著者

Slater Stephen Mickan Peter

出版者

平安女学院大学

雑誌

平安女学院大学研究年報 (ISSN:1346227X)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.1, pp.165-183, 2001-03-10

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The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is one of the major 'gate-keeping' tests required for entry by students from overseas into universities in the UK, Australia. New Zealand and Canada. This paper reports on a qualitative investigation into the response validity of the IELTS writing subtest. The aim of the study was to identify factors in the assessment context which might influence candidates' achievement in writing their responses. The first part of the study looks at the readability of selected test prompts and identifies discourse and pragmatic features which may affect candidates' interpretation of the prompts. The second part of the investigation describes and analyses test taking behaviours of intending test candidates on the writing subtest. The analysis in this section is based on researchers' observation of subjects, on verbal protocols recorded as subjects wrote responses, and on post-test interview data recorded with the same subjects. The analysis for readability suggests that candidates' interpretation of the test prompts is influenced by factors such as the purpose described for the tasks and the lexico-grammar of the tasks. The analysis of the test-taking behaviours of subjects points to socio-cultural influences on candidates' demonstration of their writing ability. The investigation suggests the usefulness of qualitative procedures such as verbal protocols for exploring response validity, and has implications both for item writers and for teachers preparing candidates for IELTS examinations.