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

• Published in: International Journal of Instruction Vol. 12; no. 4; pp. 17 - 34
• Main Authors: Ahmadi, Saeed, Riasati, Mohammad Javad, Bavali, Mohammad
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: International Journal of Instruction 01.10.2019
• Subjects: Academic Language; Accuracy; Comparative Analysis; Connected Discourse; Cues; English (Second Language); Foreign Countries; Grading; Grammar; Language Tests; Scores; Second Language Instruction; Second Language Learning; Student Placement; Writing Achievement; Writing Evaluation; Writing Tests; Iran
• ISSN: 1694-609X; 1308-1470
• DOI: 10.29333/iji.2019.1242a

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.