9504

9504

Conformity between Perceptions of Text Difficultyby IELTS Test Developers and by IranianIELTS Test Takers

Degree of Master of Arts

Teaching English as a Foreign Language

July 2010

July 2010

Dr. S. M. Mir Tabatabaei- Dr. R. Barzegar

Dr. Sh. Vaezi

Abstract IELTS, the International English Language Testing System is designed to assess the language ability of candidates who need to study or work where English is the language of communication. Since scores obtained from this test are being used to make important decisions about the test takers‟ lives, test developers have always been seeking properties of this instrument to ensure appropriate interpretation and use of test scores provided. This study is conducted to compare text difficulty of reading sections of IELTS as perceived by IELTS test developers and by Iranian IELTS test takers. In order to materialize this end, an academic IELTS test was administered to 120 IELTS test takers at Shahid Rajaee University, The University of Science and Technology, and Zabankade Language Institute. Meanwhile test takers were given a question to rank the texts of the reading section on the basis of text difficulty according to their own perception. Text difficulty was determined objectively through measuring T-unit length and readability level (using Fry‟s graph). Data collected in this study demonstrated that objective measures of text difficulty did not support IELTS test developers‟ text order. Data also suggested that although test takers‟ perceptions of text difficulty were in conformity with IELTS test developers‟ perception of difficulty, there was a significant difference between their perceptions of difficulty for each text and their obtained scores on it. As a result of this non-conformity between test takers‟ perceptions of difficulty and their obtained scores it was concluded that some degrees of difference exists between perceptions of text difficulty by IELTS test developers and by Iranian IELTS test takers.