Four types of cloze tests used in the present study were investigated by comparing the original C-Test with the New C-Test (the NC-Test), and the original Modified C-Test (the MC-Test) with the New Modified C-Test (the NMC-Test) in measuring the English-language proficiency of EFL university students. The test-taking strategies obtained from group interviews were also examined so as to see how these test-takers at different language proficiency levels responded to each type of cloze test. In this chapter, further details of theoretical issues and related research articles are reviewed to give a clear understanding of the present study.

2.1 Background of the Cloze Test

The cloze test, initiated by Taylor (1953, cited in Anderson, 1976), is a kind of integrative test in which the entire word is rationally or randomly deleted. The word “cloze” was derived from “closure” in Gestalt psychology, indicating that humans are able to fill in what is missing by using their prior knowledge or their experience (Heaton, 1975; Oller, 1979; Sawatdirakpong, 1980). The students’ language proficiency can then be determined by measuring how accurately the students can complete the deleted part of its original passage (Hughes, 2003; Spolsky, 1973). For language teachers, the cloze tests have been widely used in order to determine reading ability and English-language proficiency, since the cloze test is more economical, easier to score, and less time- consuming (McNamara, 2000; Oller, 1979).

In the construction of cloze tests, language teachers should select a suitable passage which responds to the target students’ language abilities and the goals of the language tests. Oller (1979) clearly emphasizes that the most appropriate cloze passage should depend on the students’ ability level in a class if the purpose of the language teachers is to measure English-language proficiency. The following are guidelines on how to choose appropriate texts for constructing cloze tests: (1) the selected passage should not contain any bias, such as religion or politics; (2) the selected passage should not contain any specialized terms or content; (3) the difficulty level of the selected passage should be suitable for the target students; (4) the length of the selected passage should be sufficient for the number of items; and (5) the selected text should be complete in itself (Oller, 1979; Raatz & Klein-Braley, 2003).

For text difficulty level, many researchers and practitioners in language testing (Crawley & Mountain, 1995; Leu & Kinzer, 1995; Vacca & Vacca, 2003) recommend that a checklist or a readability formula should be employed to estimate whether the selected passage is suitable for the student’s reading level. Fry’s readability graph was proposed by Fry (1977) to estimate the readability of a reading text by using the average word length and sentence length of three sample 100-word passages from the selected passages (see Appendix A). Fry’s readability graph has been widely used due to the fact that it provides a wide range of reading grade levels from the first grade to the seventeenth grade levels (Anderson, 1983; Duffelmeyer, 1983; Fry, 1977, 1989, 1990, 2002; Leu & Kinzer, 1995; Saetung, 1984; Standal & Betza, 1990). Therefore, Fry’s readability graph enables the language teacher to adjust and develop texts before constructing and administering tests for the target students.

Regarding the deletion procedure, there are two deletion methods used in the cloze test: the systematic deletion (the fixed-ratio deletion) and the unsystematic deletion (the rational deletion) (Bachman, 1985; Chapelle & Abraham, 1990; Cohen, 1980; Klein-Braley, 1997; Oller, 1979). The former method refers to every nth word deletion which is suitable for assessing general language abilities because “all classes and types of words have an equal chance of being deleted” (Steinman, 2002, p. 293). The latter method is specific word deletion which is appropriate for a particular purpose, such as testing prepositions. Example 6 is presented in order to provide a clear understanding of both deletion procedures. In addition, Bachman (1985) found that both deletion techniques were equally reliable, although systematic deletion was more difficult than the unsystematic deletion. Nonetheless, different deletion rates affect the validity and the measurement of the cloze test (Alderson, 1979, 1980, 1983, 2000; Jafapur, 1995). For example, changing the rate of deletion in the cloze test makes it measure different language abilities (Jafapur, 1995; Weir, 1990).

Example 6: Unsystematic deletion and systematic deletion

UNSYSTEMATIC DELETION SYSTEMATIC DELETION

Fill in each blank with a/an/the or no article. Fill in the missing word.

People today are quite astonished by _____ rapid People today are quite astonished by the rapid

improvements in medicine. Doctors are improvements in medicine. Doctors _____

becoming more specialized, and new drugs are becoming more specialized, and _____ drugs are

appearing on _____ market daily. At _____ same appearing on the ______ daily. At the same time,

time, _____ people are dismayed by _____ _____ are dismayed by the inaccessibility _____

inaccessibility of doctors when they are needed. doctors when they are needed.

(Adapted from Cohen, 1994, p. 234) (Cohen, 1994, p. 234)

Many factors including the deletion procedures, the text length, the number of the items, and the goal of the language test have influence on the forms of the cloze tests. Oller (1979) suggests that the cloze test should generally provide 50 deleted items with a minimum length of 250 words for the passage. However, language teachers are sometimes confused about what the difference between a gap-filling test and a cloze test are. The difference between these two tests is focused on the same point, e.g. the word deleted in each sentence. In a gap-filling test, the deleted item is provided within one sentence, whereas the deleted word in the cloze test is given in a paragraph or a passage (Bailey, 1998). In addition, the gap-filling test is suitable for assessing specific language ability, such as grammar or vocabulary, while the cloze test ca