This book takes an investigative look into the differences between strategies used by students studying in China and Chinese students studying in the United Kingdom when taking the IELTS Listening test. It probes into whether and how studying in the United Kingdom might influence listening skills, and compares the strategies used by students who have taken an IELTS preparation course versus those who have not. This book provides a multidimensional view of listening strategies for ESL/ EFL teachers and students; and has implications for teachers who train students to apply multiple listening strategies.

Over the years, various approaches to validation have emerged in psychological and educational assessment research, which can be classified into traditional approaches and modern approaches. Traditional approaches view validity as a multicomponential concept including, for example, content, construct, and predictive validity, while modern approaches conceptualize it as a unitary concept evaluated through argumentation. Drawing on the modern approach, this book builds a validity argument for an International English Language Testing System (IELTS) listening test sample. The book provides some insights into the listening sub-skills that the test engages, the psychometric dimensionality of the test, variables that predict item difficulty parameters, bias across age, nationality, test experience, and gender, as well as predictive-referenced evidence of validity. A variety of techniques including the Rasch model and structural equation modelling are used to answer the research questions and to build a validity argument framework; this argument organizes the thematically related findings into a coherent treatment of the validity of the listening test. The book presents the first treatment of validity argument and related analytical tools in one volume and maps the psychometric/statistical analysis tools onto the validity argument framework. It also provides an extensive literature review of listening comprehension, validation, and psychometric modeling and proposes both methods for developing and validating self-assessment instruments and novel approaches to improving the quality of language assessments.

This volume reports research that informs the development of reading and listening assessment in IELTS. This volume brings together a set of eight IELTS-related research studies - four on reading and four on listening - conducted between 2005 and 2010. Findings from these studies provide valuable evidence on the validity, reliability, impact and practicality of the IELTS test; they are also instrumental in highlighting aspects needing attention, and thus directly inform the continuing evolution of the IELTS reading and listening tests. The volume reviews and comments on the specific contribution of each study to the ongoing process of IELTS reading and listening test design and development.

IELTS Listening Practice Tests: IELTS Exam Preparation Book with 4 Practice Tests, Free mp3s and Tips for a High Score by IELTS Success Group contains four complete IELTS practice listening tests. This book is an expanded edition of IELTS Listening Practice Tests: IELTS Self-Study Exam Preparation Book for IELTS for Academic Purposes and General Training Modules by IELTS Success Associates. The first 111 pages of the study guide have the same great material as IELTS Success Associates' original publication. Plus, there is a new IELTS listening practice test at the end of the book. Access to the mp3s is free when you purchase this publication. Each practice listening test in this book has four sections, just like the actual IELTS exam, so there are 16 listening passages. The practice exams have questions of all of the types that you will see on the real IELTS listening test, so the book has multiple choice questions, form and diagram completion, matching questions, short answers and sentence completion questions. The tips at the beginning of the book explain the format of the IELTS listening test and tell you what to expect on your exam day. Practice Listening Test 1 in the publication is in tutorial mode, so it includes tips and suggestions at the beginning of each section to give you strategies to help you answer all of the types of questions on the listening tests. There is a complete answer key with in-depth explanations for each answer, so that you can understand why each answer is the correct one. The explanations give you additional tips to help you improve your test-taking technique. The book also includes the complete scripts for each of the listening tests, which you should read after completing each of the practice tests, to help improve your knowledge of the vocabulary and idioms included on the IELTS exam. Get a high score on your IELTS listening test with this great study guide!

IELTS: strategies for study (audio cassette only)

Listening in a second language is challenge for students and teachers alike. This book provides a personal account of an action research intervention involving listening strategy instruction that investigated the viability of this innovative pedagogy in the Japanese university context.

"IELTS Listening Practice Tests: IELTS Self-Study Exam Preparation Book for IELTS for Academic Purposes and General Training Modules" by IELTS Success Associates contains three complete IELTS practice listening tests. Each practice listening test in this book has four sections, just like the actual IELTS exam, so there are 12 listening passages for you to try. The practice exams have questions of all of the types that you will see on the real IELTS listening test, so the book has multiple choice questions, form and diagram completion, matching questions, short answers and sentence completion questions. The tips at the beginning of the book explain the format of the IELTS listening test and tell you what to expect on your exam day. Practice Listening Test 1 in the publication is in tutorial mode, so it includes tips and suggestions at the beginning of each section to give you strategies to help you answer all of the types of questions on the listening tests. There is a complete answer key with in-depth explanations for each answer, so that you can understand why each answer is the correct one. The explanations give you additional tips to help you improve your test-taking technique. The book also includes the complete scripts for each of the listening tests, which you should read after completing each of the practice tests, to help improve your knowledge of the vocabulary and idioms included on the IELTS exam. For the recordings that accompany this book, you should purchase the audio CD on Amazon entitled "IELTS Listening Practice Tests Audio CD" by IELTS Success Associates.