Designing IELTS Writing Practice Material for Taiwanese EFL Learners

Education means business. At least, this appears to be the case when it comes to international students in British Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). In recent years, numbers approaching half a million and rising have been studying in the UK alone each year, and the vast majority of these students are Asian (Universities UK, 2019). The knock-on effects for the world of ELT and assessment in this region are far reaching. IELTS, ‘the world’s most popular English language proficiency test for higher education’, had over 3.5 million test takers in 2018 (British Council, 2019). Although UK HEIs set a range of IELTS results for unconditional entry depending on a particular course, a band 6.5 or 7 is a usual requirement. Average band scores in Taiwan, while on the increase, are still falling short of these HEI requirements, and students appear to have the greatest difficulty with the writing component of the test, with an average score of 5.5 (Ielts.org, 2018). Having spent many years helping Taiwanese students with their test preparation, it has been clear that the 150-word written report (Task 1) of the academic writing component can be problematic. Dissemination and presentation of data across a number of question types proves challenging, as does appropriate selection and usage of vocabulary and grammar. Although a great number of IELTS preparation textbooks are available for both in-class and self-study use, a clear approach for Task 1 writing can often be lacking, and may have little reference to the public band (marking) descriptors to which teachers and students freely have access online. As a result of this, I have spent a number of years developing materials to scaffold textbooks for in-class use, but also, and perhaps more importantly, to provide additional autonomous practice material for my students. On observing anecdotal benefits of the autonomous learning material in particular, I decided to explore these findings to more clearly assess the benefits of creating learner-focused and autonomous practice materials. In order to achieve this, four overall research questions were devised to inform the study: 1. In what ways do the following factors affect the design of IELTS Task 1 writing practice (self-study) material for Taiwanese students? - a genre-based writing approach - first language (Mandarin) influence- learner autonomy in a Taiwanese context 2. What can an error analysis of practice writing scripts reveal about the development of practice material for students in this context? 3. How far can teacher-designed IELTS Task 1 writing practice material improve the estimated band scores of students in this context? 4. What can be learned from student evaluation of the teacher-designed material? A brief literature review will provide a theoretical framework for the practice material approach and design. As will be outlined in the Methodology section, a sample of students’ writing will then serve as a baseline for the material input. Using an experimental method, it is hoped that a second writing sample may show a comparative improvement in estimated band score after using the self-study practice material and reinforce the benefits of teachers actively engaging in learner-focused material creation. Finally, feedback and evaluation obtained from the participants may reveal whether those materials have been perceived as helpful or not, and in what ways.