How to use the classic cloze test to assess the appropriateness of a reading text for learners. Also, tips on how to create cloze tests from reading texts, and how to analyze what the tests reveal about your learner's ability to understand what they are about to read.
In the post Learner Reading: Is Your Learner at the Instructional Level, the Frustration Level or the Independent Level? Use a Cloze Exercise to Find out! I talked about different levels of reading. We discovered that if a learner is at the Frustrational Level, they cannot understand most of what they are about to read. If the learner at the Instructional Level, he understands most of the story, but still needs some help to understand all the details. At the Independent level, learners start to enjoy reading -- they don't need any help, and can fully understand the story themselves. They are truly independent readers.
Question is, how can we best understand where our learners are?
With a cloze test!
Take a look at this cloze test is appropriate forlearners at the intermediate level:
______________. On informal occasions such as a backyard barbeque, they will probably wear something
_____________ such as jeans and a T-shirt.
We see that a cloze test is an exercise where some words are deleted and replaced by blank spaces.
The learner is asked to fill in the blanks.
If the learners fills in all the blanks with appropriate words it means that they understand the short text. It means that they are at the Independent Level of reading, and are able to read the story or text without any help.
If the learner cannot fill in one or two blanks with the appropriate words, it means that they understand much of the text, but will need some extra help to achieve full understanding. The tutor might need to resort to pantomime, pictures, or additional questions to help the learner complete the cloze. This learner is at the Instructional Level.
If the learners cannot fill in numerous blanks with an appropriate word, it means that they are at Frustration level, and are not ready to read the story. They will be frustrated, discouraged, intimidated or even turned off by the difficulty of what you are going to ask them to read.. The learners need lots of practice and assistance from the teacher.
What is great about cloze tests is that tutors can create them by themselves.
Here's how.
Choose a text or story text appropriate for the student's skill level and interest, and delete certain words.
There are several ways of choosing the words to be deleted:
1) Words can be removed at random
2) The words can be removed by 'counting' — for example, every fifth or seventh word
3) Content or function words can be removed. Deleting content words, those words which have meaning (nouns, verbs, adjectives, or adverbs) produces tests which test a learner's understanding. Deleting function words, the words without any meaning but which are necessary to express grammatical relations (prepositions, pronouns, articles, auxiliaries) can be used to test grammar skills of students.
In the above example, I deleted content words to test the learner's understanding of the exercise.
However, it is also important for tutors to remember that while they are counting student's answers, they should not only accept "exact" words as the right answer. Exact words are the same words which were in the original text. The tutor should count acceptable, appropriate words too, as they have the same meaning as the exact word.
For example, if the learner has filled "events" instead of "occasions" in the first blank of the "Casual and Formal Clothes" test, the tutor should count the word "event" a right word, as it does not prevent us from understanding the text.
Thus, by providing a cloze test to learners, the tutors can see at which level of comprehension their learners are : Independent, Instructional, or Frustrational Level.
Finding out about your learner's level, you will discover valuable information about whether your learner will need assistance when reading a new text, whether they need an easier text, or whether they need more basic fundamental help.
Here is a link to a website which can help you create cloze tests.
In the post Learner Reading: Is Your Learner at the Instructional Level, the Frustration Level or the Independent Level? Use a Cloze Exercise to Find out! I talked about different levels of reading. We discovered that if a learner is at the Frustrational Level, they cannot understand most of what they are about to read. If the learner at the Instructional Level, he understands most of the story, but still needs some help to understand all the details. At the Independent level, learners start to enjoy reading -- they don't need any help, and can fully understand the story themselves. They are truly independent readers.
Question is, how can we best understand where our learners are?
With a cloze test!
Take a look at this cloze test is appropriate forlearners at the intermediate level:
Casual and Formal Clothes
such as a __________ interview or a friend’s ___________, men might wear a ______________ and aDifferent clothes are required for different _________________. For _____________ occasions
______________. On informal occasions such as a backyard barbeque, they will probably wear something
_____________ such as jeans and a T-shirt.
We see that a cloze test is an exercise where some words are deleted and replaced by blank spaces.
The learner is asked to fill in the blanks.
If the learners fills in all the blanks with appropriate words it means that they understand the short text. It means that they are at the Independent Level of reading, and are able to read the story or text without any help.
If the learner cannot fill in one or two blanks with the appropriate words, it means that they understand much of the text, but will need some extra help to achieve full understanding. The tutor might need to resort to pantomime, pictures, or additional questions to help the learner complete the cloze. This learner is at the Instructional Level.
If the learners cannot fill in numerous blanks with an appropriate word, it means that they are at Frustration level, and are not ready to read the story. They will be frustrated, discouraged, intimidated or even turned off by the difficulty of what you are going to ask them to read.. The learners need lots of practice and assistance from the teacher.
What is great about cloze tests is that tutors can create them by themselves.
Here's how.
Choose a text or story text appropriate for the student's skill level and interest, and delete certain words.
There are several ways of choosing the words to be deleted:
1) Words can be removed at random
2) The words can be removed by 'counting' — for example, every fifth or seventh word
3) Content or function words can be removed. Deleting content words, those words which have meaning (nouns, verbs, adjectives, or adverbs) produces tests which test a learner's understanding. Deleting function words, the words without any meaning but which are necessary to express grammatical relations (prepositions, pronouns, articles, auxiliaries) can be used to test grammar skills of students.
In the above example, I deleted content words to test the learner's understanding of the exercise.
However, it is also important for tutors to remember that while they are counting student's answers, they should not only accept "exact" words as the right answer. Exact words are the same words which were in the original text. The tutor should count acceptable, appropriate words too, as they have the same meaning as the exact word.
For example, if the learner has filled "events" instead of "occasions" in the first blank of the "Casual and Formal Clothes" test, the tutor should count the word "event" a right word, as it does not prevent us from understanding the text.
Thus, by providing a cloze test to learners, the tutors can see at which level of comprehension their learners are : Independent, Instructional, or Frustrational Level.
Finding out about your learner's level, you will discover valuable information about whether your learner will need assistance when reading a new text, whether they need an easier text, or whether they need more basic fundamental help.
Here is a link to a website which can help you create cloze tests.
Happy tutoring!
Tatyana Pavlova
Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics/ Bashkir State University
MA Education/ESL 2014, Cambridge College
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