Abstract:
A good IELTS result is the proof of Chinese candidates’ language proficiency for entering foreign universities, so getting the required score in each band of IELTS is extremely important for Chinese students. Using a framework of test task characteristics defined by Bachman and Palmer (2010), the present study utilizes a mixed methodology to determine the difficulty level and the possible factors that may affect Chinese students’ test results. The study confirms that question types in the academic reading sub-test belong to one of the feature of task characteristics, thus the difficulty level of question types will have an impact on Chinese students’ performance in the test. The final findings reveal that the Gap filling question type is the easiest, while the question type of Matching--finding correct endings is most difficult for Chinese test takers. In addition, the findings also found that the four variables (vocabulary size, long sentence comprehension, key word identification and location, and topic sentences identification) all have an influence on the performance of Chinese students. For Chinese IELTS reading teachers, these findings could help them adjust their teaching plans in the future to better prepare their students for the IELTS test. They may also be able to predict students’ performance more accurately according to the collocation of different question types in the authentic IELTS reading tests.
