ELT Review: You will challenge yourself to climb Muztagata in July, why would you plan this initiative?

Mr Shipton: When I was a child, I loved to read real life adventure stories of the early explorers and I really wanted to do something that attracted me. Eric Shipton was my grandfather’s cousin and one of the best British Mountaineers of his generation. He lived in Kashgar in Xinjiang from 1940 to 1942 to attempt a first ascent of Muztagata. He was almost successful but turned back due to the intense cold. I really admired him and also want to conquer the mountain myself. Life was different and you get busy and shoulder many obligations. It is only now when I have opportunities to be able to do something like mountain climbing.

ELT Review: I know you are writing series of articles of the mountain climbing, what’s the purpose of it? In your opinion, what’s the linkage between mountain climbing and studying?

Mr Shipton: There are some connections between what I am going to do and what people are trying to do to study overseas. Anything is very difficult to achieve. You have to be very determined, plan very carefully, keep your motivation high, and find out information so that you can understand the things you will do. The ways to achieve anything difficult are the same. It does not matter if you are climbing a mountain or going to universities. I want to share my experience of climbing Muztagata in my blog with all the students.

ELT Review: What do you think are the key milestones of a huge plan, for example, in your mountain climbing and studying?

Mr Shipton: The most important thing is that you do things you are interested in. Moreover, you should understand not everything is possible and you do have limitations. These things may stop you achieving your dreams. Perhaps your dream is just impossible. You have to learn to balance between a very strong powerful image and ambitions of what you want to do and what is going to be realistic. After that, you need to plan and get all the information about the things you want to do. And then, you have to organize your study.

ELT Review: Over the past decade there has been a visible shift in interest among Chinese students away from a narrow focus on TOEFL when they apply for graduate school in the US. More and more students embrace IELTS. What’s the situation about recognition of IELTS in the US? What are the reasons behind the trend?

Mr Shipton: IELTS continues to be very successful these years. Last year, we got over 1.5 million test takers globally. The US is a fast growing market. And IELTS is now very widely accepted in the country. All the Ivy League schools and the top 120 universities in the US accept IELTS. About 83 percent of the undergraduate schools and 90 percent of postgraduate schools recognize the test. The reason behind the trend lies in both the advantages of the test and our work that have been done.

ELT Review: We know that you joined BC in 1995 and have been working in language teaching and assessment since then in many countries. What changes have you observed in English language testing in those non-English-speaking countries?

Mr Shipton: English language testing is becoming much more important. IELTS is 20 years old and I have worked in BC for 15 years. Before then I was a teacher and had studied language testing for many years. The improvement of language assessment is also an example of how society has changed. There is an obvious trend. People’s understanding of English, like what is correct English, has changed. Nowadays there are more people who speak English as a foreign language than native speakers of English. There are new dialects of spoken English coming up like Indian English and Singaporean English. Some of these changes are reflected in the test. A test like IELTS has to reflect some kind of common standards and not to be culturally specific. So it does not matter if you use American spelling or English spelling. Likewise, IELTS will not mark down students who have local pronunciation only if they are understandable and will not criticize candidates who use vocabulary that belongs to particular country.

ELT Review: The use of multimedia and the Internet is becoming increasingly popular in ELT. We know that BC is planning to open computer-based test this year. What is the most significant aspect of the new computer-based test? What kind of roles will technology, especially Internet, play in English language assessment in the near future?

Mr Shipton: We are working on the feasibility of introducing computer-based test. At the moment we do not have any date when we are going to launch the new test. It is important to be clear that we have no plan to open computer-based test this year. We want to make sure that we do things at the right time in right ways so that the service is available to all the candidates. When we introduce computer-based test, we will keep the paper-based and the new one and give more options but without changing the standard. We will always keep the face-to-face interview. I think the role of technology will grow increasingly important for improving testing methodology.

ELT Review: You have opened blog and micro-blog. What’s your feeling about communicating with students and teachers through this way?

Mr Shipton: I am really enjoying it. In the blog, I have to do the research to make sure that all the facts are correct, and that takes quite a lot of time. The micro-blog is quite easy. I enjoy the opportunity to communicate directly with people.