[etni] two more messages that went astrray
- From: "Lev Abramov" <lev@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2004 13:38:40 +0200
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The same has happened to my two replies to Ronald's posting - they went to
him privately instead of going to the list. My fault.
Here goes:
Ronald says:
As far as I understand it, the Cloze was eliminated from teaching and
testing because it was not considered to be a communicative activity and had
nothing to do with what one does as a user of English.
-----------snip-------------
Maybe we don't always realize it - but filling in the missing words is
exactly what we do whenever we read a text containinga certain number of
words we don't know ("i+1" level, according to Krashen's Comprehensible
Input hypothesis).
Do we always use a dictionary to look these words up? Not at all. In most
cases we fill these mental gaps through guesswork, by inferencing, by
deducing the meaning of the word from the context. Gap-filling is part of
our reading strategies.
Hence, the ability of an EFL learner to solve clozes reliably reflects their
ability to read authentic texts at moderately challlenging levels.
So how can one claim Cloze is "unnatural" in an EFL context?
L
-----------snip-------------
and the other one - referring to Ronald's claim that Cloze was removed as
grammar-related activity:
-----------snip-------------
Sure. Quite consistent:
Whole-word reading.
No straightforward grammar instruction.
Larger classes.
Fewer hours.
No discipline enforcement.
Endless vacations, holidays and extracurricular activities.
What else can be done to prevent Israeli pupils from knowing English?!
(not that the situation is much better in other subjects...)
-----------snip-------------
OK, now I've caught up with it :)
L
Lev Abramov
The Schiffman Institute
<http://home.schiffman.biz>
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