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The present study investigated the effect of using scrambled cloze procedure on reading and writing among intermediate EFL learners. To fulfill the purpose of the study, 60 participants were tested on a PET test, from whom 48 homogeneous participants were selected and assigned randomly to two groups of 25 and 23, as experimental and control group. Then, both groups were given a pre-test of writing and reading comprehension. During 14 sessions, the experimental group were provided with scrambled cloze samples and tasks while practicing paragraph writing and reading, whereas the control group did not, while they were practicing paragraph writing and reading. At the end, the two groups were tested in reading comprehension and writing, based on a posttest. Two raters scored the writing samples collected from two groups in the pre and posttest. Pearson correlation was used to compute the inter-rater reliability. The results showed the experimental group outperformed the control group in paragraph writing and reading comprehension. However, it was found that gender did not make a significant difference in reading comprehension and writing performance.

Several studies on heritage language (HL) acquisition investigate a single linguistic structure, showing how language exposure or cross-linguistic effects affect its acquisition. Here, we consider HL speaking children's mastery of several linguistic structures using a cloze-test. We examine how their language competence is affected by language exposure variables and age. We tested 180 children between the ages of 8 and 16, living in Switzerland and speaking European Portuguese as HL and French, German or Italian as their societal language. The items of the cloze-test cluster around two levels of difficulty, with the items at the second level corresponding to structures that are acquired late in Portuguese monolingual acquisition. Older age and a greater amount of formal instruction in the HL lead to better performance. The role of the amount of formal instruction varies based on the level of difficulty of the target structures. Cross-linguistic influence does not affect the results.

The deep cloze test was developed by Jensen and Elbro (Read Writ Interdiscip J 35(5):1221–1237, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-021-10230-w ) to assess reading comprehension at the level of global situational understanding. In two independent studies, we examined potential contributors to students’ scores on the deep cloze reading comprehension test, as well as the predictability of students’ scores on this measure for their course achievement and integrated text understanding measured with an open-ended written comprehension assessment. Results showed that students’ language background, word recognition skills, and working memory resources explained unique portions of the variance in students’ scores on the deep cloze reading comprehension test. Further, scores on this test were positively correlated with students’ course achievement and uniquely predicted their integrated text understanding when language background, working memory, and prior topic knowledge were controlled for. Taken together, our findings support an interpretation of the deep cloze reading comprehension test as an effective and efficient measure of situation level understanding that draws on language skills, word level processes, and working memory resources and also can be used to predict students’ performance on important criterial tasks requiring deeper level understanding.

Traditional cloze tests (such as the CBM-maze) may be poor measures of comprehension processes beyond the single sentence level. This paper presents an alternative, a deep cloze test with gaps that are strategically chosen to assess comprehension beyond the sentence level. To fill each gap, the reader has to draw global cohesion inferences during reading. A study with 83 adult students found support for the validity of the deep cloze test. It contributed unique variance to global reading comprehension as measured with a conventional test even after controlling for sentence-level cloze, word decoding, and vocabulary knowledge. The deep cloze also explained all of the shared variance between reading comprehension and a topic identification task designed to require global comprehension. Future studies may explore how the deep cloze format can be used to tap other component processes of reading comprehension.

Elicited imitation tasks (EITs) have been proposed and examined as a practical measure of second language (L2) proficiency. This study aimed to provide an updated and comprehensive view of the relationship between EITs and other proficiency measures. Toward that end, 46 reports were retrieved contributing 60 independent effect sizes (Pearson’s r ) that were weighted and averaged. Several EIT features were also examined as potential moderators. The results portray EIT as a generally consistent measure of L2 proficiency ( r = .66). Among other moderators, EIT stimuli length was positively associated with stronger correlations. Overall, the findings provide support for the use of EITs as a means to greater consistency and practicality in measuring L2 proficiency. In our Discussion section, we highlight the need for more transparent reporting and provide empirically grounded recommendations for EIT design and for further research into EIT development.

