investigating ielts paper mode vs. computer mode: evidence from academic writing test

The present research compared two different modes for ielts academic module administration among iranian ielts candidates: the paper mode and the computer mode in writing tasks one & two in terms of overall band score. additionally, it examined whether computer familiarity had any significant effect on the ielts overall band score of iranian efl candidates. to this end, 88 ielts candidates from three different language institutes in iran were randomly selected. hence, based on the opt results, 50 ielts candidates were recruited and then divided into two equal groups, i.e. paper mode group and computer mode group randomly. moreover, a computer familiarity questionnaire was also administered. the study’s findings revealed that the participants in the computer-based mode had a better overall band score than the participants in the paper-based mode on both writing tasks. additionally, the results showed that computer familiarity could result in computer mode outperformance in both tasks of ielts academic writing tasks. these findings have some pedagogical implications, the most important of which is the influence of computer mode administration of ielts and computer familiarity on candidates’ scores.