Critical Analysis of IELTS and TOEFL Test Items Based on Bloom's Taxonomy:Teaching for the Test

One of the areas in which language testing is of great application and has great implications is language teaching. In many occasions teaching to the test is found unavoidable. From the early days of language teaching, language tests have been always utilized by teachers as important devices for the purposes of assessment, evaluation as well as many other applicable purposes related to both the process of language teaching and language learners themselves. Regarding this issue, this paper proposes an analysis of the IELTS and TOEFL IBT listening, reading, speaking, and writing skills test items to determine their appropriate cognitive levels based on Bloom's revised taxonomy action verbs. This taxonomy consists of six major categories which starts from the simplest behavior to the most complex. The lowest three levels are: knowledge, comprehension, and application. The highest three levels are: analysis, synthesis and evaluation. This analysis was to identify important keywords and verbs, which may assist in the identification of the cognitive category of questions. At present, ۱۶ sets of listening questions, reading questions, speaking parts, writing tasks were analyzed manually based on Bloom's revised model. The study indicated that in both tests, either IELTS or TOEFL, while reading and listening skills' evaluations were aimed primarily at the three lowest levels of Bloom's taxonomy, speaking and writing skills' evaluations were focused at the all levels of the taxonomy. The results might have some implications for EFL curriculum developers, teachers, and test takers, in general, and for IELTS and TOEFL instructors, specifically, with Bloom's Taxonomy's regard.

Keywords:

Bloom's Taxonomy , L۲ Testing , IELTS , TOEFL