The effects of different methods of cloze test construction and their relationship with a standardised reading comprehension test

The purpose of this study is to provide guidelines to classroom teachers for the construction of valid and reliable cloze comprehension tests. Review of the related literature suggested there are many diverse and contradictary opinions as to the most appropriate method of constructing cloze tests. The subjects were 49 Year 5 primary school children from two metropolitan schools. Three different comprehension tests were administered. The Gap Reading Comprehension Test and two Cloze Comprehension Tests consisting of 50 and 100 word deletions, in which the deletions began at either the fifth or sixth word of the second sentence. The Cloze Tests were graded with both the exact word and synonymic word scoring methods and then correlated with the Gap Reading Comprehension Test Reliability was established by the split-half method. Concurrent validity and reliablity were found to be greater in the 100 word deletion versions of the Cloze Tests, with increased reliability achieved when the tests were graded with the synonymic word scoring method. The results provide useful guidelines for classroom teachers in the construction of valid and reliable measures of reading comprehension