C-Test

Reading comprehension ability consists of multiple cognitive processes, and cloze tests have long been claimed to measure this ability as a whole. However, since the introduction of cloze test, different varieties of it have been proposed by the testers. Thus, the present study was an attempt to examine the relatedness of Cloze-Elide test, Multiple-choice (MC) cloze test, and C-test as three different types of cloze procedure used for measuring reading comprehension. To this end, one C-test consisting of four short texts, one fixed ratio (n=7) multiple-choice cloze test, and one cloze-elide test were prepared from reading passages with similar readability levels. The participants of the study were 30 (male &female) freshman university students majoring in English literature. The results of ANOVA test showed that there were not any statistically significant differences at the 0.05 level of significance among the performance of the students on the three tests measuring their reading comprehension. Therefore, it was concluded that against the advocates of each test who claim superiority of it over the other types, these three types of cloze tests in this study assessed the reading comprehension in a similar way. So, the testers can be confident to make use of these tests as reading comprehension tests interchangeably.

Abstract Addressing the limitations and criticisms of cloze tests, Klein-Braley and Raatz suggested a modified version of the cloze test called the C-test where the ‘C’ stands for cloze. They introduced the C-test as a better representation of the reduced-redundancy principle. In C-tests, several shorter texts involving a larger number of items completed within a shorter amount of time while cloze tests usually consist of one or two longer texts with less items. This study reports on the results of a research program carried out to validate the C-test amongst Afghan EFL learners. One hundred advanced English majors were administered two different language tests namely a language proficiency test (composed of listening, reading, and writing) and a C-test composed of four different texts to measure the overall language ability of the participants. Various analyses were to measure the validity and reliability of the C-test. The results of the study confirmed that the C-test is a reliable and valid test which can be used as a general English language proficiency test among Afghan students of English as a foreign language.

A C-Test is a gap-filling test for measuring language competence in the first and second language. C-Tests are usually analyzed with polytomous Rasch models by considering each passage as a super-item or testlet. This strategy helps overcome the local dependence inherent in C-Test gaps. However, there is little research on the best polytomous Rasch model for C-Tests. In this study, the Rating Scale Model (RSM) and the Partial Credit Model (PCM) for analyzing C-Tests were compared. To this end, a C-Test composed of six passages with both RSM and PCM was analyzed. The models were compared in terms of overall fit, individual item fit, dimensionality, test targeting, and reliability. Findings showed that, although the PCM has a better overall fit compared to the RSM, both models produce similar test statistics. In light of the findings of the study, the choice of the best Rasch model for C-Tests will be discussed.

How easily people are able to initially learn foreign language vocabulary depends on a number of different factors including effective variables such as motivation, anxiety, the cognitive processes involved in utilizing different strategies, and most relevant to the present study, linguistic features of the words themselves which is also known as mental lexicon. Thus, one of the major problems learners face in language learning either in EFL or ESL settings is the issue of vocabulary or the mental lexicon that has been changing constantly over time. Therefore, the current study aimed to find out if EFL learners’ crystallized intelligence can significantly correlate with their mental lexicon. To this aim, 80 EFL learners were asked to fill out a C-test which is a reliable instrument to measure crystallized intelligence, and the Lex30 word association test to measure their mental lexicon. Moreover, the study aimed at finding any significant differences between male and female EFL learners concerning their mental lexicon and crystallized intelligence. To analyze the data, Pearson Correlation and Independent sample T-Test were run. The results showed that there is a significant positive relationship between crystallized intelligence and mental lexicon with no significant differences between males and females. This research has some implications for teachers, supervisors, as well as syllabus designers in a way to achieve better language acquisition.