'Like cars or breakfast cereal': IELTS and the trade in education and immigration

IELTS (International English Language Testing System) is the test used to assess the English language skills of international students, and an integral component of the trade in education services in Australia. Originally designed to assess language skills appropriate for tertiary study, IELTS has since acquired other functions. Primarily, as a result of government policy decisions, it has become a dual-purpose test: both a test of English language abilities and a means of controlling immigration. In this paper, I argue that these purposes are mutually incompatible and that this link has significant implications for stakeholders. In building this argument I begin by tracing the changing functions of the test, and the role of government policy in these changes. I then explore the impact of policy decisions in education and immigration on stakeholders, principally students and teachers. Through an analysis of an incident in an IELTS preparation class, in the course of a research project conducted at my workplace, an English language college in Sydney, I examine the ways in which the dual purposes of the test impact in the classroom and the implications they have for these stakeholders.

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