IELTS Research Reports

The cognitive processes of taking IELTS Academic Writing Task 1The following eloquent arguments, from Participants R and T, on the effects of the different graphicprompts on the processes and the products of AWT1 tasks summarize nicely the views expressed byall the participants on such effects.Extract 10If it is a line graph, I would first of all look for the changes of patterns, the trends of thelines. If it is a bar graph, I would compare the ones that are in the same category, tocompare which number is bigger or smaller, higher or lower. If it is a table with statistics,it won’t be as straightforward as the line or bar graphs. When you see a table, you will firstof all get a sense of the numbers in the table. However, from the graphs, you don’t have astraightforward sense of numbers, but graphs give you a clearer overall picture of the data.(Participant R)For example, bar graphs, you would first of all talk about the x and y axis, and they alsohave some statistics, you would put them into different categories according to their number,e.g. these are below 50, and those are above. (Participant R)If it were a table, like this one, I would do in the same way. For example, the USA is high,and China is also high. Both have different colours, and the other countries listed howeverhave almost the same kind of colour, they all look green. I put them into three categories, thehighest, the lowest and those in the middle. (Participant R)Extract 11Each type of graph has its own pattern or convention. For example, line graphs woulddemonstrate trends of development, for example. Bar chart normally compares the amount oftwo or three things. When you know the underlying convention and meaning, it is less likelythat we may deviate the focus or the main message of the graphs. (Participant T)In summary, the types and conventions of graphic prompts did matter. They affected how theparticipants processed the graphic information and how they followed the graphic conventions tore-produce their comprehension in written discourse in English. Such effects of different AWT1graphic prompts on the cognitive processes were clearly manifested in the mean scores, in the use ofvocabulary, and in whether and how they would make comparisons or trend assessments, followingthe graphic conventions in presentation, interpretation and re-presentation.4.3.2 Research question 2To what extent are the candidates’ cognitive processes affected by their graphicacy?In 4.3.1, we discussed the effects of different graphic prompts on the cognitive processes andperformance of AWT1 tasks, and noted that there might be some dubious interactions between typesof graphs and the participants’ familiarity with different types and conventions of graphs, as somestudents may be more familiar with one type of graph than another. In this section, we will focusspecifically on how the participants’ graphicacy level might affect their cognitive processes andperformance, from two perspectives – the participants’ views as reflected in the questionnaire andinterview data, and their actual writing performance.In the questionnaire (Appendix 3) we asked the participants about their familiarity with different typesof graphs: bar, line, pie, diagram, table with numerical data respectively (Q21-25). The Friedman testIELTS Research Reports Volume 11397