Idiomatic language in the IELTS speaking test

The IELTS Speaking band descriptor for Lexical Resource Bands 7 and 8 require that candidates use “idiomatic vocabulary” as well as (at Band 7) displaying an “awareness of… collocation”. It can be difficult for learners to know what these band descriptors require of them, and for teachers to know how to foster these abilities in their students.

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New Directions in English Language Assessment Annual Conference, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 22-23 October 2018

The New Directions in English Language Assessment Annual Conference was held in Kuala Lumpur last October. Find out more from our presenter Neilane Liew.

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Report on The International Conference on Language Testing and Assessment: language assessment in the new era (innovation and assessment)

The conference was hosted Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, National Education Examinations Authority, Beijing Foreign Studies University. Five members of The East Asian Assessment Solutions Team attended the International Conference on Language Testing and Assessment over the weekend along with Professor Barry O’Sullivan and Dr. Jamie Dunlea from the British Council’s Assessment Research Group based in the UK. Here comes the report on the ICLTA conference.

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Do you have questions about teaching, English or IELTS that you would really love an answer to? Send them to
jan.langeslag@britishcouncil.org.cn

Remember, we also have a Frequently Asked Questions list onwww.chinaielts.org, for you to visit!

“If a student writes really well but off-topic, why do they get a lower score? Their language use is still really good and I thought IELTS was a test of language?”

First of all, if a student’s response is completely off-topic, no matter how well-written, the examiner cannot tell if this writing is the student’s own or a memorized response. Like any well-crafted proficiency test, the IELTS exam tests the language a student can produce spontaneously. Delivering lengthy, pre-prepared responses is not how language is produced in real life expect perhaps for some very specific situations such as giving a speech.

Secondly, writing skill is not only about using appropriate lexis and correct grammar. It is also about being able to write a relevant response to a prompt without adding unrelated filler or going on tangents. This is why task response/achievement is included in the grading criteria and why these weigh just as heavily in the total score as lexis and grammar. The band descriptors are designed so that even if a student’s writing is only partly off-topic, it will negatively affect their score.