A Study Of Method Effect Of Cloze Tests

Test method and its effect on test takers'performance (known as method effect) have attracted the attention of many scholars since the late1960s. However, no consensus has been identified by scholars about the existence of test method effect, and not much research has been conducted on method effect of cloze tests on students'performance. Since its invention in 1953, cloze test has been widely used in language testing. MC cloze, open cloze, and banked cloze are the three different test methods of cloze. Although most researchers agreed that cloze tests of different ways of deletions assessed different language abilities, there is no consensus that what specific language abilities they measure. All these facts make the present study quite necessary and significant.The main purpose of this study is to investigate method effect of three types of cloze tests on students'performance and then different language abilities reflected by these cloze tests. The research questions to be addressed are: 1) Does method effect exist in different cloze tests 2) Is there any difference in method effect of cloze tests on different proficiency groups 3) What language abilities do these three test methods test respectively 4) What are students'perceptions of method effect of different cloze testsThe present study is an experiment study involving 102 first-year English major college students, who had taken a prior proficiency test. They were invited to take one of the cloze tests, each consisting of the same 3 passages in different cloze types and respond to a questionnaire after the test. Data analysis shows that test method does affect test takers'performance in cloze test, and students'proficiency level regulates test method effect. Test method effect influences the scores of students of high proficiency group most severely. While MC cloze mainly measures students' knowledge of vocabulary and grammar, open cloze assesses students'writing ability, and banked cloze shows highest correlation with reading ability. The overwhelming majority of students admit the existence of test method effect in cloze, and they take open cloze as the most difficult test method of the three.