Lesson Eleven Cloze

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

Yun-Pi Yuan 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.)

Yun-Pi Yuan 4 A Cloze Passage  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 5 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.

Yun-Pi Yuan 6 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 deletion: extra-textual ( based on prior/background knowledge)

Yun-Pi Yuan 7 A note to type four deletion  Note:  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.  Examples:  interested in; be interested ; addition to; opportunities practice

Yun-Pi Yuan 8 Examples of types of deletion 1. 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 ___.

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

Yun-Pi Yuan 10 How to make a fixed-ratio cloze?  Selection of the passage: topics, rhetorical modes, level of difficulty, length (50 deletions; one sentence in the beginning and end has to be left intact).  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 professional native speakers’ responses for acceptable word method.

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

Yun-Pi Yuan 12 Uses/Advantages of cloze  For assessment No special training required; easy to conduct In large-scale testing, use multiple-choice format Measure reading & overall language proficiency  For teaching 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. Ss can improve reading ability if guided through the 4 levels of text processing.

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