The Validity Study Of Cloze Tests In Chinese Context

The cloze tests originated in the 1950s as a means of assessing the difficulty of a reading test for native speakers. Some studies have indicated that the cloze tests might also be valid ways of measuring native-speaker reading ability. The validity coefficient between cloze tests and standardized reading examinations in these studies range from 0.61 to 0.95 (Brown, J. D. 1983: 238). It is also suggested that the cloze tests could be used for assessing learners' progress of second or foreign languages. Many researchers believe that the cloze test is a valid and economical way to test reading comprehension ability.The validity of the cloze procedure as measurement of reading skills has long been argued in the field of pragmatics. Much empirical work on the cloze tests has been focused on determining whether or not cloze tests can measure subjects' reading skills and whether or not the use of cloze tests can improve subjects' reading ability. Heaton (1986) claims that the most common purpose of a cloze test is to measure reading comprehension. Henning (1987) holds that the test of reading comprehension by using cloze tests may turn out to be a test of grammar or vocabulary. Researches regarding strategies for taking cloze tests are interested in determining whether cloze tests actually measure global reading skills as they are commonly purported to. One of the studies most worth mentioning is carried out by Homburg and Spaan (1981). They have administered a rational-deletion cloze with 23 blanks to 39 EFL subjects. In verbal report studies, they have found that nearly 20% of the subjects do not use the co-text for clues to fill the blanks. Cohen (1984) has studied the strategies for taking the cloze tests and found that perhaps only a quarter of non-native respondents read the entire cloze passage before responding. In China, Yang Huizhong (1998) and Zou Shen (1998) also show that the cloze test can test the abilities which are tested by other examination types.This paper is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is an introduction to the cloze test and a survey of the cloze literature. The second chapter is a study of the face validity of rational-deletion cloze test and the multiple-choice cloze test inChinese context. The third chapter is devoted to the discussion of the content validity of the cloze procedure as measurement of reading skills in Chinese context. The fourth chapter focuses on the response validity of cloze procedure as measurement of reading skills in Chinese context. Then comes the conclusion of the paper.Through questionnaires and interviews, the paper aims to prove whether the cloze test is a valid and economical way for testing reading comprehension ability and which type of cloze test is more reliable in the testees' eyes by making the validity research on the cloze tests in Chinese context. The originalities of this research lie in the discoveries that firstly, the face validity of multiple-choice cloze test is more reliable than rational-deletion cloze test, secondly, the content validity of the cloze procedure as measurement of reading ability is insufficient and finally the Subjects' responses can not support the idea that cloze procedure measures global reading ability.