Article

(David Park designs & teaches IELTS courses for individuals & groups. He was contracted by the British Council to provide this article.) 

Research has shown that the Chinese performance in IELTS (International English Language Testing System) continues to improve.

The upward trend in the average score achieved by Chinese candidates has been occurring for some years now, although the overall improvement in average scores still remains small.

Growing demand

IELTS measures the ability to communicate in English across the four language skills: listening, reading, writing and speaking. The test is taken by people wishing to work or study where English is the language of communication.

In 2007, over 940,000 people took IELTS exams. This was an increase of 35% on the number of people taking IELTS in 2006, making it the fastest growing English language test in the world.

Over 6,000 education institutions, faculties, government agencies and professional organisations around the world now recognise IELTS scores as a valid indicator of a person’s ability to communicate in English.

To keep up with the growing demand and ensure that test material is secure, one of the three owners of IELTS, the University of Cambridge, continually develops new test material.

Each year, the University releases new versions of the listening, reading, writing and speaking modules for use at over 500 test centres in 121 countries. The reading and writing modules include different versions for Academic and General Training candidates.

The two other owners of IELTS, IDP: IELTS Australia and the British Council, are responsible for giving and scoring the exams at test centres.

Global results

As part of its responsibility to make sure that high test standards are achieved, the University of Cambridge analyses the results of all exams used over the year. The University has recently released its analysis of the exams held throughout the world last year.

In 2007, approximately three-quarters of candidates (76%) took the academic version of the IELTS test. The remaining quarter of candidates did the General Training version.

In IELTS, candidates receive scores on a nine-band scale, and a score is reported for each module (listening, reading, writing and speaking) of the test. The individual module scores are then averaged to produce an overall band score. All scores are reported as a whole or a half band.

Table 1 shows the average overall band scores for Academic and General Training candidates in 2007, together with the average scores for the individual modules. The figures are presented with two decimal places to allow accurate comparisons to be made.

In the case of Academic candidates, the average scores for listening, reading and speaking were similar, but writing was clearly the most challenging skill. General Training candidates achieved higher scores in listening and speaking than in reading and writing.

Chinese results

Candidates in 121 countries took IELTS in 2007. Table 2 gives the average overall scores achieved by Academic and General Training candidates from the top 20 nationalities (in terms of the total number of candidates) taking IELTS. About 80% of all test takers in 2007 are represented by the nationalities shown.

The Chinese results are lower than the world averages for both the Academic and the General Training exams. Chinese candidates taking the academic version of IELTS performed significantly lower than the world average, achieving an average overall band score of 5.45 compared to the global average of 5.83. However, the average score for General Training candidates in China (5.77) was slightly below the global average of 5.85.

Table 3 presents the proportion of test takers achieving each overall band score in 2007. The results are for a sample of nationalities that took the academic version of the test. Visit here to see figures for other countries and the General Training test results. The average Chinese band score of 5.45 for the academic test is below the minimum needed for entry to foreign universities. Depending on the course of studies and the school, a minimum band score ranging between 6.0 and 8.0 is usually required for admission. Just 20 percent of Chinese candidates gained an overall score of 6.0 (the lowest score allowed for study in most programmes), and only 16 percent achieved a higher score.

Upward trend in results

The average overall score for candidates taking the academic version of IELTS in China has historically been below the global average.

However, it’s clear from Table 4 that the gap between the Chinese and the global average is steadily narrowing.

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Glossary

faculty (n.) -a group of departments in a college which specialises in a group of subjects

valid (adj.) - relevant and meaningful

indicator (n.) - a sign that shows something is true

ensure (v.) - to make sure that something is certain to happen

module (n.) - here, it refers to one of the testing units which together make a complete IELTS examination 

analysis (n.) - the study or examination of something in detail. The plural form of the word is 'analyses'.

nationality (n.) - a group of people who come from the same country

significantly (adv.) - in an important way

proportion (n.) - the number or amount of a group when compared to the whole

Discussion

If you have taken the academic version of IELTS, do you find writing to be the most difficult skill to achieve high scores? Why do you think is the case?

Can you think of the reasons why the overall average scores achieved by the Chinese test-takers of the Academic Training exam are significantly lower than the global average?

In comparing the results of 20 nationalities in both Academic and General Training exams, candidates from Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines scored above the global average, do you think it is related to the use of English in these countries?

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Chinese IELTS performance improving