IELTS Research Reports

An empirical investigation of the process of writing Academic Readingtest items for the International English Language Testing SystemElizabeth UK1 AUS1 NZ1My students foundpreparation for IELTS usefulin developing awareness oftext type and structure aswell as academic vocabularyand reading skills such asunderstanding main idea anddetail. The relatively heavyreading load also encouragedthem to increase theirreading speed. The examdoes not test reference skills(e.g. use of contents/indexor reading at chapter/wholebook level) or text evaluationskills.IELTS differs from otherreading papers in that thereis a wider range of task typesto reflect the range of skillsthat students might need atuniversity; e.g. reading fordetail, main idea, gist, etc. Itis possible to match certaintasks to skills and to feelassured that the test coversthe main ones. The textsare selected for inclusionaccording to the densityof ideas, vocabulary leveland text type (descriptive,argument-based, etc.)I think the texts are oftenfar away from the level ofdifficulty encountered inreal academic texts. Things(eg lexical items) whichare in the least challengingare glossed or removed.Many of the students whoenter our higher educationinstitutions should not bedoing so anyway - IELTS 6 isin no way adequate to allowsomeone to undertake anEnglish-medium degree.I think it's a good reflection.Appropriate humanities texts(e.g. English literature) arehard to find due to culturaland stylistic reasons. Whenlooking for a well-written textat the target level, it is mucheasier to find texts on scienceand technology than on thehumanities.There may be other requisitereading skills for academicstudy that are subject specificor task specific but thesemay not be ‘assessable’ in aglobal language test of thiskind.(Candidates may attemptevery question usingstrategies that evade ‘real’reading but this is not to saythat they will get the answerscorrect and/or get the bandscore they are capable ofgetting had they used moreappropriate skills.)It would be interesting tolook at the possibility ofvarying text length - e.g.one much shorter text withitems focusing on detailand one much longer one,to test outlining / summaryskills. However, given thesize and nature of thecandidature, any changes ofthis nature would need to bevery well researched beforeimplementation.Perhaps a greater variety oftext types and fewer potentialshort cuts for candidates.(The latter is really an editingissue).I have faith in the ACRpaper and believe thatcandidates get a good deal.It is rigorously producedand meets many of thepedagogical/theoreticalrequirements of an EAPreading test.-IELTS Research Reports Volume 11341