The Hybrid Text Comprehension cloze (HyTeC-cloze) (Kleijn et al. Lang Test 36:553–572, 2019) is a procedure developed for the Dutch language that has been proved to be a valid and reliable measure of text comprehension beyond the sentence level. Given its advantages, including its relatively rapid construction and scoring and performance compared to standardized tests, we adapted the HyTeC-cloze procedure to create a version for the Spanish language. Therefore, this study aims at validating our adaptation. We extracted 18 texts from different school textbooks (Science, Language and History) and grades (6th, 7th, and 8th) and turned them into cloze tests, which were administered to 316 sixth to eighth graders from Chilean primary schools through an online platform. We also used a Chilean standardized reading comprehension test to evaluate the validity of our test. The correlations ranged from a low of 0.20 (for 7th grade) to a high of 0.58 (for 8th grade). Taken collectively, our data show a moderate positive correlation between both tests, which provide further evidence of cloze tests as a valid measure of reading comprehension beyond the sentence level.

Sentence-final completion norms are a useful way to select materials in the study of psycholinguistics, neurosciences, and language processing. In recent decades, the literature has focused on measuring cloze probability and sentence constraint indexes to account for various contextual expectation effects. However, the emotional content of target words is another factor that may affect word prediction and has not yet been examined. The purpose of the present study was to design a French corpus of sentence completion norms for final words varying in both valence and arousal. A total of 1322 young adults participated in an online written cloze procedure, in which they were asked to guess the final missing word in given sentences. At least 275 individuals evaluated each sentence. Cloze probability index was estimated for each sentence ending with a negative, neutral or positive word, as well as the level of sentence uncertainty through the calculation of sentence entropy. We also estimated the emotionality of the beginning of each sentence as complementary information with valence and arousal values of sentence-ending words. The final corpus of 403 French sentences offers a wide range of cloze predictability contexts for all emotional categories of final words. We hope that these norms may help to implement new research investigating the interplay between language and emotional processing. The collected data and norms are accessible through the Open Science Framework at the following depository link: https://osf.io/7pc46/?view_only=a1ec1c23e28a45b9951c7cecc073e1ac

This study, conducted as correlational research, aims to objectively examine the validity of cloze tests in Turkish, which are commonly used to assess reading comprehension levels, general language proficiency, and the readability of written materials, and to evaluate the procedures for using these tests to measure reading comprehension. The study investigates the consistency between multiple-choice reading comprehension tests, frequently used in national exams for their functionality and objectivity, and cloze tests designed and scored using various methods. During the study, a total of eight measurement tools were administered to a sample group of 90 seventh-grade students. These tools consisted of four multiple-choice reading comprehension tests based on four distinct texts and four cloze tests, each systematically deleting a word at a different position within the text. Two scoring methods were applied to the cloze tests, one considering only the exact words as correct and the other accepting alternative words that preserved the meaning of the sentence. Within this scope, approximately 23,000 test items were presented to the students in the study group, and around 43,000 evaluations were conducted on these items. Data collected during the 2023-2024 academic year were analyzed using Pearson correlation analysis, revealing a significant positive relationship between cloze tests and multiple-choice tests. Tests scored by considering only the exact words demonstrated greater consistency, while the correlation decreased when context-preserving alternatives were accepted as correct. The highest correlation occurred when every sixth word was systematically deleted. Based on the findings, it is recommended that in cloze tests, exact words should be accepted as correct instead of context-preserving words, every 6th word should be systematically deleted, and the tests should be systematically integrated into measurement and evaluation practices. Bireylerin okuduğunu anlama düzeyini, genel anlamda dil becerisini ve yazılı materyallerin okunabilirliğini ölçmek gibi birçok amaç için kullanılan boşluk tamamlama testlerinin Türkçe için geçerli sonuçlar verip vermediğini nesnel bir düzlemde sorgulamak ve testlerin okuduğunu anlama düzeyinin ölçümünde kullanımına yönelik işe koşulan prosedürleri test etmek amacıyla yürütülen bu çalışma, korelasyonel bir araştırmadır. Bu kapsamda işlevselliği ve nesnelliği dolayısıyla okuduğunu anlama düzeyinin ölçümünde oldukça sık kullanılan ve ulusal sınavlarda başat ölçme aracı konumundaki çoktan seçmeli testler ile farklı prosedürler izlenerek oluşturulmuş ve puanlanmış boşluk tamamlama testleri arasındaki tutarlılık incelenmiştir. İnceleme sürecinde 4 farklı metne yönelik 4 çoktan seçmeli okuduğunu anlama testi ve her birinde farklı sıradaki bir sözcüğün düzenli şekilde silindiği 4 boşluk tamamlama testi olmak üzere 8 farklı ölçme aracı, 7. sınıf düzeyindeki öğrencilerden oluşan 90 kişilik çalışma grubuna uygulanmıştır. Boşluk tamamlama testlerinin puanlanmasında, birincisi orijinal sözcüklerin doğru kabul edildiği, ikincisi bağlamı yani cümlenin anlamını koruyan sözcüklerin doğru kabul edildiği iki farklı puanlama yöntemi kullanılmıştır. Bu kapsamda çalışma grubunda yer alan öğrencilere yaklaşık 23.000 soru maddesi sunulmuş, bu maddeler üzerinde yaklaşık 43.000 değerlendirme yapılmıştır. 2023-2024 eğitim öğretim döneminde yüz yüze elde edilen veriler üzerinde Pearson korelasyon analizi gerçekleştirilmiştir. Yapılan analizlere göre; genel olarak boşluk tamamlama testleri ile çoktan seçmeli okuduğunu anlama testleri arasında anlamlı ve pozitif bir ilişki olduğu, orijinal kelimelerin doğru kabul edildiği boşluk tamamlama testlerinin çoktan seçmeli okuduğunu anlama testleri ile daha tutarlı sonuçlar verdiği, bağlamı koruyan sözcüklerin doğru kabul edildiği durumlarda bu korelasyonun genellikle azaldığı ve çoktan seçmeli okuduğunu anlama testleri ile boşluk tamamlama testleri arasında en yüksek düzeyde korelasyonun düzenli olarak 6. sıradaki sözcüğün silindiği durumlarda elde edildiği sonuçlarına ulaşılmıştır. Ulaşılan sonuçlardan hareketle boşluk tamamlama testlerinde bağlamı koruyan sözcüklerden ziyade orijinal sözcüklerin doğru kabul edilmesi, düzenli olarak 6. sözcüğün silinmesi ve testlerin sistematik bir şekilde ölçme değerlendirme faaliyetlerine dâhil edilmesi şeklinde önerilerde bulunulmuştur.

