An ELT Glossary : Cloze test
- Definition : A test created by deleting words at regular intervals from a text (eg every 7th or 9th word) and asking learners to infer and replace them.
- Example : This is an example of a ......... test where every seventh word has ............. deleted.
- Not to be confused with a gap-fill activity, where the items deleted are chosen by the test writer and usually focus on a specific language point.
- There are two ways of scoring cloze tests : a) only the word which was originally present in the text is accepted as the right answer; b) any semantically and grammatically acceptable alternative word is accepted as correct.
- Advocates of cloze tests claimed they gave an accurate picture of the learner's overall proficiency in English.
- A variation on the cloze test is the C-test, where the second half of every second word in the text is deleted.
