Cloze

Cloze is a type of assessment or exercise used in education and psychology. It involves a passage of text with certain words removed, where the participant is required to fill in the blanks. This technique is often used to measure a person's language proficiency, reading comprehension, and ability to use context clues.

History

The cloze procedure was first introduced by Wilson Taylor in 1953. Taylor's research demonstrated that the cloze test could be a reliable measure of readability and comprehension. Since then, it has been widely adopted in various fields, including linguistics, psychometrics, and second language acquisition.

Methodology

In a typical cloze test, every nth word in a passage is removed and replaced with a blank space. The participant must then use their knowledge of the language and context to fill in the missing words. The standard deletion rate is every fifth word, but this can vary depending on the difficulty level desired.

Types of Cloze Tests

• Fixed-ratio deletion: Words are removed at regular intervals, such as every fifth word.
• Rational deletion: Specific words are removed based on their importance or function in the text.
• Maze cloze: Multiple-choice options are provided for each blank.

Applications

Cloze tests are used in various contexts, including:

• Language assessment: To evaluate proficiency in a second language.
• Reading comprehension: To assess understanding of a text.
• Educational research: To study readability and text complexity.
• Psychological testing: To measure cognitive abilities and processing speed.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages

• Simple to administer and score.
• Can be adapted for different difficulty levels.
• Effective for assessing a range of skills, including vocabulary and comprehension.

Disadvantages

• May not accurately reflect a person's overall language ability.
• Can be influenced by test-taker's familiarity with the specific content of the passage.
• May be less effective for assessing higher-order thinking skills.

Related Pages

• Language assessment
• Reading comprehension
• Second language acquisition
• Psychometrics
• Educational research

See Also

• Wilson Taylor
• Linguistics
• Cognitive psychology