The Keywords and Trends in IELTS Reading

李小涵

【Abstract】In this article we undertake selective quantitative analyses of the passages from Cambridge English 4-11 of International English Language Testing System （for brevity referred to as the IELTS）. This is a corpus of almost 100，000 words， including 8 books and 96 passages. In order to improve the efficiency and score of candidates， this essay will include four parts， that is， research questions， applied corpus， method， expected results and the conclusion. Using a corpus analysis tool developed by BFSU PowerConc （Jiajin Xu， Maocheng Liang & Yunlong Jia） and BFSU Readability Analyzer 1.1， this study is illustrative of the potentiality of corpus in the IELTS reading 4-11. There are evident limitations， including the reliance on the academic word list and limited passages. The predicted conclusion of the article considers future preparation in the research and preparation for candidates illustrated here.

【Key words】IELTS Reading； reading English vocabulary frequency； keywords； trend

1. A Brief Introduction of IELTS and IELTS Reading

IELTS （International English Language test system） is a test of four English communication skills in listening， speaking， reading and writing， which can meet the needs of studying abroad， immigration， employment， and testing English proficiency， and is being paid more and more attention by students. As an effective method to test language proficiency， its evaluation and the domestic secondary education is different. Instead of a single overall assessment of English， it is divided into four parts， invoving listening， reading， writing and speaking. At the same time， the students English level corresponds to nine different score levels， and their scores can be converted with the general CEFR system.

In the latest IELTS official white paper in 2017， mainland Chinese candidates were divided by an average of 5.64 in 2016， an increase of 0.08 compared with 5.56 in 2012. Among them， the score of Class A reading was more significant， from an average score of 5.9 in 12 to 6.01， becoming the first subject to be evenly divided into more than 6 points. If IELTS reading questions are more difficult or improved， it means that there is a general and significant increase in the reading ability of candidates in mainland China.

IELTS reading is divided into categories A and G， where Class A articles are ranging from descriptive to clarifying facts， and also contain non-textual content， such as charts， curves， or illustrations， and appear in articles taken from real publications （for example， from books， periodicals， and newspapers） while G class reading also has 3 articles and corresponding questions. Unlike Class A reading， the first article of Class G contains 2 or 3 factual short essays， the second having 2 short， work-related factual essays， and finally the third is a long article on a specific topic.

Articles are taken from real publications （e.g. company manuals， official documents， books and newspapers）. Each set of test questions has 1 hours to do with the problem time. Candidates are required to read 3 articles and 40 questions within the time limit. One of the basic first and second articles for the illustrative text， the third is the discussion paper. The number of topics per article is fixed， of which the first and second articles are 13 questions， and the third 14 questions. The overall difficulty increases slightly from the first passage to the last. These laws have remained unchanged in the IELTS exam in recent years. IELTS test is different from the TOEFL test， which lies in the need for candidates to find their own sentences， to examine the reading scanning skills. It is common to see that many students， within often the specified time， can not complete the relevant topics， due to the occurrence of positioning errors and slow reading speed. Therefore， the IELTS reading test focuses on examining students ‘ reading skills in the scanning of a specified period of time. In order to introduce the most frequency of words and topic to candidates， a corpus will be used to do a quantitative analyses.

2. Literature review

In terms of frequency， it has not been a common topic within the academic world. As noted earlier， nouns tend to be highly frequent. Frequency is important for both individual experiences （such as task frequency） and linguistic experiences （distributional frequency； Harrington & Dennis， 2002）. In consideration of linguistic experiences， frequency is important not only for lexical acquisition but also for the acquisition of syntax， phonology， and morphology. The quick acquisition of linguistic skills is argued to be based on the distribution of frequent linguistic forms and is grounded on the notion that frequent forms are more likely to be comprehended， processed， and produced more often （N. Ellis， 2002）. Support for links between lexical acquisition and frequency effects can be found in studies that demonstrate that high-frequency words are recognized more rapidly and that frequent words demonstrate strong effects on lexical production （Kirsner， 1994）. A few studies have also found that lower pro?ciency learners with less processing pro?ciency use more frequent words than higher level pro?ciency learners （Bell， 2003； Laufer & Nation， 1995）， but these studies have been cross-sectional and examined only written texts. Thus， in L2 studies， the evidence supporting frequency effects as a strong indicator in the development of lexical acquisition in natural language is lacking. To counteract this effect， we can automatically apply an adjusted frequency measure， or an index of dispersion （see Carroll et al 1971： xxix）.