Cloze tests assignment neww

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.)

How to design

VII Conclusion

What’s cloze test?

“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)

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.)

I Definition

I Definition

A cloze test/ cloze deletion test) is an exercise, test, or

assessment consisting of a portion of language with certain items, words, or signs removed (cloze text), where the participant is asked to replace the missing language item

Cloze tests require the ability to understand context and vocabulary in order to identify the correct language or part of speech that belongs in the deleted passages

II Purposes

The Cloze Test is intended to measure students’ ability to decode interrupted or mutilated messages by making the most acceptable substitutions from all the contextual

clues available

II Purposes

- Diagnostically determine the extent to which students are able to monitor the meaning while reading

II Purposes

- To determine which cueing systems students effectively employ to construct meaning from print material

II Purposes

- To assess the student’s use of prior knowledge

II Purposes

- To assess the extent of students’ words and grammatical structures

- To identify student’s knowledge and understanding of the reading process

II Purposes

II Purposes

- The cloze result gives the teacher information about text difficulty; student’s reading level and student’s prior knowledge

II Purposes

- The investigation helps the teacher to decide the suitability of the text, to study results and to help the students to overcome the difficulties in achieving the required level of language proficiency

III Characteristics

– Cloze test items consist of words that are deleted from a text after allowing a few sentences of introduction.

Can we see if the earth is a globe? Yes, we can,   when we watch a ship that sails out to sea If we watch closely, we see that the ship begins

(1) The bottom of the ship

disappears first, and then the ship seems to sink

lower and lower , (2) we can only

see the top of the ship, and then we see nothing at

all What is (3) hiding the ship

from us? It is the earth Stick a pin most of the way

into an orange, and (4) turn the   orange away from you You will see the pin

disappear, (5) a ship does on the   earth. 

– The deletion rate is mechanically set, usually between every 5th  and 8th . 

Jill was walking to her class slowly She was

worried _1 _ the History test she would have to _2 _ that morning As she was

reaching the classroom, a piece of paper

suddenly fluttered down and _3 _ near her

feet As Jill glanced down at the paper, her

heart nearly _4 _ a beat It was the History test paper complete _5 _answers !

– Candidates have to fill each gap by supplying the words they think has been deleted.

After months of colder weather, the days get longer, the buds (1) in  

the trees, birds sing, and the world (2) a green dress Spring  

passes (3) summer Everyone knows that summer will  

not (4) The power of all the wisest men and women in the world

cannot keep it for us The corn becomes ripe, the leaves turn brown and then

drop to the ground, (5) the world changes its green dress for a dress  

of autumn colors. 

1 A fall off B take up C put off D come out

2 A looks after B puts on C carries on D comes round

3 A into   B by C from D on

4 A forego   B evaluate C.succumb D.last

5 A yet B therefore C and D.since

IV Advantages and Disadvantages

• - It is difficult to determine whether a certain word is appropriate to the text or not So that is takes a long time to check.

V Types

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

The Varieties of Cloze Test

• In the fixed-ratio method,

every n-th word is

indiscriminately deleted n

is its frequency that

determines the number of

deletions

• The interval deletion of

cloze test is between 3rd –

11th word

• The most widely favoured

for deletion: 5th, 6th, and

7th.

• Variable-ratio method omits only certain kind of words which the

constructor thinks of the importance for a certain purposes, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, etc

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

• 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

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

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 _.

VI How to design

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.

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

Scoring The Cloze Test

When a cloze passage, developed on the basic of the criteria explaned above, is given student as a test, it should be somehow scored To scored a cloze test, every blank is considered an item

Among available techniques, two methods are quite practical: Exact word method ( EWM) and Acceptable word method (AWM)

1 Exact Word Method Of Scoring

• In EWM, the words produced by the testees receive credit if and only if they correspond to the originally deleted words Consider the

example passage given before in which every 7th word is deleted Suppose a student fills in the blanks as follow:

Education has two goals First, it PROVIDES means so that we may earn OUR living Some of these tools are main tools, such as reading or writing

There are technical skills, such as typing, management, and data processing

Still others are HIGHLY professional skills peculiar for example, to

speaking, to science, and to teaching Secondly, education provides

experience so that we can understand how to live Education provides a

knowledge of ideas for using the past IT provieds a sense of values for

MEETING the future.

In this passage, blanks 1, 2, 6, 11 and 12 ( written in capital letters) are filled with the words that correspond to the originally deleted words Therefore, they are given credit That is, the student's score on this

test will be 5 out of 12 Since the other words provided by the

student do not correspond to the originally deleted words, they would not be given any credit.

2 Acceptable Word Method of Scoring

• Some people believe that acceptable word

method of scoring is not quite fair because it is difficult to fill in the blanks with originally

deleted words Therefore, they offer an

alternative way of scoring a cloze test, i.e., the acceptable word method Of course, the

procedures followed in AWM are the same as those in EWM The only difference is that in this method, any word which makes sense in the context of the passage is considered correct and given credit

Education has two goals First, it (1) PROVIDES means so that we may earn OUR

living Some of these tools are main tools, such as reading or writing There are

technical skills, such as typing, management, and data processing Still others are

HIGHLY professional skills peculiar for example, to speaking, to science, and to

teaching Secondly, education provides experience so that we can understand how

to live Education provides a knowledge of ideas for using the past IT provieds a

sense of values for MEETING the future.

Education has two goals First, it (1) PROVIDES means so that we may earn OUR

living Some of these tools are main tools, such as reading or writing There are

technical skills, such as typing, management, and data processing Still others are

HIGHLY professional skills peculiar for example, to speaking, to science, and to

teaching Secondly, education provides experience so that we can understand how

to live Education provides a knowledge of ideas for using the past IT provieds a

sense of values for MEETING the future.

That is, in the above example, items 3, 5, 8 and 9 would be taken as correct because they are meaningful in the context and do not distort the meaning

of the passage In fact they are substituted for the original words basic,

accouting, it, and learn, respectively Thus, these items are also credit to

make the same student's score 9 out of 12 Items 4, 7 and 10 (italicized) are not correct because they do not make sense in the context, and thus they are not given any credit in either EWM and AWM.

Advantages and Disadvantages of EWM and AWM

Exact Word Method Of Scoring

• The advantage of EWM is that

it is objective and easy to

apply That is, no scorer

judgment is needed in order to

score the test

• However, it has the

disadvantage of lowering the

students' scores

Acceptable Word Method

• On the other hand, AWM increases the students' scores

• But it is somehow subjective and difficult to apply The problem is that determining the words which might be acceptable for particular blank is both subjective and beyond the ability of most EFL teachers In other words, most ELF teachers would not feel comfortable with deciding on all appropriate and acceptable words for a deletion

CON PHAN CONCLUSION