IELTS Research Reports

Construct validity in the IELTS Academic Reading testSeveral informants in this group expressed surprise at what one described as the test’s ‘unexpectedcomplexity’. The view here was that the reading demands on the IELTS reading test appeared to themto be higher than those in their particular subject area – though it does need to be acknowledged thatin such comments, a clear distinction was not always drawn between the demands of the test items andthose of the reading passage on which the items were based:COMPUTER SCIENCE: If anything, we’re expecting less of students in terms of reading.The test is definitely relevant and having it at a higher level than what we’re asking for in thecourse is a good thing. So it seems to be an appropriate sort of thing to be testing them on.COMMUNICATIONS: I think [the IELTS reading test] would be good preparationactually. I found the science-based articles and items quite complicated actually. If I had toanswer questions about the science, I’d have to go back and read it twice.For informants in this ‘more positively-disposed’ group, the sense of correspondence between readingdemands in the two domains, as well as the test’s perceived difficulty led them to believe that IELTSwould be an unequivocally useful form of preparation for tertiary study:ENGINEERING: These sorts of skills [tested in IELTS] would definitely be useful in ageneric sense … and I can see that it would be good preparation for what we require onour course.BIOLOGY: I think looking at [these samples], I would be happy if a student was coming tome with those skills.COMMUNICATIONS: I think [the IELTS reading test] would be good preparationactually. … I think if the students scored well on this then they would probably be OK.Another group of informants had a generally positive view of the test – or at least of the samplematerials provided in the interview – while at the same time, expressing some reservations about itsoverall usefulness. A similar number of informants fell into this group as the previous (5 out of 12),and consisted of the lecturers from Physics, Architecture, Economics, History, and Management. Themain reservation expressed was a sense of a limited degree of correspondence between the test andreading requirements in their particular disciplinary domain, as suggested in the following remarks:ECONOMICS: I think [the IELTS material] is fine. It’s just comprehension really… I’vegot no problems with that whatsoever. Where economics is slightly different from this is thatwe use a combination of mathematical techniques, diagrammatic techniques and texts. … It’sa very abstract mathematical way of thinking about the real-world.HISTORY: I‘d see this as all useful. The test is very focused on reading comprehension… that is a basic pre-requisite for our courses. It doesn’t cover the quite discipline-specificmethods of reading we’re concerned with … for example the way students need to be able tohandle the reading of primary source material.ARCHITECTURE: The topic area of the test - bridges - is spot on for our area. I think thetype of questioning is also ideal for the level of language skill required in [our subject]. It’snot clear though whether you just have to match words, or whether you have to read betweenthe lines a bit – students certainly need to do some [of the latter] on the course.IELTS Research Reports Volume 11243