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Variation in the IELTS speaking test?
Conference presentation

Variation in the IELTS speaking test?

Michael D Carey
2011 University Research Conference Program Book, p.14
USC Research Conference, 2011 (Sunshine Coast, Australia, 18-Jul-2011–22-Jul-2011)
University of the Sunshine Coast
2011
url
http://www.usc.edu.au/View
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Abstract

Specialist Studies in Education International English Language Testing System (IELTS)
The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is the main English profi ciency test used by Australian universities to assess the suitability of international students to cope with study in Australia. The test is administered at many locations internationally, but it is assumed that the speaking component of the test is equivalent regardless of the test location and the English rater's familiarity with the variety of English spoken by the candidate. This research challenged this assumption, by posing, for example, is Indian English speech rated the same in New Delhi, as it is in a test centre in Sydney (where Indian English is an unfamiliar variety)? Would the candidate taking the test in New Delhi be advantaged because the speaking test examiners live amongst an Indian English speaking community? We hypothesized that the rating of pronunciation is susceptible to variation in assessment due to the amount of exposure examiners have to non-native English accents. An inter-rater variability analysis was conducted on the English pronunciation ratings of three test candidate interlanguages: Chinese, Korean, and Indian English. Pronunciation was rated by 99 IELTS examiners across fi ve geographically dispersed test centres. The examiners had either prolonged exposure, or no, or little exposure to the interlanguage of the candidates. A signifi cant proportion of examiners rated pronunciation higher when they had prolonged exposure, and lower when they had no, or little, exposure to the candidates' interlanguage. The location of the test centre also had a signifi cant effect on the pronunciation rating, independent of the familiarity variable, with a signifi cant proportion of non-native speaker raters scoring candidates from their home country higher than those who were not. It was recommended that accent familiarity should be considered in the design of speaking tests and rater training and that further research is required into test centre and rater bias.

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