A Study On The Correlation Between English Recitation And Cloze Test Score

Nowadays,English teaching attaches more importance to improving the students’integrating capability of language.Therefore,cloze which can test students’ integrating capability of language,has become an indispensable part in high school English test.In reality,cloze is always the most difficult part for English learners.The present thesis inferred that the absence of English language intuition could account for the poor score of cloze.Therefore,the study tried to compare two strategies:reading aloud and recitation which have a close relationship with English language intuition based on related theory and practice to find out the method that would improve English cloze test.Theoretically,some scholars define language intuition as a mental skill which is combined with nature and nurture.Language intuition is the unity of the perceptual and the rational,reflecting the naturalization of language skills.This mental skill can be strengthened by repeated rehearsals.Therefore,the present thesis took recitation as a factor to strengthen language intuition.According to Implicit Theory,psychologists usually consider language intuition as an outcome of implicit knowledge.Language learners who contact with language in abundance,and then show efficiency,automation and accuracy of language processing.In addition,some scholars think that the basic form of language intuition is verbal.Language intuition can also exist in written form only for it is the record of verbal language.The only communication media of language intuition is speech sounds.Language can be defined as the familiarity and fluency of speech sounds.Therefore,the present thesis took reading aloud as another experimental variable.The study was based on a four-month program conducted among 100 students in the first year of high school in two classes of Ximen No.1 Middle School.The experimental groups were manipulated with recitation factor while control groups with reading aloud.After study,a comparison of the cloze scores of the two groups collected from pretest and posttest were conducted.At the same time,a questionnaire was issued to the subjects of experimental group,so as to collect the data of their strategies for cloze.The results of the experiment and questionnaire indicated as follows:1.Both groups of subjects made progress in cloze tests.However,the experimental group achieved more positive and encouraging result than the control group(P=0.001<.05).The result showed that English language intuition prompted by recitation was more effective to improve the scores of cloze for senior high school students and the difference is of statistical significance.2.According to the questionnaire on experimental class,recitation strategy also benefited the elimination of psychological obstacle towards cloze and enhanced the confidence of English learners.