Review of the research literature on the IELTS Test 1990-2018

CRELLA conducted four comprehensive reviews of the research literature on the IELTS test (Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing) over the past three decades, providing a critical review of the most widely used language proficiency test in relation to five key validation components of the socio-cognitive framework for test validation (i.e. cognitive validity, context validity, scoring validity, consequential validity, and criterion-related validity) and the empirical basis required for the continuous development of IELTS. The review also examined research studies and information related to the Target Language Use (TLU) domain that IELTS aims to assess, and made recommendations regarding what the future IELTS may look like.