Write a research proposal. The proposal must include all the important sections of a research study as indicated below, and should be between 1800 to 2000 words long, excluding the references and appendices.

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HCMUTE NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARD IELTS SCAMS

1. INTRODUCTION
2. Situating the self and purpose of the study

With a lightning development of either industrial or economical aspects for the last 10 years, Vietnam is expected to keep up with super nations whose power has been proved to have a massive dominance onto this material world. As a result, investors with an ambition to conquer this advantageous land centering at the heart of southeast Asia keep expending their efforts and money with a high hope of receiving a worthy achievement at the end of the road. Obviously, if more and more people and expenditure continue heading straight into Vietnam, a connection to the world must have in order to create a constant link for trading, importing, and exporting. And what is the best way to achieve inter-communication? Through languages, especially English, which has been well-known for its popularity for more than 100 years due to the England’s colonialism from the late 17^th to the 20^th century. To master English, practising speaking, listening, reading, and writing is crucial and should be noticed first. Therefore, a growing number of learners begin stepping on the IELTS path as like a preparation for future employment opportunity and further education, which creates a huge impact on the global testing organization of English in terms of test-takers internationally.

According to Pearman (2019), an approximate number of 3 million candidates in 2016 demonstrated the fact that a mass number of participants involved in IELTS examination rose significantly in the last decade. “As a result, this high-stakes, high-pressure test has become firmly entrenched as a global gatekeeping institution, regulating the international flows of people for migration and academic study.” (Pearman, 2019). IELTS, ‘a powerful test of a powerful language’ (Hamid, 2016), proved how dominantly its owning primary counterparts seized (the British Council, Cambridge Assessment English, and IDP) (Pearman, 2019). Also, according to Pearman (2019), this situation can be explained based on his idea and conclusion:

“[The powerful triangular test holders] are invested with enormous power [and money] to shape the destinies of millions of people globally [or at least nationally.]”, and “IELTS has vested commercial interests in its continued global expansion and entrenchment.”

The lucrative advantages of IELTS have for years enlighten a lot of worldwide institutional systems showing the enormous significance of the international standardized test of English language proficiency to global education.

However, with the growth and potential that IELTS brings into the current trend, some irresponsible educators (possibly scammers as well) may take use of it and disguise themselves into truthful IELTS (or similarly TOEFL) trainers possessing a miraculous promise with only one purpose to their masquerade: Get as much candidates’ money as possible without teaching (or barely teaching) their students. That fraudulent action is called “IELTS scam”, a phrase compounded by two morphemes “IELTS” and “scam”. IELTS stands for International English Language Testing System (IELTS, n.d.), and scam, according to Miller and Brown (2013), is “an illegal plan for making money, especially one that involves tricking people”. The term “IELTS scam” (also known as IELTS fraud) (British Council Vietnam, n.d.) is defined as an illegal action to counterfeit the IELTS diploma, change the test scores, or unveil the examination paper before the test. With that said, for such IELTS scams like the case discussed here, another explanation should be added as a deceitful class providing (an) illegitimate IELTS curriculum(s) to earn money legally with almost no teaching activities. Because the scammers just barely teach their students, the problem of IELTS scams here is just bad classes, meaning that the learners are irresponsibly taught. Moreover, many IELTS classes are private and under no control of the government. Thus, it is nearly impossible to prosecute the scammers.

Overall, it is clearer now to witness the accumulation of uncontrolled counterfeit IELTS classes in Vietnam, specifically in Ho Chi Minh City whose interior areas are known as a cross-regional economic place where English is considered a compelling tool attached to business development and higher education. On the researcher’s personal perspective, IELTS scams have been recognised for more than 5 years since 2016 when the researcher first went to high school. Remarkably, an astonishing number of students (mostly EFL non-English major ones) in the researcher’s high school were the prey for the young scammers whose status was still members of the school. Unfortunately, there were only few reports and research related to the issue besides warnings of individuals who unintentionally empowered those financial leeches through naïve and impressionable feeding. At the present, the researcher is a University of Education and Technology (UTE) student in Ho Chi Minh City, but the pandemic is still happening without any noticeable attention of the Ministry of Education and the university themselves. The same problem but under different roofs! As a result, UTE non-English major students in Ho Chi Minh City perceive, detect, and evade such fake English courses is still unknown. Hence, this paper’s aims are first to investigate attitudes of non-English major students in HCMUTE towards IELTS scams and then to explore how HCMUTE non-English major students identify and avoid IELTS scams.

