The IELTS Academic Reading Module.ppt

The IELTS Academic Reading Module Background information Question types Skills Challenges Helping Ss prepare Questions? An overview of the IELTS Academic Reading Module Format3 passages and 40 items (questions), each worth one mark Timing60 minutes: no time given for transferring answers to answer sheet Textsbased on authentic texts including magazines, journals, books and newspapers aim to represent material encountered in academic study may include diagrams, graphs, illustrations etc Length total word count for three passages: 2000 - 2750 words. Question types Multiple Choice Short-answer questions Sentence Completion Notes, Summary or Table/Flow-chart Completion Labelling a Diagram Question Types, cont. Choosing Headings for Paragraphs or Sections of a Text Locating Information Identification of Writer’s Views/Claims or of Information in a Text Classification Matching Source: /teach/ielts/academic_reading/index.htm Weir Khalifa: a cognitive processing approach to defining reading comprehension “Bottom up” and “Top down” Goal setter: identifies PURPOSE for reading, e.g. reading for gist- strategies employed Knowledge of the language, of the world, and of text structure Both are utilized in the… Central processing core: L1 reading behaviors that the L2 reader is moving toward, from word recognition to the construction of a mental model of the text and creating “an organised representation of the text” Reading types: easy to difficult. Scanning/searching for local information Careful local reading Skimming for gist Careful global reading for comprehending main idea Search reading for global information Careful global reading to comprehend a text Careful global reading to comprehend texts Weir, C. Khalifa, H. (2008). A cognitive processing approach towards defining reading comprehension, p. 9. Skills tested The candidate is required to identify the writer’s overall purpose, target audience, sources etc. identify and follow