Abstract:
Abundant researches have been conducted on various aspects and
characteristics of cloze test. Genre; on the other hand, is one of the most
recent issues in the field of language teaching and applied linguistics. The
present article aims at providing a link between the two, i.e., a genre-based
cloze test. After sclecting the subjects and determining their proficiency
levels, two tests were developed each containing three cloze passages each
from a different genre (short story, biography, magazine article) taking inte
accounts factors such as readability and deletion rate. The first test included
three cloze passages in open-ended form and the second test consisted of the
same passages in their multiple-choice form. These tests were administered
to a group of EFL seniors. The results revealed that the choice of genre has a
significant effect on the performance of the subjects on open-ended cloze test
and multiple-choice cloze test. Furthermore, the form of cloze test (open-
ended Vs. multiple-choice) and the interaction of the two variables (genre
and form) has also an impact upon the test takers’ performance.
Key words:
Machine summary:
The Relationship between Genre and Iranian EFL Learners' Performance on Open-Ended and Multiple-Choice Cloze Tests Akbar Mirhassani & Zahra Reshadi Tarbiat Modarres University Abstract Abundant researches have been conducted on various aspects and characteristics of doze test.
After selecting the subjects and determining their proficiency levels, two tests were developed each containing three doze passages each from a different genre (short story, biography, magazine article) taking into accounts factors such as readability and deletion rate.
Furthermore, the form of doze test (open-ended Vs. multiple-choice) and the interaction of the two variables (genre and form) has also an impact upon the test takers' performance .
Taking all of the above mentioned points into consideration, this article addresses the relationship between genre and Iranian EFL learners' performance on open-ended doze tests and multiple-choice doze tests.
In another study conducted by Farhady and Keramati (1996), it appeared that selecting deletion rate based on the number of linguistic and discourse structures of a passage influences the testees' performance on doze tests.
The variation in the subjects' performance has been due to three factors: The genre of passages (short story, biography, magazine article), the form of doze test (open-ended and multiple-choice), and the interaction of genre and form.
In other words, when the same passage (of the same genre) is utilized for developing both open-ended and multiple-choice doze tests, the testees will a have different performance on the two tests.