Investigating Iranian IELTS Candidates’ Speaking Performance: a TAALES Study

This study investigates the lexical sophistication of Iranian IELTS candidates’ spoken performance using the Tool for the Automatic Analysis of Lexical Sophistication (TAALES). A total of ۶۰ Iranian test takers, divided into three proficiency groups (band scores ۵–۵.۵, ۶–۶.۵, and ۷ and above), completed an IELTS Part ۲ speaking task. Their responses were transcribed and analyzed using TAALES ۲.۲, which computed over ۴۰۰ indices of lexical sophistication, including word frequency, n gram frequency and association strength, psycholinguistic properties (concreteness, age of acquisition), academic word use, and semantic indices. One way ANOVA with Benjamini Hochberg correction and stepwise multiple linear regression were employed to compare groups and predict human rated Lexical Resource scores. The findings aim to identify which specific TAALES indices distinguish lower from higher proficiency speakers, providing the first empirical evidence on the application of TAALES to spoken data from Iranian EFL learners. The results are expected to reveal that higher proficiency candidates use lower frequency words, more sophisticated n grams, and more abstract vocabulary. The study contributes to the growing international literature on automated lexical analysis and offers actionable pedagogical insights for IELTS preparation courses in Iran.

کلیدواژه ها:

IELTS Speaking ، Lexical Sophistication ، TAALES ، Iranian EFL Learners ، Lexical Resource ، Automated Text Analysis