Learner s Evaluation of EFL writing Tasks in Iran s ESOL Exam Pre pa r avt ion Courses

The purpose of this research was to analyze efl writingtasks in the most popular esol (english for speake rs ofother languages) exam preparation courses in iran: ielt ~ .toefl. fce and cae. having collected the criteria ofwriting task appropriateness in light of the process-orientedapproach to writing instruction. [ 14 learner participantswere asked to rate efl writing tasks based on a check listpreviously gathered and validated. an observation processwas conducted of the task performance followed by aninterv iew with teachers about the nature of these coursesand learners' motivation. according to the learners' primaryneeds and goals. the four types of courses were initiallydivided into two groups: group- i (lelts/toefl) andgroup-2 (fce/cae). the independent-sample t-test wasemployed to compare the mean scores of ratings for allitems of the check list once between ielts and toeflcourses in group i and once between fce and cae ingroup 2. significant differences were obtained especiallyrelated to the quality of writing pre. .edures