THE CLOZE TEST

The Cloze Test

What is cloze test?

The cloze test is a test that is often associated with language proficiency testing. It is more than simply filling in the blanks in a passage as it has a theoretical basis.

Structure

a) Consist passage with blanks

            - First sentence left intact without any blanks.

               + To ensure that the test takers have some context to work with.

            - Normally, not more than 20 blanks.

          - When constructing the cloze test, the format may not be needed to follow too rigidly.

What makes a cloze text difficult?

For students learning English as a second language, a passage written in English is often already difficult to read.

Among the factors that affect the difficulty level of the cloze procedure include the  followig:

- Length of the text

- Familiarity of vocabulary and structures.

- Length and complexity of the sentences.

- Familiarity with topic and discourse genre.

- Frequency of which blanks are spaced.

Grading a cloze test

There are two methods to how a cloze test can be graded. These methods are the exact word method and acceptable word method.

Exact word method :

a) Only one answer is accepted for each blank.

b) More objective therefore more reliable.

Acceptable word method :

a) Accept any suitable answers.

b) More subjective and therefore less reliable.

Variants of the cloze test

The C-test

- Highly correlated to the cloze test.

- Claimed that the C-test can provide the same benefits and advantages.

 - Providing half of the word

 - More reliable and objective.

Disadvantage / Criticism of the C-test.

- Looks complicated and may therefore confuse the students.

- Some believe that the C-test merely tests spelling and not an overall understanding of the English language.

Bachman (1985) Claims the kind of information that is needed to fill in the blank in a cloze test can categorized into four types :

a) Information located within the clause.

b) Information spread across clauses but within a single sentence.

c) Information distributed across sentences but within the text.

d) Extra-textual information.

Problems

a) A high proportion of function words deleted, which may be fairly easy for competent language users to restore, and which may distinguish between students of different    levels of ability, whereas other versions may have lost a high proportion of content        words which may prove to be irretrievable even for native speakers.

b) Marking cloze texts can be difficult since there may be many possible answer for any one gap, and there is often disagreement as to what answer are acceptable.

c) Such tests may be a wasteful way of testing (Unless the aim of the cloze test is to test overall language proficiency)

d) C-test : Instructions are too complicated.

The items must be thoroughly pretested.