Validity Study On Cloze Test

The thesis is intended to prove that cloze test is a highly valid and economical way to test integrative ability by making a validity research on cloze test.In language testing history, there always believed to be three periods: pre-scientific, psychometric-structuralist, integrative-sociolinguistics periods. In pre-scientific period, the main characteristic is that the testing method is translation. It's easy to design and the scoring of the test is subjective. The disadvantages are that the results cannot scientifically reflect the students' language level and other abilities, such as listening and speaking skills cannot be tested. The main characteristics in psychometric-structuralist period are that multiple-choice items are used and scoring is objective. The results are said to reflect the students' level and the scoring of the paper is fairly easy. In integrative-sociolinguistics period, the characteristics are that holistic tests are favored. The emphasis of testing is shifted to communication and task-based tests are favored. Cloze test, oral interview and dictation are used widely.We have known that the cloze test develops with the integrative-sociolinguistics period in the language testing history. The theoretical basis of cloze test is believed to link with: l.The sociolinguistics, which developed the idea of context, influenced cloze test much. 2. Gestalt Psychology. The notion is that people have the ability of closure, i.e. the ability to complete an incomplete pattern. The nature is the same as the process of reconstructing the passage that misses some words. 3. Redundancy Information. The redundancy information provided by natural language makes it possible to restore the missing words hi order to reconstruct textual coherence. 4. Pragmatic Expectancy Grammar. Oiler (1979) believed that it's the base of people's language ability that is internalized in people's mind. It can help people express and communicate with each other. The trait is independent of any particular test, and therefore any classical cloze test is expected to set the mental process enabling closure to take place into action. The behavior exhibited by examinees, their ability to replace the missing elements as expressed by then- scores on the test, permits conclusions to be drawn about the quality or efficiency of this internalized grammar.The cloze test originated in the 1950s as a means of assessing the difficulty of a reading test for native speakers. Other studies soon indicated that cloze might also be a valid way of measuring native-speaker reading ability. The validity coefficient in these studies ranged from .61 to .95 between cloze tests and standardized reading examinations (Brown, J.D. 1983:238). It then was suggested that it could be usedfor assessing learners' progress of second and foreign language. Many researchers believe that cloze test is a valid and economical way to test foreign language ability.Although cloze test is believed to be an integrative test, the following questions should be understood clearly. For instance, what abilities on earth can be measured by cloze test? Is cloze test valid? How can we design a valid cloze test? What implications can we discover for our foreign language teaching?If the test is not valid for it wants to test, then the scores of the test will mean nothing for what its original purpose. Validity includes internal and external types. Internal validity includes face, content and response validity. External validity includes concurrent, predictive and construct validity. Validity research on test items will prove whether a test is valid or not. Therefore, the thesis aims to prove cloze test is a valid and economical way for testing global ability by making the validity research on cloze test. The content of doing the research is: 1. To see face, content validity of the self-designed cloze test. 2. Check the concurrent validity by comparing the con-elation coefficient of self-designed cloze test and TOEFL and composition. 3.Quoting the other validity research...