and also why it’s so critical that the test
continue to be a robust and rigorous measure of English language
proficiency.
“With 1.5 million tests delivered last year,
it is clear that the effectiveness of IELTS in this regard is
acknowledged by both candidates and those who use and rely on the
test alike,” Mr Pollock concluded.
IELTS is jointly owned by the British
Council, IDP: IELTS
Australia and the University of Cambridge
ESOL Examinations (Cambridge ESOL).
