Comparison of the contextual features in IELTS Academic and Duolingo English Test

  
Expert English language researchers at Georgia State University have compared IELTS Academic and Duolingo English Test (DET). Download the full research report or read our article for a recap.

   
 Even though both tests cover social and academic domains, IELTS Listening input is significantly longer and is presented in much more varied discourse modes.

 IELTS test passages include a variety of speaker accents, while DET appears to include standard American accents only.

 IELTS Listening tasks require a higher level of retention of information. IELTS Listening has more extended listening input for test takers to process from listening to each passage only once. DET Listening tasks are typically shorter and allow listeners to listen to the materials more than once.
   

Contextual differences for Reading

   
 The texts presented by IELTS reflect academic texts more closely. They are more abstract and include argumentation, a very common rhetorical mode in academic writing.

 IELTS uses non-verbal information and requires test takers to combine verbal and visual information, while DET does not.

 DET tasks at the highest level tend to be much shorter and syntactically less complex than IELTS Reading passages.
  

IELTS passages are overall more complex, with longer sentences and clauses, and more coordinated phrase and complex nominals.
  

    
 Given the general nature of the test prompts in DET and the brevity of the expected response (at least 50 words, maximum of 5 minutes), it would be surprising to find similar levels of lexical and syntactic complexity and cohesive devices in DET written responses compared to those in IELTS Academic.
   

   
IELTS Speaking tasks appear to be more abstract and academically oriented, whereas DET speaking topics appears to be more familiar.

IELTS Speaking has much greater construct (skills) coverage than DET. Particularly at the lower levels, DET prompts tend to be descriptive in nature (e.g. talk about a hobby or activity you enjoy).
   

You can experience the types of tasks included in IELTS Academic with our free online preparation materials and sample tasks.
   

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