1. Initial guiding questions:

An investigation of students’ attitudes and an exploration for how to identify and avoid IELTS scams will be proceeded, so a couple of questions are raised based on the theory of Booth and his colleagues (2016). The questions must be focused, researchable, feasible, specific, complex, and relevant enough for the research to be conducted (Booth et al., 2016). With the procedures grounded by Booth et al. (2016), the research questions have to be justified with three criteria: the topic’s name, circuitous questions, and ‘so what?’ strategy also. Therefore, the research will focus on both HCMUTE non-English major students’ attitudes, and the methods that UTE students in Ho Chi Minh City identify and avoid counterfeit IELTS courses to answer the following questions:

• “What are HCMUTE non-English major students’ attitudes towards IELTS scams?”
• “How can HCMUTE non-English major students identify and avoid IELTS scams?”

1. Review of literature

Basic hypothesis for the term “Attitude”

Attitude is known by many people, but not fully understood. It is a psychological term describing someone’s inclination through assessing a specific entity with an amount of liking and disliking (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993). In other words, as a human’s attitude could be positive or negative, there is always a chance of that person tendentiously leaning towards favorable or unfavorable responses. Beside Eagly and Chaiken theory (1993), Schwarz and Bohner (2001) stated that attitudes are generally constructed on the spot, irrespective of whether they are assessed directly with standard self–report measures or indirectly via implicit measures. Another explanation for “Attitude” belongs to Smith and Conrey (2007). They proved that attitudes weren’t visible like an object or invisible like a notion but could be anything based on what people saw and felt (2007).

As this research is only aimed to find out HCMUTE students’ attitudes towards IELTS scams, three hypotheses above are full detailed enough to have a general understanding of what attitude is.

IELTS and IELTS scam

From the first settlement onto the universal language examining system of English to ‘the powerful test of the powerful language’ (Hamid, 2016), IELTS never leaves the shining peak. It dominates the rest of the world via the ultimate decision of whether people are qualified to travel globally or not. For years, IELTS has shown its significance in terms of a language-skill-based testing system like TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) and TOEIC (The Test of English for International Communication). That IELTS rises means the growth in IELTS hypocritical activities of scammers. To understand either IELTS and IELTS scam entirely, the paragraph below is let to guide what IELTS is and how it is used to fool people.

According to IELTS (n.d.), the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) was founded to analyze its test-takers based on their language proficiency via four criteria (reading, speaking, listening, and writing) with a judging system from 1 (inability to communicate) to 9 (native speaker). IELTS, which is now being possessed by the British Council, IDP: IELTS Australia and Cambridge English, is targeted to support migration, study, and work for individuals wanting to go abroad, specifically to countries where English is the native language (IELTS, n.d.). As for “IELTS scam”, the word “scam” in the Cambridge dictionary of linguistics (2013) is defined as an unlawful action to make money by deceiving people (Miller, & Brown, 2013). Combining with “IELTS”, the hypothesis here can be known as an unlawful action to make money by deceiving people through fraudulent IELTS invitation.

To the learners’ aspects, if they want to complete an IELTS test, there are two main approaches to study and practice in Vietnam based on the IELTS standards. Firstly, through either official (British Council, Cambridge, …) or disseminated class which has been authorized by the test-holders before (VUS, ILA, …). Even though the fee for learners to complete the IELTS training is extravagant, it is far more trustworthy than mostly other unbranded IELTS center as well as ensures the candidates certified on time. Secondly, learners can achieve language competencies through tutoring, which is exclusively a one-to-one teaching approach

Importance of IELTS

1. Performance at University (Educational importance)

According to Zhengdong (2009), he claimed: “the students who took the IELTS preparation course scored higher in the IELTS speaking component than the students who did not take any preparation course.” Also, if drilling more into his research, the conclusion of his study proposes that taking or preparing for the exit IELTS test should have merits and advantageous affect regarding to the experiences, specifically on students with a poor English grade (Zhengdong, 2019). With that said, students’ English language proficiency and their performance at the university is mutually relevant as a significant and positive but weak connection, which can be measured by the IELTS scores and their GPA (Feast, 2002). Ultimately, Yen, D., and Kuzma, J. (2009) preceded a test to show: “IELTS scores could point to the possibility of students having poorer grades, especially when they have low Listening and Writing results.”. Three notions above are enough to show the massive impact of IELTS on the overall performance at the university relating to English language competence.

