IELTS Research Reports

Tim Moore, Janne Morton and Steve PriceImagine you are writing an essay on the following topic (State topic X). Which paragraph fromReading Passage A do you think would be the most useful to draw information from.a Paragraph 1b Paragraph 2c Paragraph 3d Paragraph 4Sample 2.2: Focus on use of sources – information literacy (scenario format)EXTENSION 3 --> GLOBAL/INTERPRETATIVEWhich of the following do you think best describes the main purpose of Reading Passage A:a to advise on the best ways to do Xb to criticise the current ways of doing Xc to provide background information on Xd to predict what will happen to XSample 3.1: Focus on overall rhetorical purpose of textThe following are some possible criticisms that could be made of Passage A. Which particularcriticism seems the most relevant to this text?a The writer states his support for X, but does not consider the other sideb The writer claims that X is Y, but provides no evidence for this claimc The writer presents contradictory views about Xd The writer gives practical information about X, but doesn’t indicate how it can be usedSample 3.2: Focus on evaluation of textIt will be clear from the samples above that the use of certain item techniques is very much dependent onhaving to hand reading passages which are relevant to the particular focus of the technique. For instance,an item that was focused on the relationship between claims and evidence in a reading passage wouldclearly only be able to be used in relation to text samples that were structured around these particularrhetorical characteristics. The study deliberately confined itself to a study only of reading tasks withoutconsideration of the texts upon which they are based. It may be however, that any proposed shift in focustowards more global and/or interpretative modes on items would have major implications for readingpassage design and selection on the test. The broad principle of the inseparability of reading techniqueand task has been commented on by Alderson (2000). Any modification to the test may indeed requiresubstantial investigation into this aspect of reading assessment.254 www.ielts.org