I read a new article from the IELTS team about how a great English test can have a positive impact on the academic lives of learners. It says that “[i]f that test promotes useful learning habits, students arrive well equipped for lectures, seminars and coursework.” And “[t]ests with positive washback ensure that applicants arrive with more than a score; they have the academic skills and confidence to thrive.”
Of IELTS in particular, the article notes that preparing for the IELTS means “better student outcomes, less pressure on support services and stronger reputational benefits.”
But it is important to keep things in perspective. We’re talking here about two-hour English tests. These things are great tools for assessing English fluency, but that’s the extent of their usefulness. A middling student doesn’t become a great student because they spent a little while preparing for an English test. A young person who has spent a few weeks summarizing charts like the ones that will appear on an English test will have gained something… but success at a post-secondary institution is about so, so, so much more than the smattering of questions that appear on even the very best English test.
Whether a student is well-equipped to participate in academic lectures and whether they have academic skills and whether they have confidence (etc) depends a whole lot on their whole lifetime of schooling to date and only a tiny bit on the English test they took.
Institutions must realize the specific usefulness of English tests (this is a form of gaining assessment literacy). Test makers should resist the urge to exaggerate what their tests can do (this is a form of promoting assessment literacy).
More on washback in the days ahead… as soon as I finish listening to the new “Talking ELT” podcast series on the topic!