Cloze test became a popular method for measuring the suitability of the 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.
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b. Types of Cloze Test
1. Fill in the Blank
This form of the cloze test is adapted from the traditional fill-in-the blank type activities. The difference is that traditional type activities
were often sentence based, whereas a cloze activity involves a passage with every nth word deleted. The deleted words are listed and the
students are required to fill in the blanks with appropriate word from the list.
2. Deleting a Particular Class of Words
Sometimes the testers, especially the teachers, are interested in deleting a particular set of words to check the students’ ability in using
these words. In some cases the value of n cannot be fixed because the blank may correspond to a word that should not be deleted. Therefore,
the teachers use random ratio deletion procedure. That is, n is not fixed and it is determined by the test developer prefers to delete a
particular word. In this version, which is most useful for instructional purposes, a particular group of word is deleted. For instance, the
teacher might be interested to see the extent to which students have command over the use of prepositions, articles, verb forms, adverbs,
adjectives, etc.
3. Catered Technique
In some versions of cloze, to facilitate the students’ task, some pieces of information related to the deleted words are given to provide
a cue. Depending on the kind and extent of cueing, certain varieties have been developed. In its simplest form, it resembles a spelling test
known as the letter cloze. In this version, one or more letters of the
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Cheryl Stephens, “All About Readability”…, retrieved on Thursday, February 18, 2010
word in the blank are left out and the students are required to fill in the blanks with the missing letters.
4. Random Deletion procedure
Another version of cloze that is also based on the rate of the deletion of the word is called random deletion procedure. In this
version, there is neither fixed ratio deletion nor deleting a particular class of words in the mind. Words are deleted on the basis of pure
randomization. To construct such a test, all the words in the passage are numbered and every number is written on a piece of paper. These
pieces of papers that carry the numbers corresponding to the words in the passage are located in a hat. Then the numbers are drawn out of the
hat one by one. The word that corresponds to every number is deleted from the passage.
5. The Cloze-Elide Test
A different variety of cloze test is known as the cloze-elide test. In this type, instead of deleting a set of words from the passage, a certain
number of words are added to the text. The students are required to read the text and identify the extra or redundant words and cross them
out. In fact, in the cloze-elide test, the processing of the text is somewhat opposite to that of the standard cloze test. In the cloze test,
the students should read the text and add some words; whereas in the cloze-elide test, the students should read the text and delete some
words.
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c. Constructing Cloze Procedure Test
To prepare materials for cloze tests, any of the following techniques may be used:
1. Select a sample of written text about 250 words length from the
assigned textual material.
22
Horsein Farhady, Varieties of Cloze Procedure in EFL Education, http:www.google.co.idhl=idq=criteria+of+a+good+passage+for+EFL+classstart=10sa=N
fp=983862b504061180 retrieved on Monday, April 12, 2010.
2. Begin with the first sentence in a paragraph.
3. Leave this first sentence intact - that is, delete no words.
4. Beginning with the first word in the second sentence, delete every
fifth word. 5.
The blanks for deletions should be of equal length and large enough for written responses.
6. Continue deleting every fifth word until you have fifty blanks.
7. Leave the remainder of the sentence containing the fiftieth deletion
intact.
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d. Method in Scoring the Cloze Test
When a cloze passage is given to the students as a test, it should be somehow scored. To score a cloze test, every blank is considered an item.
Among many available techniques, two methods are quite practical: Exact Word Method EWM and Acceptable Word Method AWM.
1. Exact Word Method of Scoring
In Exact Word Method EWM, the words produced by students receive credit if and only if they correspond to the originally deleted
words. However, there are the advantages and disadvantages in Exact Word Method EWM. The advantage of Exact Word Method 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 students’ score.
2. Acceptable Word Method of Scoring
The procedures followed in Acceptable Word Method AWM are the same as those in Exact Word Method 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. On the other hand,
23
Richard Allington and Michael Strange, Learning Through Reading in the Content Area…, p.105
Acceptable Word Method AWM increases the students’ score but it is somehow subjective and difficult to apply.
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In addition, according to Allington and Strange there are several steps in scoring and interpreting a cloze passage those are:
1. Scoring is facilitated if students have transferred words from
the blanks to a separate sheet of paper. 2.
Score only exact word replacements as correct. 3.
Compute the percentage of correct responses. If a standard fifty deletion selection is used, the simply multiplying the number of
correct responses by two provides this percentage. 4.
Arrange students by score into the following for groups: • 60 or above correct - text is predicted to be quite easy.
• 35 - 59 correct – text is predicted to be appropriate
difficulty. • 20 - 34 correct – text is predicted to be very difficult.
• 0 - 19 correct – text is predicted to be inappropriate, far
too difficult. 5.
Begin to plan instructional differentiation based on results.
If at all possible, at least three cloze passages should be constructed and administered from a text, with the results averaged across all
passages for placement into groups. Several measures are more reliable than a single measure. With the cloze procedure the same is true –
using three passages reduces the risk of drawing an unrepresentative sample from the text – one that is either too difficult or too easy.
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24
Farhady, “Varieties of Cloze Procedure in EFL Education”…, retrieved on Monday, April 12, 2010.
25
Richard Allington and Michael Strange, Learning Through Reading in the Content Area…, p.107
While according to Beard, the following judgments can be made on the percentage of words correctly supplied by the reader to fill
in gaps on a cloze text. Correct words misspelled are counted as correct in this instance.:
Up to 40 of gaps correctly filled: Frustration Level suggesting that the text is too difficult for this particular reader;
Approximately 40-60 of gaps correctly filled: Instructional Level
suggesting that the reader may need some continuing assistance with the text;
Over 60 of gaps correctly filled: Independent Level suggesting that the reader is likely to be able to cope with the text alone.
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Based on the definition above, the judgment of the Cloze Test result can be seen in the following table:
Table 2.1 The Judgment of the Cloze Test Score
No. Percentage of the Correct Answers
Score Judgment
1. Over 60
Independent Level 2. 40-60
Instructional Level
3. Up to 40
Frustration Level
3. Statistical Readability Formula
