The purpose of this paper was to see whether any significant relationship exists among EFL learners’ autonomy, left/right brain dominance, and reading comprehension of the Academic Reading and General Reading Modules of IELTS examination. To this end, 100 female EFL learners were randomly selected from those who were attending IELTS preparatory courses at a language school in Tehran. All partic...

IELTS preparation courses have gained significant popularity in Iran in the past decade. Although teachers in such an exam-oriented context have started to use formative assessment to improve their writing instruction, their knowledge and beliefs about assessment for learning are still a myth. This mixed-methods study investigated Iranian IELTS teachers’ beliefs and knowledge about the four mai...

This study reports an investigation of Iranian test-takers’ use of cognitive and metacognitive strategies while performing on IELTS reading tests. Specifically, the study set out to investigate: a) the relationship between Iranian test-takers’ use of cognitive and metacognitive strategies and their L2 reading test performance on the reading section of the IELTS test; and b) the role gender migh...

The restrictions imposed by the COVID 19 pandemic have forced educators and students worldwide to adapt online learning. Language teaching in L2 contexts also had shift mode without compromising quality of This paper examines perceptions as well performance participants involved International English Testing System (IELTS) course offered Middle East College, Muscat, Oman via MS Teams, an platfo...

The ultimate purpose of Test for English Majors 4 (TEM-4) and International English Language Test System Academic (IELTS A) are to test students' English language application abilities. This paper made a comparative study between reading comprehension part in two tests. It points out that IELTS A, with its up-to-date and diversified types of writing, can reflect students’ real English level and...

The purpose of this research was to analyze EFL writing tasks in two of the most popular English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) exam preparation courses in Iran, namely IELTS and TOEFL. Having collected the criteria of writing task appropriateness in light of the process-oriented approach to writing instruction, we asked 60 learner participants to rate EFL writing tasks in 3 IELTS and 3...

There now exists an established body of work outlining the challenges international students can face as part acculturation process, including a range academic and non-academic pressures to overcome. For many students, writing essays in English for first time is problematic. This article considers pedagogical approaches IELTS test preparation prior university admission, potential introducing sk...

Non native speakers of English wishing to study at tertiary level in English speaking countries are increasingly required to prove their English language competence by taking an internationally recognised test such as the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and the International English Language Testing Systems (IELTS). This article reports on the analysis of a corpus of scripts writt...

Despite arriving with the required language qualifications, many international students struggle linguistic demands of a university degree. Using International English Language Testing System (IELTS) as an example, this study explored how short but intensive preparation programmes may affect high-stakes English-proficiency test scores which apply for places. The participants were 89 Chinese spe...