IELTS Research Reports

Construct validity in the IELTS Academic Reading testType 4: Information-category matchInformation–category match tasks were one of the less frequently occurring tasks accounting for 12%of items (Table 4). Under this format, test-takers need to match information from the reading passagewith a specific information category to be selected from a range of category options. The categorytypeused in the design of these tasks was found to be salient in some way in the reading passage, andwhich could be used as a basis for differentiating key information contained within it. Thus, in Sample4.1 below, a task based on a reading comparing the design of different airports, the category of ‘airportlocation’ is used as the distinguishing element. Other category-types noted in the corpus of these taskswere places (eg cities); people (eg types of employees); time periods (eg decades).Question 1-5.Classify the following statements as applying to:A Chek Lap Kok airport onlyB Kansai airport onlyC Both airportsWrite the appropriate letter A-C in boxes 1-5 on the answer sheet.Sample statements:1. having an area of over 1,000 hectares2. built in a river deltaSample 4.1: Information–category match itemA specific type of information–category match task noted in the corpus was that which used individualscholars/writers as the category type. These were often used in tasks that accompanied readingpassages consisting mainly of the attributed ideas or research findings of various individuals. The taskfor test-takers in this particular format then was to match a summary statement of a specific idea (orfinding) described in the text with an individual scholar. Sample 4.2, based on a reading passage aboutendangered languages, is illustrative of this format.IELTS Research Reports Volume 11213