A Look at Cloze Testing Across Languages and Levels*

Brière, Eugène J.; Clausing, Gerhard; Senko, Donna; Purcell, Edward T.

doi:10.1111/j.1540-4781.1978.tb02368.x

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Their conclusion was that although the cloze tests were capable of discriminating bilinguals and learners, this distinction is too crude for practical use, since a good measure of foreign language proficiency, in their opinion, should have native speakers performing in a relatively uniform manner, while learners progressively improve. Briere et al (1978), on the other hand, found that cloze tests in German, Japanese, French, Russian could separate first, second, and third semester students of these languages.…”

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confidence: 98%

NATIVE AND NONNATIVE SPEAKER PERFORMANCE ON CLOZE TESTS¹

Alderson

1980

Language Learning

100

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A frequent assumption of proficiency tests for nonnative speakers of a language is that they measure something that native speakers are able to do uniformly well. The cloze procedure is increasingly used to construct proficiency tests for administration to nonnative speakers of English. However, little evidence is available on the question of whether cloze tests are capable of making fine distinctions between native and nonnative speakers. The paper reports on a study comparing the performances of native speakers of English with those of nonnative speakers, on a number of cloze tests constructed by manipulating variables in cloze test design. It is shown that native and nonnative speakers perform similarly on cloze tests with respect to these variables. The results are related to the claim that cloze tests (as distinct from cloze items) measure essentially lower‐order language skills, and it is suggested that the notion of language proficiency needs to be revised. This has major implications for the construction and validation of language tests.

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confidence: 98%

NATIVE AND NONNATIVE SPEAKER PERFORMANCE ON CLOZE TESTS¹

Alderson

1980

Language Learning

100

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“…Stubbs and Tucker (1974) reported that the cloze test, as used at the American University in Beirut over several years, correlated with other measures and was powerful and economical. Brière, Clausing, Senko, and Purcell (1978) reported on the use of cloze tests with students of German, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, and French at the end of each of the first three semesters of study. The average scores were higher each semester for all languages other than German.…”

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confidence: 99%

Language Testing in The Modern Language Journal

Spolsky

2000

The Modern Language Journal

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The Modern Language Journal published on average two articles a year dealing with language tests in its first 80 years. This probably reflects the actual (if not the desirable) level of interest in language testing of the language teaching profession. For the early years, before more specialized journals appeared, it gives an excellent picture of the history of the field in the United States. Later, the coverage became spottier, but there continued to appear a number of important articles especially on topics like prognosis and aptitude tests, the cloze test, oral testing, and the controversy over the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines. As a whole, the articles show a valuable concern with the use rather than the form of language tests.

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