cloze

The cloze procedure, commonly called a cloze test, is a method used to assess reading comprehension and language processing. In a typical task, words are removed from a text at regular intervals and the reader is asked to supply the missing words. The disruption of the text prompts the reader to rely on linguistic context, vocabulary knowledge, and syntactic expectations to restore meaning.

Variations of the cloze test differ in how blanks are created and scored. In a classic cloze task, about one in five words may be removed, producing a fixed deletion rate. Closed cloze tasks require exact word substitutions, while open cloze tasks allow any acceptable word. Some versions add cues or multiple-choice options (cued cloze) to guide responses or to probe specific knowledge.

Procedures typically involve selecting a text appropriate to the target population, generating blanks, and presenting the text to participants. Scoring commonly uses the percentage of correctly filled blanks, though researchers may analyze error patterns to infer predictability of lexical items or syntactic structures.

Applications of the cloze procedure span education, where it informs reading proficiency and curriculum design, and research, where it serves in psycholinguistics to study real-time language processing and prediction. It is also used in second language assessment to gauge vocabulary access and inferencing abilities.

History and development: the cloze procedure emerged in the 1950s as a tool for measuring readability and comprehension, and it has since become a standard technique in both applied testing and linguistic research. Limitations include sensitivity to text choice, genre, and topic, as well as concerns that it primarily measures prediction rather than broader comprehension. Modern implementations increasingly employ computer-based and standardized formats.