1. Employment & Immigration

To become a citizen or a long-term immigrant, you should understand that government agencies use the IELTS scores as part their applications processes, so they consider language prowess to be parallel to people’s English literacy to embed into the community and the working areas. Giving evidence of how skilfully a person communicate is a crucial step to get a permission to go abroad for employment or study. As language skills are key factor to profession achievement then and are considered a significant aspect in addition to all the other prerequisites for any job, you must achieve either ‘competent’ English or ‘vocational’ English language skills unless you only seek for local employment (Studyportals, n.d.).

1. RESEARCH PROCEDURE
2. Site and selection of the sample

The research is written using qualitative approach with a design of basic interpretive study to understand the world or the experience of another, in this case HCMUTE non-English major students’ attitudes. It is believed that qualitative approach as well as basic interpretive studies design fit well to this research because the study’s target is to inspect a phenomenon of IELTS scams and the attitudes of HCMUTE students. According to Ary et al. (2010), natural behaviors in such familiar environments like a classroom, a school or university, an amusement park, or in an organization or community will be studied in qualitative research similar to this one.

The participants are chosen following to main three criteria with a purposive sampling strategy:

1. The participants have the need of learning IELTS to graduate or seek for chances for future careers or higher education.
2. The participants have to be non-English major students at the University of Education and Technology in Thu Duc City located inside Ho Chi Minh City.
3. The participants used to be/ are victims of IELTS scams in Thu Duc City of Ho Chi Minh City.

After being filtered with the three conditions above, a quantity of 20 participants will be chosen for the study. They are 20 students at the University of Education and Technology in Thu Duc City of Ho Chi Minh City. However, the statistical description illustrating the size of the participants is too minor to mention. It is therefore not worth being referred. Then, semi-structured interviews will be directly conducted in a focused group to examine HCMUTE non-English major students’ attitudes towards IELTS scams and discover how they identify and avoid counterfeit IELTS courses.

The purposive sampling strategy is selected in order to work flawlessly with the qualitative research design owning to a set of particular criteria raised earlier. Like Ary et al. (2010) interpreted:

Sufficiently provide ultimate knowledge and understanding of the study is what exactly purposive samples are believed to have.

With the chosen participants, it is often known that the more wants to learn IELTS, the easier to be tricked. Until nowadays, this can be considered correct to the current IELTS scam situation, which is suitable to criterion number 1. As for the remaining ones, because the study will be conducted in HCMUTE, the criteria number 2 and 3 are known as perfect supportive conditions for participant selection. After choosing candidates for the study, the research will head for collecting data from semi-structured interviews in a focus group. Semi-structured interviews are to help the researcher improvised if necessary. This type of interview makes both the interviewees feel at ease and the interviewer be unseparated to the study (Ary et al., 2010). Because some participants’ mental health could possibly get damaged before as a consequence of having been deceived, it should be noticed that a focus group to Q&A between the participants and the researcher promote a partially emotional healing to the victims and an overall knowledge to understand the main problems of IELTS scams. Moreover, a focus group interview is helpful as it saves time, brings multi-angle points of view to the study, and identify questions and other important aspects of the phenomenon to pursue in the study.

1. Data collection methods

This session will be divided into 4 parts: data collection procedure, steps of interview, questions to interview, and expected data:

DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE:

Step 1: Prepare all the papers need and essential equipment (consent forms, microphones, papers, pens, water, tissues, cameras, smartphones, and a laptop)

Step 2: Approach participants through posts about IELTS scams on social networks and forums.

Step 3: Group the participants into smaller ones according to the time they get scammed and how severe the scam was

Step 4: Give out the consent form to all the participants (A consent form is a document that is signed and sorts out the informed consent of someone for a study, etc.) and wait for the participants’ agreement on the study via autographs or signatures.

Step 5: Regroup and ask the participants for ideal days and times to interview

Step 6: Set date and time for interviews

Step 7: Start the interview

STEPS OF INTERVIEW:

Step 1: A brief overview of the research (basic components like time, place, date of interview, and name of both interviewer and interviewee)

Step 2: Introduce the purpose and structure of the study (written out or spoken), and ask participants if they have any questions before the interview

Step 3: Start with informal and friendly-approaching questions to greet and also make participants reduce mental tension.

Step 4: Audiotape, videotape, and make hand-written notes throughout the interview

Step 5: Ask participants the research questions in the study

Step 6: Probe to receive further information and explanation:

• “Tell me more about your problem?”
• “Could you explain your answer more?”
• “How and Why do you think it is a scam?”

