A Study On The Impact Of Text Style On Cloze Difficulty

Based on Gestalt psychology, cloze test is considered as an efficient test method for the general language proficiency of the test-takers ever since it was firstly designed by W. Taylor. However, there is a very strange phenomenon about cloze test studies in China where cloze test is almost omnipresent in English tests of various kinds like TEM4, EEEP or CET4 but little attention has been spared on cloze test studies. Thus, in responses to the calls of experts stressing the significance of owning EFL theories characteristic of China, the study here concentrates on Chinese EFL learners for a deeper exploration on what features cloze test will show in terms of difficulty, with a hope to contribute some materials for the pyramid of scientific studies. This is very meaningful for the application of cloze test in English tests in China due to the complicated relationship between difficulty and reliability, validity and motivation of students There are several variables concerned in the study here, namely, text difficulty, text style, cloze developing method and response format. The report of the research here will be covered mainly by the depiction of their relationship and some explanation if necessary.The paper here consists of six parts. Part one is a general introduction of the choice of the issue here and a delicate introduction to the questions to be answered here.Part two is literature review. After combing and analyzing the relevant materials, the author will point out the backwardness in cloze test studies in china such as, lack of specific report of cloze test on Chinese EFL learners, the ignorance of text style.Part three is the research design where features of the subjects, instrumentations, and data analysis are presented in detail.Part four is the core part of the study because here an objective and serious analysis of the data would be conducted for the answers mentioned at the very...