Lesson Eleven Cloze Contents o What is cloze

Lesson Eleven Cloze

Contents o What is cloze procedure? o A cloze passage o Two kinds of cloze o Four types of deletion o Examples of types of blank o How to score a cloze test o How to make a fixed-ratio cloze test? o Difficulty level of cloze o Uses of cloze o C-tests Yun-Pi Yuan 2

What is “cloze procedure”? o 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) n “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 n Dictionary of Applied Linguistics. ) Yun-Pi Yuan 3

A Cloze Passage o. A passage used in cloze test is a of written material in words have been regularly. The subjects must then to reconstruct the passage filling in the missing. Yun-Pi Yuan 4

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

Four types of blank (or deletion) o Based on the amount of info. needed to fill in the blank, there are four types of deletion. (Bachman 1985) n n Type 1 deletion: within clause. Type 2 deletion: across clause(s), within sentence. Type 3 deletion: across sentences, within text. Type 4 deletion: extra-textual ( based on prior/background knowledge) Yun-Pi Yuan 6

A note to type four deletion o Note: o Recognized set phrase for which there is only one possibility to fill the blank (and you cannot rely on your syntactic knowledge or follow any rules) Type 4 deletion. o Examples: o interested in; be interested ; addition to; opportunities practice Yun-Pi Yuan 7

Examples of types of deletion Their primary purpose is usually ___ give religious instruction to children. 2. 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. 3. ___ general, people like her. 4. 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 ___. 1. Yun-Pi Yuan 8

Two scoring methods o Exact word method n The test taker scores if and only if the answer is exactly the same as the original word of the text. o Acceptable (or appropriate) word method (or acceptable alternative or contextually appropriate method) n Any responses that match the criteria below p Grammatically correct p Make good sense in the context Yun-Pi Yuan 9

How to make a fixed-ratio cloze? o Selection of the passage: n topics, rhetorical modes, level of difficulty, length (50 deletions; one sentence in the beginning and end has to be left intact). o Test different values of n n to make sure that four types of deletion are all included (if for general reading comprehension). o Decide on the scoring method. o Prepare the answer key. n get professional native speakers’ responses for acceptable word method. Yun-Pi Yuan 10

Difficulty Level of Cloze o For native speakers: (Bailey 61 -62) o Using the exact word method n n n Independent level of reading: >= 53% Instructional level: 44% ~ 53% Frustrational level: < 44% o Other factors: n n Length and complexity; topic, genre vocabulary, syntactic structures Amount of time allowed Frequency with which blanks are spaced Yun-Pi Yuan 11

Uses/Advantages of cloze o For assessment n No special training required; easy to conduct n In large-scale testing, use multiple-choice format n Measure reading & overall language proficiency o For teaching n Proficient readers can switch between different levels of processing, whereas poor readers lower level of clause/sentence level syntactic processing or stick to one level. n Ss can improve reading ability if guided through the 4 levels of text processing. Yun-Pi Yuan 12

C-tests o “starting with the second sentence of the text, the second half of every second word is deleted. ” (cited in Bailey 63, 1998) o In words having an odd number of letters, there are more blanks given than letters. n n Example: tho_ _ (for “thought) Now, do the exercise on p. 63 (Bailey). Yun-Pi Yuan 13