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The Importance of Visual Literacy: An Analysis of Potential Obstacles for Romanian Students in the Completion of IELTS Academic Writing Task 1

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Foreign Language Teaching in Romanian Higher Education

Part of the book series: Multilingual Education ((MULT,volume 27))

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Abstract

IELTS seems to have become one of the most frequently taken English tests by Romanian students aiming to study abroad. While linguistic competence is indispensable for success, it is not sufficient to guarantee that the exam will be passed with the recommended band scale. Sustained training focused on the types of task characteristics of the four skills (Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking) is essential for achieving a good score in the test. The IELTS Academic Writing Task 1, based on graph analysis and interpretation, is one of those tasks that require specialized training. In this case, linguistic competence needs to be doubled by the ability to understand and represent information in the form of graphs, known as graphicacy. Although Romanian school curricula introduce pupils from all grades to various forms of graphic representation, Romanian students do not get enough training in graph analysis as required by an IELTS exam because this specific competence is not particularly envisaged by the national curriculum for English as a foreign language. Deciphering a graph and translating the lines and dots into words presuppose “obstacles” such as the use of appropriate language, conciseness and time limit, to mention but a few.

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    All the following images of diagrams are free of copyright made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication or they are part of the public domain. Links to sources are provided in References.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Foreign Languages and Communication, The Technical University of Civil Engineering Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

    Marina-Cristiana Rotaru

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  1. Marina-Cristiana Rotaru
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  1. Department of Modern Languages and Business Communication, Faculty of International Business and Economics, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania

    Lucia-Mihaela Grosu-Rădulescu

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Rotaru, MC. (2018). The Importance of Visual Literacy: An Analysis of Potential Obstacles for Romanian Students in the Completion of IELTS Academic Writing Task 1. In: Grosu-Rădulescu, LM. (eds) Foreign Language Teaching in Romanian Higher Education. Multilingual Education, vol 27. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93329-0_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93329-0_4

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