IELTS Research Reports

Anthony Green and Roger HawkeyJane Anne WilliamQualifications BA (Hons) MA Modern LanguagesRSA Dip. TEFLABA (Hons) in English Languageand LiteratureMA in Modern EnglishLanguageRSA Dip TEFLAExperience in ELRSA Diploma in TeachingEnglish as a Foreign Languageto Adults (Dip TEFLA)12 years teaching EFL12 years item writing forCambridge ESOL papers8 years chairing CambridgeESOL papersCo-author of preparation bookfor another Cambridge ESOLexam20 years teaching EFLIn-house teacher training,course design, materialspreparation and testingItem writing for otherCambridge ESOLexaminationsExaminer for IELTS speakingand writing testsPublished author of IELTS andother exam preparation books/16 years teaching EFLWriting and marking writtenuniversity exams, conductingoral university exams,Examiner for BEC Vantage andHigher WritingTranslation from a number oflanguages into EnglishExperience of IELTS 7 commissions Can’t remember - 4 or 5 years 15+ commissionsPublished IELTS preparationbookTraining as item writerEditing meetingsFormal training session atCambridge ESOLTraining sessions plus informaltraining through participation inediting meetingsBackground andtraining you feel havemost helped you inyour item writing forthe academic readingtest(Please explain howthis training hashelped you)Teaching and experience onwriting for other papersApproaches to finding asuitable text, and the editing oftexts are similar across papers.Also, IELTS shares many tasktypes with other papers andexperience of having writtenthese helps considerably.Item writer training days andediting meetings plus pretestreview meetingsSeeing what other writers doe.g. the texts they chooseand the way they craft theitems is one of the best waysof learning. Attending pretestreview meetings shows youwhat kind of items work out toohard or too easy and what sortof texts prove too complex forcandidates.Work on BEC Higher reading(the first reading paper I wasinvolved in) provided excellentgroundwork and understandingof the demands of itemwriting,eg giving awareness ofpotential pitfalls.My academic backgroundhas been helpful forselecting and understandingtexts.334 www.ielts.org