Comprehensive Review: IELTS Reading Test - Language Testing Evaluation

This report provides a detailed review of language testing principles, specifically focusing on the IELTS (International English Language Testing System) reading test. It defines IELTS as an international standardized test for English language proficiency among non-native speakers, highlighting its global acceptance and comprehensive assessment of listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. The report emphasizes the importance of reading skills as a complex process involving symbol decoding and meaning construction. It discusses key components of the IELTS reading test, including passage reading and question answering, and examines the test's structure, content, and administration. Furthermore, the report delves into the critical factors of reliability and validity in test evaluation, explaining their significance in determining the consistency and accuracy of the IELTS reading test. It uses the usefulness criteria model of Bachman and Palmer to highlight the importance of reliability in language testing. The report concludes by assessing the IELTS test's reliability based on score consistency across multiple administrations and its validity in measuring the intended language skills.

TEST REVIEW/ LANGUAGE TESTING
AND EVALUATION
1

Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Body...........................................................................................................................................3
Understanding of reading test.................................................................................................4
Reliability...............................................................................................................................5
Validity...................................................................................................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................8
2

Introduction
The main purpose of the assignment is to enable the readers to be competent in regards to the
use, development, and design of the language tests. IELTS, The international English
language testing system is being defined as the international standardized test done in regards
to the proficiency of English language for non-native speakers of the English language. It is
having 1200 test centers or more in around 140 countries. IELTS assesses all the skills of the
English language that involves listening, speaking, writing as well as reading as being
designed to make reflection how the English language will be used at the study, play, work
etc. This test was developed by the leading experts in the world and it is having an excellent
reputation internationally. It gets accepted by overall 10,000 associations all over the world,
professional bodies, and immigration authorities. These tests are the most widely accepted
test of the English language and make use of the one-on-one speaking test to assess
communication skills of English. It means that the person is being assessed with the real
person by having a real-life conversation. It is one of the natural and the most effective way
to tests skills of the English conversation. Passage reading is being chosen as the main
component of the test. Reading skills are being defined as the complex procedure that is in
relation to the symbol decoding that is utilized in derivation and construction of the meaning.
The reading of the language can also be used as the procedure for sharing information and
ideas, acquisition of language and for communicating with the society’s members. The basic
reading skills will involve different skills that make the inclusion of word decoding and word
voicing will be termed as the major step that must be attained in the first step of reading.
Reliability and validity are the two main factors that will be used for evaluating the
components of the test. Reliability is being used check the consistency. If a person takes the
same tests much time and the result is always same then the there is the reliability of the test.
A test will be valid if it measures what needs to be measured. Validity and reliability are
independent of each other. As per the assignment, the statement of the thesis is ‘Language
Testing’.
Body
In the IELTS test, there are three parts of the reading practice test. The tests are in relation to
passage reading where students have to read the whole passage and then students have to
answer the questions that are being asked below on the basis of the given passage. IELTS is
3

being accepted by around 10,000 associations all over the world which makes the inclusion
of agencies of government, multinational companies, professional bodies, departments of
immigration, and universities. Teams of the international writer’s make contribution in the
test material of IELTS. It has been ensured by the ongoing researches that IELTS always
remain unbiased and fair. A writer of the test from the different countries of the English
speaking develops contents of the test that makes a reflection of the real-life situation. There
are two versions of the test; General training and academic. The academic test is in relation to
those individuals who want to pursue their education at the tertiary level in a country where
English is used. The test of general training is for those individuals who want to have
experience of work or programs of training. Each and every candidate gives same speaking
and listening tests but different writing and reading tests (Knoch & Elder, 2013).
Reading the section in the IELTS is of 60 minutes and the total time of the test is 2 hours and
45 minutes. The writing, reading, and listening tests are done in one go. The test of the
speaking can take place on a similar day or within seven days after or before the test. Centers
where tests take place make several efforts to cater requirements of the disabled students.
This test is available every year on 48 fixed dates up to four times in a month as per the
demand of the locals. There are also particular fees for the tests. The tests of general training
and academic are of the same cost and when the student makes an online application, fees
will be mentioned there. If the application is being canceled and postponed by the student in
more than 5 weeks before the date of the tests, a refund will be received by deducting charges
of administration. Firstly students have to attempt listening part, following by writing and
reading sections of the test. IELTS is considered as the international test and the different
types of the accent of the English are utilized in tests. Reading tests is of one hour and the
students need to write each and every answer on the sheet in the given time (Purpura, 2013).
The only pencil is allowed in the test as the sheet of the answer is being scanned by the
computer where pen cannot be read out. The results of the tests will be posted to the
individual in 13 days after the date of the tests. Forms of the test report are valid for two years
and copies will not be delivered to the candidates but the form of the test report will be
forwarded by IELTS to the relevant institution.
Understanding of reading test
In order to effectively attempt the reading test, you are required to read efficiently and
quickly and must make management of the work on time. A student will be asked to attempt
three different passages and then should give the answer to the related questions. The reading
4

