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Mohammad Salehi, Hemaseh Bagheri Sanjareh. On the comparability of C-test and Cloze: A verbal protocol approach

Abstract

         Research on C-test and cloze test has given us few accounts of the real mental processes testtakers are involved in (Rahimi & Saadat, 2005). This will in fact reveal the true nature of what these two tests measure since “in validating (language) tests we also have to analyze the mental processes in the test-taking subject” (Grotjahn, 1986, p. 162). The purpose of this study, therefore, was to explore and compare the extent to which the C-test and cloze test, as measures of the reduced redundancy principle, tap macro-level and micro-level strategies. In doing so, a Ctest and a cloze test developed by Jafarpour (1999) and (1995) respectively were used with 9 engineering-major BS students. They all participated in introspective methods of think-aloud and retrospective interviews during and after the test administration phase. The analyses revealed that C-test and cloze test trigger both types of strategies although macro-level strategies were less elicited compared to their micro-level in the former and the other way round in the latter.

Key words: The C-test; The cloze test; The reduced redundancy principle; Verbal protocol analysis; Micro/Macro-level processing, Think-aloud.

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