Cloze Tests
A cloze test (or gap fill exercise) is a simple exercise where a text has certain words removed and students must suggest suitable alternatives to go in the gap.
Cloze tests are a common activity teachers use to get students to focus on a particular language item. They can be used to check new vocabulary or to test verb tenses.
They can also be used to test listening comprehension or reading comprehension.
They are in fact often found in examination papers.
Contents |
Construction
First an original text is chosen. This can be almost any kind of text from a song to prose to poetry. Anything, in fact, which will be of interest to the students. Here is an example.
| Sophocles wrote more than 120 plays in his career and won 18 first prizes. He was also an actor (performing many of his own plays) for a while and served as a priest, as a civil administrator of Athens and a director of the treasury. |
The next step is to remove certain words from the text. At this stage you need to decide what level the text is for. By removing different sets of words you can make the same text suitable for different levels.
| Sophocles _____ more than 120 plays in his _____ and won 18 first _____. He was also an actor (_____ many of his own plays) for a while and _____ as a priest, as a civil _____ of Athens and a _____ of the treasury. |
The doctored text is given to the students who need to fill in the gaps. Students will use the context of the gaps to work out a suitable word to complete the text. For example, the very first gap is:
Sophocles _____ more than 120 plays
Knowing the structure of English, this is likely to be a verb. Students must then decide which verb collocates with play. Alternatives might include: performed, wrote, directed and so on.
Assessment
How a cloze test is assessed will depend on the reason for the test. Sometimes you will give students a list of possible alternatives for each gap in which case the assessment is objective (i.e. only one answer is possible). Sometimes you may want to allow more creativity and let the students come up with alternative words for each gap in which case assessment is subjective (i.e. as a class you might decide which word is most suitable for the gap).
Gap = Panic
Often students confronted with the GAP - and unable to think up a suitable word to fill it with, will panic.
A simple sentence like this one:
Becomes in their eyes:
In this state of panic no wonder many will fail their test.
To help them overcome this gap anxiety you can train your students to:
- look at the words before and the words after the gap and asses their grammatical connotation.
If you can get them to identify a few key language items like verbs, subjects, pronouns etc. you can then encourage them to guess what may follow or precede them. For example before an article you will probably have a noun. After a verb you could well have an adverb, and so on.
- try and guess the meaning from the context, that is, the sentence or paragraph the gap is in.
Going back to our example:
Get your students to focus on the key words like cat, predator, food, and get some brainstorming going. How does a stray cat get to eat every day? Ok it may scavenge the rubbish bins. It may rely on the kindness of animal lovers. Anything else? Yes, it may chase a mouse or a lizard or a bird. Can you think of any other verb related to chasing? Hunt! Yes, very good.
- guess the answers, particularly in cases where there is a list of possible answers.
Students, particularly those taking exam courses, should be encouraged to make guesses left, right and centre in order to avoid ever leaving a space on an exam paper. If nothing is written in the gap the student will receive no marks. If something is written in the space there is a fair chance that the answer will be right.
Songs in the Classroom
A good game for the classroom is using the lyrics of a song as a cloze test. This can be combined with a listening exercise and can often lead on to an interesting discussion of which version of the lyrics are best: the original ones or those discovered by the students.
See Also
Mind the Gap - a game where you have to add gaps to make sense
Hot Potatoes - freeware for creating cloze tests as web pages
