Lesson Eleven

1. Lesson Eleven Cloze

2. Contents • What is cloze procedure? • Two kinds of cloze • Four types of blank • Examples of types of blank • How to score a cloze test • How to make a fixed-ratio cloze test? • C-tests

3. What is “cloze procedure”? • Definition • “the practice of measuring language proficiency or language comprehension by requiring examinees to restore words that have been removed from otherwise normal text.” (Jonz 1990) • “a technique for measuring reading comprehension. In a cloze test, words are removed from a reading passage at regular intervals, leaving blanks. For example, every fifth word may be removed. The reader must then read the passage and try to guess the missing words.” (Richards, Platt, and Weber, 1985, Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics.)

4. Two kinds of cloze • Based on how the blanks are created, generally, there are two kinds of cloze: fixed-ratio and rational deletion. • Fixed-ratio (nth word deletion): • Delete every nth word, no matter what word it is. (n=5~11 in normal practice) • Rational deletion (selective deletion) • The words are deleted on the basis of some rational decision.

5. Four types of blank (or deletion) • Based on the amount of info. needed to fill in the blank, there are four types of deletion. (Bachman 1985) • Type 1 deletion: within clause. • Type 2 deletion: across clause(s), within sentence. • Type 3 deletion: across sentences, within text. • Type 4: extra-textual (prior/background knowledge)

6. Examples of types of deletion • Their primary purpose is usually___ give religious instruction to children. • Joe is a freshman, and he ___ having all the problems that most ___ have. As a matter of fact, his ___ started before he even left home. • ___ general, people like her. • The bachelor’s degree can ___ followed by professional studies, ___ lead to degrees in ___ professions as law and ___, and graduate studies, which ___ to master’s and doctoral ___.

7. Two scoring methods • Exact word method • The test taker scores if and only if the answer is exactly as the original word of the text. • Acceptable word method • Any responses that match the criteria below • Grammatically correct • Make good sense in the context

8. How to make a fixed-ratio cloze? • Selection of the passage: • topics, rhetorical modes, level of difficulty • Test different values of n • to make sure that four types of deletion are all included (if for general reading comprehension). • Decide on the scoring method. • Prepare the answer key. • get native speakers’ responses for acceptable word method.

9. C-tests • “starting with the second sentence of the text, the second half of every second word is deleted.” (Klein-Braley and Raatz, 1984)