IELTS Research Reports

An empirical investigation of the process of writing Academic Readingtest items for the International English Language Testing Systemunrewarding) experience composing objective-format usage of English items which she had preparedduring her experience in publishing.The participants were then asked whether their experience with the research project commission hadchanged their opinions of the IELTS reading paper. Victoria had found herself asking more about theactual process of reading, her answers to this question underlining why IELTS academic reading wassuch ‘a tough exam’ for candidates. Mathilda had become more curious about how the test was usedactually to measure proficiency, something she feels must be difficult to ‘pin down’. Mary feels moretolerant of IELTS texts that may appear boring, given the difficulty she experienced finding her owntext for the project. All three participants would welcome further experience with IELTS academicreading item writing, especially the training for it.4.2 Procedures with and Findings from the experienced IELTS Item Writer GroupSession 1: experienced item writer participant discussion of their experience with their commission toselect an appropriate IELTS academic reading text, edit and adapt for testing purposes and generatetest itemsAs with the non-experienced group, the four experienced participants discussed this commission toselect an appropriate IELTS academic reading text, edit and adapt for testing purposes and generatetest items, but this group was also, of course, able to discuss the regular experience of carrying outIELTS item writing commissions. Again this was organised as a researcher-led discussion session.Each participant (see Table 11 in Appendix B for background information) was invited to describe theprocesses through which an ‘IELTS’ text was selected and adapted, and then reading test items created.Again, both researchers were present, but intervened only infrequently and informally. All proceedingswere recorded (see above).4.2.1 Participant text search treatment and item development: flowchartsand discussionsThe experiential information provided orally by the four participants is summarised in Table 5,which analyses responses on the issue of text sources.Source/ Influence?Item WriterJane Anne William ElizabethIELTS Guidelines or Commission √ √ √ √Own interest√Web √ √ √ √Magazines, journals √ √Newspapers√Bookshops√Table 5. Experienced Participants: Sources and influences re IELTS academic reading moduletext selectionUnlike the non-experienced writers, this group did not mention the IELTS website or published IELTSmaterial as a source of information on text selection. All reported that they referred to the item writerguidelines and to specific recommendations on topics made in the IELTS commissioning process.IELTS Research Reports Volume 11287