A Comparison of Writing Performance of Iranian IELTS Candidates Facing Chart Topics vs. Table Topics in Academic Writing (Task1)

Abstract

The present study aimed at investigating whether academic IELTS candidates perform differently in writing on either a chart topic or a table topic of the IELTS writing task 1 with regard to the four IELTS writing marking criteria i.e. task achievement, coherence and cohesion, lexical resource, and grammar range and accuracy. The study adopted a mixed methods approach. To this end, 45 candidates participated in the study. In the beginning, the participants were asked to write on a chart topic of the IELTS writing task 1. After 10 days, the same groups of participants were given a table topic of the IELTS writing task 1. All their papers were then marked and analyzed quantitatively in accordance with IELTS writing task 1 descriptor. Next, paired-samples statistical analyses were run to find out how they performed. The results revealed that the participants' writing performance on a chart topic was significantly higher than a table topic in terms of task achievement, lexical resource, and grammar range and accuracy scores. Concerning the qualitative side of this study, there was a significant difference between candidates' performance in chart and table topics with respect to task achievement and lexical resource. However, the results did not manifest any significant differences between candidates' performance getting chart and table prompts in terms of coherence, cohesion, and grammar range and accuracy.

Professional Development Activities of IELTS Trainers from Non-English Major

“…The next activity which the IELTS trainers do is making use of their experiences. This activity is categorized as independent learning (Ahmadi et al, 2019;Jones & Dexter, 2014). More particularly, the trainers utilized their experiences both in their pre-service education when they learned IELTS and in their in-service IELTS teaching.…”

“…By combining pre-service and in-service experiences, the trainers can give appropriate teaching applications for their IELTS learners since they get insights into both students' and teachers' sides. This point is relevant with Ahmadi et al (2019) statement that reflecting self-experiences is a part of understanding others that is relevant to the teacher's role who applied interpersonal relationship in their teaching practice. All research subjects agreed that their experiences are essential points in their IELTS teaching career, which is varied for each of them, notably how they adjusted themselves in various class sizes.…”

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

“…To start with, most studies, as discussed in the literature, blame test-takers for scoring low in writing by highlighting their weaknesses. Test-takers are suggested to be either weak in different aspects of writing (see, for example, Ahmadi, et al, 2019;Maharani & Setyarini, 2019) or unfamiliar with IELTS genres of writing (Pearson, 2019). Unlike the studies mentioned in the literature review, this investigation has adopted a different perspective and provided a chance for the test-takers to voice their concerns.…”

“…They found that diagram analysis was more difficult for Iranian test-takers than the interpretation of bar charts. Ahmadi et al (2019) found that Iranian test-takers had more vocabulary problems with tables than with charts. O' Loughlin and Wigglesworth (2003) found that task difficulty was not consistent in Task 1, and that tasks that were simpler with less information led to test-takers in Australia achieving better performances.…”

Developing Syllabus for IELTS Preparation Program

“…It means that if any Indonesian student plans to pursue their further studies abroad, they are required to take an IELTS exam with the targeted score. Ahmadi et al (2019) stated that IELTS is a task-based test assessing the four language skills of listening, reading, writing, and speaking, where the total duration of the test will take around 2 hours 45 minutes in one seat. As evidence of English language proficiency, IELTS academic is of pivotal importance for educational success in academic institutions.…”