the boundary of language: the future of machine translation and the fate of ielts

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in recent years, the british government has been promoting a major reform: abolishing the existing "secure english language tests" (selts) model and establishing a new official independent examination system - home office english language test (hoelt). the test will cover the four english ability assessments of listening, speaking, reading and writing, similar to ielts. moreover, this reform plan will be implemented globally, mainly in china, india, pakistan, nigeria, south africa and other countries and regions.

does this mean the cancellation of the ielts? the british government has made it clear that the test is mainly for visas and immigration, and that ielts scores will still be recognized by universities. however, for students who want to study in the uk, they may need to take two tests in the future - hoolt for visas and ielts to meet the language requirements of universities.

northwestern university's medill school of journalism also stopped accepting ielts scores this year and only accepted toefl and duolingo scores. this may also intensify the competition between ielts and toefl, and make candidates re-examine their language test plans when studying abroad.

globally, the boundaries of language are constantly being challenged. although machine translation technology has brought new possibilities, there are still difficult problems to solve, such as accuracy, fluency, contextual understanding, etc. the british government will change the landscape of language tests through the new hoelt test system, which shows that machine translation technology is gradually changing people's cognition and habits of language communication. as a traditional language test, ielts is also constantly facing challenges, and how it will develop in the future will be worth paying attention to.

in short, the progress of machine translation technology and the continuous changes in language tests have brought us new perspectives. with the development of artificial intelligence technology, machine translation technology will continue to play an important role and change the way people communicate in language. the fate of ielts will also gradually become clear in the future development.