Cloze procedure, introduced by Taylor (1953), is a technique by means of which words in the text are deleted, usually at every fifth, seventh or tenth word and the reader is required to
provide a word for the space. It can be used diagnostically to examine oral miscues in reading. Moyle (1972) indicated the basis for cloze, "It is a technique based on the human tendency to complete any incomplete pattern or sequence." It is there fore necessary to search the surrounding context for clues. The skills necessary for success in cloze procedure stem from the same "psycholinguistic theory of reading" that is used in miscue analysis. The reader needs to be able to predict what is to come next, to be able to use prior knowledge to confirm decisions and to be able to read on and then judge which word is missing. For similar reasons, Jongsma (1971) claimed that it might be a valid test of reading comprehension for "non-native speakers". As early as 1959, Carroll had suggested the possibility of using cloze as a reading comprehension measure for foreign language learners.
Hunter-Grundin (1979) indicated "that it is a practical proposi tion in terms of teacher involvement and time consumption." Neville and Pugh (1982), in research with the GAP test, suggested that "the cloze technique, when the children discuss and argue about their errors, is useful" because "when an error is obviously meaningless in terms of following text, this can be pointed out and discussed." Moyle (1972) also felt that by such discussions, a teacher can observe the language and grammatical facility of his pupils, and can study the strategies they employ for attacking new words. Southgate et al (1981) examined the strategies used by seven to nine year olds to find out the missing words in a cloze passage. As with other authorities, emphasis was placed on the need for prediction skills and also the use of "all available cues linked with analogies made
through knowledge of language patterns." The cloze experiment was used "to find out how far the children were successful when forced into using syntactical and semantic cues." In the findings, the second years performed better than the first years, mature readers used both syntactic and semantic cueing, whereas less mature readers used syntactic cues. In addition, "looking ahead for cues was less in evidence than using only the preceding text", and it was suggested that the reader was more likely to respond automatically to phrases that had been assimilated through "frequent encounters". They distinguished between function words that link the text together and content words that convey most of the meaning. Most function words appear in the first 100 words of Keywords to Literacy (1962) and they found that high scores were more likely in the functionally correct category because "if the reader is aware of the correct syntactical patterns, choice will be more limited." Obviously, there are fewer viable alternatives with function words. It would seem, therefore, that for the less able reader, there might be "a lack of relevant experience rather than a deficiency in reading skill or cognitive reasoning."
It may be possible, therefore, for teachers to build up profiles of their pupils from analysing responses pupils give in a cloze test. Raban (1983) indicates that cloze tests "do appear to reflect more of the reading behaviour teachers may wish to assess" and agrees with Southgate that they do reflect the use the reader is beginning to make of syntactical and semantic cues. The GAP Test also has the advantage of being easy to administer as it can be given to a group of pupils at the same time. Raban also suggests that other responses might be
accepted, apart from the ones listed in the.test, in order to find out if the child is reading for meaning.
Some doubt was thrown on the use of cloze tests for ESL students by Propst and Baldauf (1979). Working with American Samoan students, they used three modified cloze tests with grades 3, 4 and 5 ESL students and found that "there is little evidence to support the use of the conventional cloze procedure for reading achievement tests for ESL students in lower and middle elemen tary grades." In Britain, Robinson (1980) used the GAP Test with ESL students. However, Robinson was concerned with the test as a measurement of reading performance rather than as a means of analysing the reader's linguistic use of the text. The research was concerned with analysing the social background data of the children in relation to their reading performance.
The GAP Test (Appendix D) is a comprehension test that leaves a blank for the children to construct their own response. In the test, words have been deleted at random from given passages and these words have to be replaced. The GAP Test was administered on later visits to the schools. It was administered to small groups of 4-6 children, and was followed by the children completing the Attitudes to Reading Measurement.