IELTS Research Reports

Construct validity in the IELTS Academic Reading testType of engagementThe airport example above suggests a highly literal engagement with reading material. In this case, thetask for test takers is to identify specific information concerning the total area occupied by each airportsite. A slightly less literal engagement is required arguably for the ‘scholar as category’ tasks (shownin Sample 4.2). In such tasks, the relevant ideas/findings of the scholar cited in the text are summarisedin a relatively condensed form. The task for test-takers is to be able to link this condensed summary tothe more extended version of the idea cited in the passage, as shown in the following example below.Statement:The way we think may be determined by our language.Relevant section in reading passage:There is mounting evidence that learning a language produces physiological changes in thebrain. “Your brain and mine are different from the brain of someone who speaks French forinstance”, Pagel says, and this could affect our thoughts and perceptions. “The patterns andconnections we make among various conceptions may be structured by the linguistic habitsof our communities”.Correct Response = Mark Pagel (Option D)Overall, the engagement with material in Information-category match tasks was concluded to be quiteliteral, but with some variation noted around the ‘scholar as category’ examples. An attempt has beenmade to capture this variation in Figure 6 below.More LocalMore GlobalT4aMore literalT4bKeyT4a = General category itemsFigure 6. Analysis of Information – category match task typeIELTS Research Reports Volume 11215