Step 7: End the interview, and say thanks the participants for attending the interview.

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS:

Question 1: Do the fraudulence affect much to HCMUTE students’ attitudes toward genuine IELTS courses?

Question 2: How do HCMUTE students feel about the scam?

Question 3: How are HCMUTE students deceived by the scammers?

Question 4: How long are HCMUTE students aware of being trapped by the scammers?

Question 5: How do HCMUTE students realize that the courses are a scam?

EXPECTED DATA

Descriptive data is expected to be gathered by the researcher, which presents in many forms such as words or pictures, and quotes or excerpts (Ary et al., 2010). As Ary et al. mentioned in their books (2010), the data is also the experiences and views of the participants as well as their thoughts, feelings, assumptions, motives, and rationale for decisions made. In this study, it is the HCMUTE non-English major students’ descriptive data collected from logs, videos, pictures, recordings, and the researcher’s personal notes.

1. Ethical issues

The joiners’ personal information is classified and only does the interviewer know. If anything about the session is leaked out, it’s the researcher’s responsibility to take the legal consequences of the university. Moreover, if the participants are not able to or don’t want to continue in the research, it’s their decision without being questioned or interfered by the researcher. This is claimed and guaranteed by the researcher himself.

• DATA ANALYSIS STRATEGIES

Step 1: Transcribe interviews (scan material, type up notes, catalogue all of the visual material)

Step 2: Read, comprehend, and investigate the collected data

Step 3: Categorize and sort the data into sections based on the sources

Step 4: Generate a description and themes including details of people, places, events in a setting and findings for designing detailed descriptions of basic interpretive study

Step 5: Represent the description and themes by using a narrative passage to convey the findings of the analysis

1. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

For everyone: Achieve useful information to avoid being deceived by IELTS scams and help to identify counterfeit English courses regarding to IELTS scams.

For the researcher: Help the researcher to obtain an insight of HCMUTE non-English major students’ attitudes towards IELTS scams

1. TIME SCHEDULE

Stages	Time	Work
Planning	4 months	· Choose the research topic · Find related materials for literature review · Construct a basic research structure · Prepare research questions and additional questions
Data collection	1 month	· Preparation · Approach participants · Group the participants · Wait for the participants’ agreement on the consent form · Regroup and ask the participants for ideal days and times to interview · Set date and time for interviews · Start the interview
Data analysis	3 months	· Analyze data
Report writing	6 months	· Write the final report

1. REFERENCES

Ary, D., Jacobs, L. C., Irvine, C. K. S., & Walker, D. (2018). Introduction to research in education. Cengage Learning.

British Council Vietnam. (n.d.). IELTS fraud alert. Retrieved from https://www.britishcouncil.vn/en/exam/ielts/fraud-alert.

Conrey, F. R., & Smith, E. R. (2007). Attitude representation: Attitudes as patterns in a distributed, connectionist representational system. Social Cognition, 25(5), 718-735.

Miller, J. E., & Brown, E. K. (2013). The Cambridge dictionary of linguistics. Cambridge University Press.

Eagly, A. H., & Chaiken, S. (1993). The psychology of attitudes. Harcourt brace Jovanovich college publishers.

Feast, V. (2002). The impact of IELTS scores on performance at university. International Education Journal, 3(4), 70-85.

Hamid, M. O. (2016). Policies of global English tests: Test-takers’ perspectives on the IELTS retake policy. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 37(3), 472-487.

IELTS. (n.d.). What is IELTS?. Retrieved from https://www.ielts.org/about-ielts/what-is-ielts.

Pearson, W. S. (2019). Critical perspectives on the IELTS test. ELT Journal, 73(2), 197-206.

Schwarz, N., & Bohner, G. (2001). The construction of attitudes. Blackwell handbook of social psychology: Intraindividual processes, 1, 436-457.

Studyportals. (n.d.). Advantages of IELTS. Retrieved from https://admissiontestportal.com/about-ielts/advantages-ielts.

Yen, D., & Kuzma, J. (2009). Higher IELTS score, higher academic performance? The validity of IELTS in predicting the academic performance of Chinese students. Worcester Journal of Learning and Teaching, (3).

Zhengdong, G. (2009). IELTS preparation course and student IELTS performance: A case study in Hong Kong. RELC journal, 40(1), 23-41.