test's content is different for IELTS general training and IELTS academic. The reading test is
being designed in order to assess different types of the reading skills, involving how well a
person read regarding main ideas, detail and the general sense of the passage, understand
implied meaning and inferences, and recognise purpose, attitude and opinion of the writer
and follow argument’s development. The reading test is of 60 minutes and the person is not
allowed with any extra time make a transfer of their answers so write they are required to
write directly on the answer sheet. Time must be managed in a proper manner as per three
different sections of the passage (Canale, 2014).
Three sections of the IELTS academic tests are taken from magazines, books, newspapers,
and journals. They are being written for the non-specialist people and based on the academic
topic based on general interest. They start from the factual and descriptive to analytical and
discursive. Each and every test should be accompanied by illustrations, graphs, and diagrams.
The use of the texts in the three sections of the reading tests is derived from books,
magazines, handbooks of the company, official documents, notices, and advertisement. In
section 1, there are short two or three factual texts, one of them is designed from short 6-8
text related topic i.e. advertisements of the hotel. The topics are in relation day to day life in a
country where English is used most. In section 2, there are two short factual texts that focus
on issues related with work, for instance, policies of the company, facilities at the workplace,
application of job, training, and development of staff. In section 3, there is a complex and
long text on the topic of the general interest (Baker & Habli, 2013).
There are around 40 questions of different type and a student may be asked to fulfil the gap in
the passage with text or in a table, match headings with charts, diagrams, and text, complete
sentences, answer questions of multiple choice, given answers to the open-ended questions.
Sometimes, one-word answer is also asked in addition to a letter, phrase, symbol or number.
For each accurate answer, one mark is received and the obtained scores out of 40 are changed
to IELTS 9 band scale. Reporting of the scores is done in half and whole bands.
Reliability
Test reliability, as well as validity, is the two factors that are being considered as the test's
technical property that makes an indication of the usefulness and quality of the test. These
features must be examined at the time of the evaluation of the test’s suitability for the
utilization. This factor will support in understanding the reliability of the information that is
there in the reviews and test manuals and the information will also be utilised to make an
5

evaluation of the suitability of the test for utilization (Carter & McCarthy, 2014). Reliability
is defined as how consistently or dependable, a characteristic is measured by the test.
Usefulness of the test defines what tests must do by its development and design. Six aspects
are there in regards to the usefulness of the test like authenticity, reliability, practicality,
validity impact and interactiveness.
Usefulness = Reliability + Construct validity+ impact+ authenticity+ Interactivenss +
Practicality
This table is being given by Bachman and Palmer (1996), reliability is at the first place
among other factors. It makes the implication that reliability is one of the major aspects of the
usefulness of the test and is worth for the research (Bachman & Palmer, 1996).
Reliability of the test is defined as the consistency of the rank order and score of the takers of
the test from the test when the management is done in distinct situations. It means that if the
taker of the test achieves same scores from the distinct characteristics of the situations of the
testing, the test will be termed as the reliable one. The below-given table also depicts the
meaning of the reliability:
Scores of the test with X characteristics
Reliability
The score of the test with Y characteristics
The two set of the task with characteristics (X and Y), depicts that both the tests are in
correspondence but are dissimilar in an incidental manner. If the orders of the rank of the
takers of the test are similar then it can be said that the test is having reliability (Fulcher &
Davidson, 2013). Reliability is also explained as the thing which needs to be done is the
score, administer and construct test in a manner that the scores are actually derived from the
tests on a specific occasion should be similar with those that are obtained if the
administration is done with the same ability and with the same student but at different time.
More the similarity of the score more will be reliability.
It has been said that the extent to which dependence of reliability is there on the consistency
of scores and rank achieved at the different situation and at a different time from the similar
6

