标题: a monopoly enjoyed by the english language test ielts is likely to be broken up. [打印本页] 作者: hgi9174g 时间: 2010-5-19 21:04 标题: a monopoly enjoyed by the english language test ielts is likely to be broken up.
Immigration and Citizenship Minister Chris Evans has given in-principle approval for rival tests to be officially recognised for checks of English proficiency when overseas students or workers seek visas.<br />
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"We're very hopeful. There's really no objective reason why TOEFL [the US-based Test of English as a Foreign Language] could not be confidently used in the Australian [immigration] context," said Eileen Tyson, a TOEFL representative in Australia this month for talks.<br />
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TOEFL, which dates back to 1964, and a new test from global publisher Pearson are known to have applied to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship for official status.<br />
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IELTS, the International English Language Testing System, which emerged from British and Australian collaboration, has had a monopoly since 2001 when the department mandated its test for student visas. It has also enjoyed a near monopoly for skilled migration. IELTS has struggled at times to keep up with the demand for its tests, leading to complaints about waiting times.<br />
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Helen Cook, who works with TOEFL in Australia, said insistence on IELTS by the department could be a disincentive for potential overseas students who had a TOEFL result for admission to an Australian university.<br />
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Reporting his 2009 study of overseas students who did not take up an offer, researcher Alan Olsen said: "Australia might need to look at why it does not accept TOEFL results for higher degree by research students from countries such as China, India and Iran."<br />
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In April 2008, education broker IDP Australia Pty Ltd paid $28.7 million to become sole owner of IELTS Australia Pty Ltd.<br />
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Four months later, the Immigration Department began a review of the IELTS monopoly by inviting other test providers to put their case for recognition. One estimate puts the worth of the Australian test market at about $30m, although this may be reduced by the government's decoupling of education and immigration.<br />
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Last month, Senator Evans wrote to TOEFL and other test providers to tell them of "his in-principle support for the acceptance of more than one English language test under the migration regulations", a department spokesman said.<br />
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There was some more work to be done on the security of tests, and on the equivalence of scores between different tests, before a final decision, the spokesman said.<br />
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如果以后真的toefl也能用的话。。大家认为多少等效4个7？ 110？