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General Medical Council: Standard Setting Study

Researchers: Jayanti Banerjee and Lynda Taylor (University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations)

In 2004, the General Medical Council (GMC) commissioned a review of the minimum language proficiency criteria for International Medical Graduates (IMGs). This study took into account the judgements of 3 stakeholder groups: patients, doctors, and other health workers (such as nurses, physiotherapists and phlebotomists). These represent the main groups that come into contact with the IMGs.

The study design drew on the standard-setting methodology presented in ETS (1995), Jones & Hunter (1996), Impara & Plake (1997), Lumley (1998) and Council of Europe (2003) and focused on two skills – writing and speaking. As all IMGs hoping to practice in the United Kingdom are required to provide an International English Language Testing System (IELTS) test score as proof of their English language proficiency, the sample performances were taken from the IELTS writing and speaking tests and covered a range of performance levels from IELTS band 5 to IELTS band 8. The nationalities of the test-takers reflected the nationalities and English varieties of the IMGs who typically seek accreditation.

The results of this study were presented at the Language Testing Research Colloquium (LTRC) in Ottawa, Canada, in July 2005:

Banerjee, J. and Taylor, L. (2005) Setting the standard: what English language abilities do overseas trained doctors need?

For more information about this project please contact Jayanti Banerjee, now at banerjej@umich.edu