University of Sydney: Human Trafficking Criminal wwww.ielts.agency 71
There is no profession or academic discipline that has sole or dominant authority to provide an
assessment of the fairness or academic rigor of IELTS’s General and Academic tests. For example,
one may argue that a linguist or pedagogy researcher is not qualified to comment on the many
business-oriented graphical diagrams that IELTS use in writing part 1 of its Academic test.
Table 11 summarizes major and obvious pedagogical design flaws that persist throughout the
IELTS exam. As discussed in the Research Communique series, these flaws are relatively easy to
fix.
Table 11
IELTS’s Obvious Pedagogical Flaws
Obvious design flaw Communique Research
Vague assessment rubrics.
Secretive assessment rubrics.
Confusing assessment rubrics.
Subjective assessment rubrics.1Incorporates a western-centric hidden curriculum that unfairly
assumes the test-taker has knowledge on a vast range of topics.
2, 4
Assessment structure is stubbornly rigid and therefore lacks
authenticity.
4
Correct answers may earn a score of zero for listening tests. 7
Listening test simultaneously co-examines a candidate’s reading, writing, spelling and visual cognitive processing skills. 7
Miniscule spelling errors earn a score of zero for the listening test. 7
Speaking tests incorporates irrelevant premises and assumptions into the exam content. 4
Sequencing errors exist in speaking exam content. 4
There is no syllabus or examination cycle. curriculum document to guide each 2, 4