This study explores the effectiveness of machine learning and eye movement features in predicting Chinese reading proficiency. Unlike previous research, which focused on one or two specific levels of eye movement features, this study integrates passage-, sentence- and word-level eye movement features to predict reading proficiency. By analyzing the eye movements of 71 native Chinese-speaking undergraduate students as they read nine short passages, a support vector machine was constructed to predict Chinese reading proficiency. Proficiency was determined based on performance on the Chinese achievement test in the National College Entrance Examination and scores from the cloze test. The results indicate that the model, which utilizes passage-, sentence- and word-level eye movement features comprehensively, achieves the highest prediction accuracy (81.69%, 84.71%). Nevertheless, eye movement features at the word, sentence, and passage levels each play a unique role in predicting Chinese reading proficiency. The results provide empirical support for the relationship between eye movement features at different levels and the reading proficiency of Chinese readers. The outcomes highlight the feasibility of integrating eye movement features at the passage, sentence, and word levels, and of employing support vector machine to construct a predictive model for the reading proficiency of Chinese readers.

How do violations of predictability and plausibility affect online language processing? How does it affect longer-term memory and learning when predictions are disconfirmed by plausible or implausible words? We investigated these questions using a self-paced sentence reading and noun recognition task. Critical sentences violated predictability or plausibility or both, for example, “Since Anne is afraid of spiders, she doesn’t like going down into the … basement (predictable, plausible), garden (unpredictable, somewhat plausible), moon (unpredictable, deeply implausible).” Results from sentence reading showed earlier-emerging effects of predictability violations on the critical noun, but later-emerging effects of plausibility violations after the noun. Recognition memory was exclusively enhanced for deeply implausible nouns. The earlier-emerging predictability effect indicates that having word form predictions disconfirmed is registered very early in the processing stream, irrespective of semantics. The later-emerging plausibility effect supports models that argue for a staged architecture of reading comprehension, where plausibility only affects a post-lexical integration stage. Our memory results suggest that, in order to facilitate memory and learning, a certain magnitude of prediction error is required.