Michael Goodine's Blog, page 45
February 17, 2024
On the Predictive Usefulness of IELTS
Wonderful new article (free to read) in “Educational Research and Evaluation” this week by Rachael Ruegg. It examines the IELTS test and the in-house language test of a certain New Zealand university, and explores how well scores from those tests can predict academic success at the undergraduate level. The article suggests that the predictive […]
February 16, 2024
More on TOEIC Cheating Scandal
Over at The Guardian, Amelia Gentleman continues her excellent reporting on the TOEIC cheating scandal in an interview with London MP Stephen Timms. Of the evidence of cheating provided by ETS to the Home Office, he says: “Surely somebody in the Home Office seeing that should have said: ‘Hang on that can’t be right, that […]
February 15, 2024
IDP Half-Year Results (6 Months Ending December 31, 2023)
IDP Education has released its fiscal results for the half-year ending December 31, 2023. The report indicates that the IELTS was taken 902,000 times in those six months, a drop of 12 percent compared to the same period last year. The report indicates that this drop was due to lower test volumes in India. I’ve […]
TOEIC Cheating and Deportation Scandal Back in News
The TOEIC scandal is back in the news, as test-takers have presented new evidence which they hope will clear their names. You know, when people ask why I’m such a cranky old man when it comes to language testing I often point to this case. It demonstrates that testing firms still have an outsized impact […]
How Much do University Folks Know about Language Tests?
There is a new ETS Research Report that looks into how university staff know about the TOEFL test. It focuses on three groups of stakeholders – admissions officers, faculty in graduate programs and faculty in Intensive English Programs. The report is fun because I’ve always assumed that the amount known by everyone involved is “not […]
February 14, 2024
Financial Support for Korean Test Takers
The ETS page on Naver has information about how young-ish people in Korea can get financial support to cover their TOEFL test fees. Applicants should be unemployed (or perhaps under-employed). Support is currently available to residents of five districts in Seoul, and to residents of various cities across the country. Keep an eye out for […]
New Book: Comprehensibility in Language Assessment
There is a new book from the British Council authored by Parvaneh Tavakoli and Sheryl Cooke called “Comprehensibility in Language Assessment”. You can download the PDF at no cost. The book describes some of the current approaches to assessing comprehensibility (sometimes feature driven, other times based on a holistic sense of understanding) and suggests new […]
