Improving Reading IELTS Scores: Completion vs. Selection Tasks

The present research was an attempt to investigate whether the two task types of completion and selection have different impacts on the improvement of the reading skill oflranian EFL learners measured in the reading section of the IELTS exam. To achieve this goal, 60 students in six classes studying English at the lower intermediate level in a language school in Tehran sat for an objective placement test. Thirty learners in three of the classes were randomly assigned as the completion group and the other 30 in the other three classes as the selection group. Comparing the placement means of the two groups using at-test, the researchers made sure that they were equal and belonged to the same population in terms of language proficiency level. The general module of an IELTS test, the reading section of which was to be used as the reading pretest, was also conducted at the onset of the study. The results of the IELTS as a whole and the reading section in isolation were also subjected to the comparison of means which again indicated that the two experimental groups enjoyed the same level of language proficiency in general and reading skill in particular. During the 22 sessions of treatment in about three months, each group worked on only one type of reading tasks of selection or completion. As a posttest, another full version of the IELTS test was administered to both groups. Analyzing the results of the reading section indicated that the completion group had a higher reading performance than the selection group. It was concluded that completion tasks can be more effective than selection tasks in improving the reading scores of IELTS candidates.