[etni] origin of cloze testing
- From: Ruth Sheffer <ruti044@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 24 Jul 2004 11:12:50 +0200
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cloze is definitely not an Israeli invention.
this is what I found:
What is Cloze procedure?
The "cloze" procedure for testing your writing is often treated as a
readability test because a formula exists for translating the data
from "cloze tests" into numerical results. The name "Cloze" comes
from the word "closure". In this procedure, words are deleted from
the text and readers are asked to fill in the blanks. By constructing
the meaning from the available words and completing the text, the
reader achieves "closure". (elaboration below)
In 1953 the "cloze procedure" was developed and later, after 1965,
formulas were developed for its use. It became a popular method
for measuring the suitability of text for a particular audience. It
was popular because its scoring was objective; it was easy to use
and analyze; it used the text itself for analysis; and it yields high
correlations to other formulas.
The cloze technique does not predict whether the materials is
comprehensible; it is an actual try-out of the material. It tells you
whether a particular audience group can comprehend the writing
well enough to complete the cloze test.
Cloze procedure consists of deleting words in a text and asking the
reader to fill in the appropriate or a similar word. Usually every
fifth word is deleted. Cloze is thought to offer a better index of
comprehensibility than the statistical formulas. The ability to
identify the missing word or to insert a satisfactory substitute for
the original word indicates that the reader comprehends the
content of the text.
Close testing has been called a "rubber yardstick" because Cloze
scores reflect both the difficulty of the text and the readers abilities
or resources. Like any readability test, the problem arises over
what is considered a successful completion of the text: inserting
50% of missing words, 75% or 100%. Today educators recognize
that cloze procedre4us are more suitable to assess readers' abilities
than to measure the readability of text. Critics have pointed out
that cloze can operate on the basis of measuring redundancy -- that
in some texts it measures the number of redundant words rather
than implicit words.
In particular, critics suggest that Cloze is inappropriate for
measuring text or reader's abilities in languages other than their
native language. The results of close testing reflect the reader's
basic intuition about the structure and vocabulary of the target
language -- and that does not exist for the language student.
Cloze testing is widely used now to assess the abilities of readers,
but is usually combined with other tests measuring grammar skills
and writing ability. One educator comments:
"The underlying assumption in cloze testing is that a close
relationship exists between reading comprehension and
writing skill. The test measures the student's ability to
select appropriate words if occasional gaps occur in a
passage, based on their ability to infer meaning from
context and cultural experience. The word cloze is related
to the concept of closure, the human tendency to complete
a partly finished pattern, to pick out key words and rely on
language repetition in English discourse. The theory origin
ated in Gestalt psychology and assumes that in figuring out
the missing word, the mind goes through a process of
sampling, predicting, testing, and confirming the
appropriate word choice. The argument is that this process
involves both recognition skills (required in discrete formal
testing) and the production of a significant content
(required in written passages). In theory at least, the cloze
test is an integrated rather than a formal test, but the
advantage is that it can be marked efficiently and
objectively." ("Assessment Report, Communications
Discipline", by Roslyn Dixon, Communications
Assessment Coordinator, Douglas College, June 1, 1989)
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