A Study On The Application Of Discourse Analysis To Cloze Test For Senior Students

As a type of test item to assess students’ comprehensive ability of using the English language, the cloze test has been widely used in various kinds of examinations. It is an important type of test item in National Matriculation English Test(NMET) in that it undertakes the role of testing several important language abilities, such as grammar, vocabulary and knowledge about discourse analysis and it accounts for a large portion of the final score. Unfortunately, a majority of students regard the cloze test as the most difficult item to deal with and tend to lose scores in this item most easily. By analyzing the cloze tests in NMET in recent years, the author had found that this type lays more and more stress on students’ ability in discourse comprehension. As a consequence, some of them suggest that discourse analysis should be applied to the problem---solving process of cloze. In light of the characteristics of the cloze test, students must have some knowledge about discourse analysis to do the cloze test well. So it is necessary for middle school teachers to explore a good teaching method to develop students’ ability in discourse analysis.This thesis first introduces the theoretical bases of the cloze test and major theories of discourse analysis. Then it analyzes the characteristics of the cloze test in NMET and Some problems senior middle school students are faced with in doing the cloze test, and describes the closer relationship between the cloze test and discourse analysis. Finally, it records the teaching experiment carried out to determine the positive influence of discourse analysis is teaching on students’ ability to work out problems in the cloze test.Based on analysis of the data from the experiment, a conclusion is reached: Incorporating discourse analysis in senior middle school English teaching and in the explanation of the cloze test items can help students improve their ability to deal with the cloze test.It is hoped that this study will call both teachers’ and students’ attention to the importance of discourse analysis in senior middle school English teaching. Teachers should transfer their attention from words and sentences teaching to discourse analysis so as to help students acquire some knowledge about discourse, which may improve their problem---solving abilities in the English language.