Exploring the Most Challenging Academic IELTS Tested Skills for Indonesian Test Takers

Authors

Awaluddin Syamsu Universitas Muslim Indonesia
Muhammad Yunus Universitas Muslim Indonesia
Astri Arsi Ismail Universitas Muslim Indonesia
Dewi Pratiwi Oktavia Bahtiar Universitas Muslim Indonesia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.34050/elsjish.v7i2.35271

Keywords:

Academic IELTS, Difficulties, Indonesian People, Writing Skill

Abstract

Academic IELTS test has been widely used by Indonesia people to indicate their academic English proficiency. According to the IELTS official website report 2022, Indonesian people found that writing test as the lowest average score. This study aimed to examine the most difficult test according to the Indonesian test taker’s perception and score result. The study also explored the reasons why they performed lowest in a particular skill. There were 17 Indonesian people who have taken academic IELTS responded our survey. They were from Sulawesi, Java, Sumatra, and Kalimantan with different academic background from fresh graduates of senior high schools and master’s graduates. The open-ended question responses were analyzed thematically to find out the challenges the test takers encountered. The result showed that according to the student’s perception and score in each band, some students found listening, reading and speaking as the most difficult skill however majority experienced writing as the most challenging skill. There were five reasons for their poor performance in writing test, they are less writing practice, lack of vocabulary, poor understanding on academic writing structure, time constrain, and unfamiliar topics. The findings of the research should be considered and become a topic of development for Indonesian people who plan to take academic IELTS test.

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Published

2024-06-13

How to Cite

Syamsu, A., Yunus, M., Ismail, A. A., & Bahtiar, D. P. O. (2024). Exploring the Most Challenging Academic IELTS Tested Skills for Indonesian Test Takers. ELS Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, 7(2), 331-338. https://doi.org/10.34050/elsjish.v7i2.35271