Job Discussion Forums

[mitsui]

I want to be an examiner for IELTS. I have to take the test and even have to pay for it. It costs over 200 dollars. Does this seem normal?
This is through JSAF in Tokyo.

[suphanburi]

[mitsui]

And I have to pay for the checking of my documents. I guess they want to know my diplomas are not fake. Not sure how much that will cost.
I can't believe I would need to take the test since I am a native speaker.

I guess I need the interview anyway. They seem really strict. I guess some people pretend to be better at English than they really are.

[santi84]

Unless you are desperate, I'd tell them to pound sand.

[scot47]

I became an IELTS Examiner after doing the course at British Council Bahrain some years ago, There was a fee for the course but I did not have to take the IELTS Exam. I think they accepted that I was a native speaker. I did have a telephone interview with someone at BC who asked a lot of questions. maybe they were satisfied that this Scoto-Bulgar had "native-level competence in English" ? (They asked questions about bilingualism in my family and what language I used at home with wife and bairns)

[spiral78]

Does 'bairns' fit under the umbrella of standard English;-)?

[scot47]

I put it in there for literary effect - to emphasise my attitude to the BC Commissars who believe in such nonsense as "Standard English"

Right, lassie ? Ye ken hwit I mean noo ?

[mitsui]

Maybe it is just the wording on the form -

"We may ask you to take the test at any time" - doesn't say who would have to take the test.

possible translation - if we find that you are in fact a non-native speaker of English, you will take the test.

"We may require you to pay for the verification of your documents"

I guess they may interview people from countries like the Philippines, since they seem to have a need for teachers. All teachers need to get the highest score of 9.

There are two interviews. One is on the telephone and the other is in person.
Training lasts for a day and a half. Maybe it is two consecutive Saturdays.

[MuscatGary]

Even native speakers would struggle to get a 9 sometimes. I know an experienced native speaker teacher who only scored 7 when he did it for fun.

[Shanghai Noon]

Listening and reading are fairly simple for any native speaker. The tasks are very methodical. You just need to stay focused. Writing task 1 is the killer, unless you're lucky enough to get a flow chart.

[BenE]

'May' and 'will' are very different words. If they are demanding fees for individual documents and also demanding by default that you take a test then I'd say it's probably not worth it to be an examiner there. I've never heard of this being the case.

Normally you just have to pay for the course and pass the standardisation test. After that you get paid to do tests and don't need to pay for re certification (unless it expires or you fail monitoring)

[scot47]

IELTS is now used as a filter for those applying for migrant status to Canada and Australia. Native speakers in Britain routinely do IELTS to improve their score of the Migrant Points System. Some have difficulty in scoring more than 5 on the writing and reading sections of the test.

[Hod]

To be fair, the writing section would be tricky for any unprepared native speaker. To write 150 and 250 words and conform to such a rigid format within 20 and 40 minutes respectively is something no native speaker would ever normally do. In my day, the test was hand written, which makes it even more anachronistic (wow, must be a 9 with such words) if that's still the case.

[bograt]

[scot47]

But guv, it is tough, innit ? Not all native speakers have the level of articulacy expected !

That is why we introduce the strange concept of "the educated native speaker" - to exclude the 'Sun' readers !