language test (Fulcher, 2014). In the case of the IELTS test that occur four times in a year and
if the same taker of test takes two tests randomly in a short period of time and the outcomes
attained from both of the tests makes implication of the English ability of the test taker, the
test of IELTS will be then considered reliable.
Reliability is being considered as the test score's essential quality and as the design of the test
is more controllable by the designer of the test in comparison with the performance of the
takers of a test as well as their knowledge. Bachman and Palmer argue that in developing and
designing of the test of the language, variations must be minimized in the characteristics of
the tests tasks that do not make correspondence with the variations in tasks. It makes an
indication that so as to measure takers of the test's language ability in the same language
utilizes design features and situations of the tasks of the test must be similar so as to make
sure the reliability (Oermann & Gaberson, 2016).
Validity
Validity is considered as a significant issue in the selection of the test. It is being referred to
what types of characteristics are measured by the test and how well those characteristics are
measured.
 Validity answers that whether the characteristics that are measured by the test are in
relation to requirements and job qualification.
 Validity supports in giving meaning to the scores of the test. Evidence of the validity
indicates that link is there between a job as well as test performance. It will tell what a
person can predict or conclude about someone from their scores on the test.
 Validity also makes the explanation of the degree with the support of which specific
prediction as well as conclusion about the people on the basis of their scores of the
test can be made. In different words, the usefulness of the test will be indicated
(Shohamy, 2014).
It is very significant to have a proper understanding in regards with the difference among
validity and reliability. Validity will support in depicting how the good test is distinct
situations whereas reliability will tell how trustworthy scores are there. A valid conclusion
cannot be drawn out from the scores of the test unless it had been made sure that there is the
reliability of the test. Even if the test is having reliability, there are chances that it may not be
valid. You must be careful that any kind of test which is selected is both valid and reliable as
per the situation.
7

There are three kinds of a method that is being used to conduct validation study. These
methods can be defined as:
 Criterion-related validation: It demands correlation or the statistical relationship
among job performance and test performance. In other words, it can be said that the
individuals who make a good score on the test will make good performance on the job
in comparison with those who score low.
 Content related validation: It describes that test's content represents significant job-
related behaviours. In other words, it can be said that items of the test must be
relevant and should measure significant requirements (Morrow, 2018).
 Construct-related validation: It describes that the test measures characteristics or
construct and such characteristics are significant for the successful performance.
Conclusion
From the above report, it can be concluded that IELTS is one of the most significant tests that
need to be passed by a person who wants to go abroad. In order to assess the validity and
reliability of the IELTS test makes the involvement of the large amount of work. A heavy
research is being done by the researchers of the IELTS in the whole world. The organizers of
the test edit and publish electronically an academic monograph series and various thesis and
documents are also there in regards to the IELTS test, including the validity and reliability.
On the basis of the Bachman and Palmer's definition of the validity and reliability of a test,
these reports have a focus on reading test and its evaluation. The ability of the English
reading and the results and processes are coherent with the designing purpose of the IELTS
test. It is very necessary to check the validity as well as the reliability of the language test so
as to maintain the effectiveness of the test in a significant manner.
8

References
Morrow, C. K. (2018). Communicative language testing. The TESOL Encyclopedia of
English Language Teaching, 1-7.
Shohamy, E. (2014). The power of tests: A critical perspective on the uses of language tests.
Routledge.
Oermann, M. H., & Gaberson, K. B. (2016). Evaluation and testing in nursing education.
Springer Publishing Company.
Fulcher, G. (2014). Testing second language speaking. Routledge.
Fulcher, G., & Davidson, F. (Eds.). (2013). The Routledge handbook of language testing.
Routledge.
Carter, R., & McCarthy, M. (2014). Vocabulary and language teaching. Routledge.
Baker, R., & Habli, I. (2013). An empirical evaluation of mutation testing for improving the
test quality of safety-critical software. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 39(6),
787-805.
Canale, M. (2014). From communicative competence to communicative language pedagogy.
In Language and communication (pp. 14-40). Routledge.
Bachman, L. F., & Palmer, A. S. (1996). Language testing in practice: Designing and
developing useful language tests (Vol. 1). Oxford University Press.
Purpura, J. E. (2013). Assessing grammar. John Wiley & Sons, Inc..
Knoch, U., & Elder, C. (2013). A framework for validating post-entry language assessments
(PELAs). Papers in Language Testing and Assessment, 2(2), 48-66.
9