ABSTRACT
Although the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) has traditionally been the preferred test of internationally-bound Chinese learners, an increasingly popular alternative is the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). IELTS has fl ourished under the joint management of the British Council, the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES) (renamed more recently as Cambridge ESOL, English for Speakers of Other Languages), and the Australian International Development Programme (IDP). According to the offi cial IELTS website (www.ielts.org), since 1989 “more than 6,000 education institutions, faculties, government agencies and professional organizations around the world recognize IELTS scores” and more than 940,000 people a year are now using IELTS in 120 countries. Facts and fi gures which highlight IELTS’ rapid growth over a relatively short time span of 20 years.
In the past decade, the number of IELTS test locations worldwide has increased to over 300, with more than 30 offi cial test locations in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Although the estimated number of candidates has grown from approximately 80,000 in 1999 to close to 1 million in 2007 (Davies, 2008), the precise number of Chinese learners taking IELTS is unclear, as this information is not reported by the test-developer. Interpretation of actual numbers of test-takers is made more diffi cult because there are two versions of IELTS, one for academic/study purposes (known as the Academic module) and one for migration or employment purposes (known as the General Training module). It is the Academic module that is the focus here. What the test-developer does publish is information regarding the mean performance by sub-test and overall
