IELTS Research Reports

Guoxing Yu, Pauline Rea-Dickins and Richard KielyAPPENDIX 4: THINK-ALOUD TRAINING DOCUMENTPurpose of collecting think-aloud protocols:In the Cog-Pro project, you will be asked to think-aloud while doing the IELTS Academic WritingTask One. The main purpose of collecting your think-aloud protocols is to understand your test-takingprocess. It will also help you to identify where you could and should improve through listening to yourown think-aloud protocols later; and we are also going to use some think-aloud protocols as examplesin the group training session to demonstrate what strategies you have used in completing the AWT1tasks and how best to complete such tasks.Practise thinking aloud■■■■■■■■■■The most important thing is to keep talking, i.e., verbalizing what you are doing duringthe whole process including:––what you are reading,––what you are thinking and––what you are writing.You can use English and/or Chinese.Don’t worry about grammar or sentence structure at all.The tutor will remain silent unless you stop talking for more than 10 seconds. In that case,the tutor will show you a white paper/card with TALK written on it.You are required to start recording with:My name is _______________________________ .It is now _____ o’clock, on _____ of October 2008.The task is ______ (Read the first paragraph of the task: e.g., The following graph shows ______)Then think-aloud when you do the AWT1 task.Examples:■■124+3546 = ?■■124 x 378 = ?■■■■The average mass of 3 parcels is 6 kg. Two of the parcels have a mass of 4.6 kg and 6 kg.Find the mass of the third parcel.Try to think-aloud when doing the following AWT1 task.420 www.ielts.org