Let Their Voices be Heard: IELTS Candidates’ Problems with the IELTS Academic Writing Test

Sajjad Arefsadr, E. Babaii
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Abstract

According to the IELTS official website, IELTS candidates usually score lower in the IELTS Writing test than in the other language skills. This is disappointing for the many IELTS candidates who fail to get the overall band score they need. Surprisingly enough, few studies have addressed this issue. The present study, then, is aimed at shedding some light on why IELTS candidates usually score lowest in writing by investigating IELTS candidates’ problems with the IELTS Academic Writing test. To this end, 10 Iranian IELTS candidates were interviewed concerning the difficulties they had with this test. The interview summaries were subjected to thematic analysis. The results suggested that IELTS candidates may face four main problems with the IELTS Academic Writing test: insufficient time, unclear and difficult-to-understand task instructions, “distant” topics, and overvaluation of advanced vocabulary and grammar in the scoring system. The study suggests that IELTS candidates’ problem of scoring lowest in the Writing test may not be entirely due to deficiencies in their writing skills, and that certain features of the IELTS Academic Writing test may aggravate undesirable testing outcomes. The implications of the results of the study are discussed.
让他们的声音被听到:雅思考生在雅思学术写作考试中的问题
根据雅思官方网站,雅思考生在雅思写作考试中的得分通常低于其他语言技能。这对于许多未能获得所需总分的雅思考生来说是令人失望的。令人惊讶的是,很少有研究解决这个问题。因此,本研究旨在通过调查雅思考生在雅思学术写作考试中的问题,揭示为什么雅思考生通常在写作中得分最低。为此,我们采访了10位伊朗雅思考生,了解他们在考试中遇到的困难。访谈摘要进行了专题分析。结果表明,雅思考生在学术写作考试中可能面临四个主要问题:时间不足、任务说明不清晰、难以理解、主题“遥远”、评分系统对高级词汇和语法的高估。研究表明,雅思考生在写作考试中得分最低的问题可能并不完全是由于他们的写作技巧不足,雅思学术写作考试的某些特点可能会加剧不良的测试结果。讨论了研究结果的意义。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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