Cloze Procedure and Equivalence

Two cloze tests were constructed which were identical except that in one test each deletion occurred one word earlier than in the other. Each test consisted of one literary and one non‐literary passage, each with 50 blanks. The tests were administered to 39 Polish students, three weeks elapsing between the first and second tests. Tests were scored by exact‐word and acceptable‐word methods. Significantly superior differentiation of ESL speakers has been claimed for acceptable‐word scoring (e.g. Oller 1972). No strong correlation was found between performance on the first and second tests or on literary and non‐literary passages, indicating that it can not be assumed that any two cloze tests will yield equivalent results: blank‐position and possibly style may be important variables. Acceptable‐word scoring differentiated among individual students somewhat, but both scoring methods differentiated equally well between year‐groups.