The proceedings of the thirteenth annual meeting of the College Reading Association consisted of the following papers: (1) "President's Address" (U. Price); (2) "Critical Reading-Critical Thinking and College Reading" (J. Follman); (3) "Cloze Procedure as a Predictor of Comprehension in Secondary Social Studies…

A study was conducted to determine if a teacher-constructed cloze procedure correlated significantly with two standardized tests of reading achievement, thereby testing G.D. Spache's claim that most teachers are unable to design valid and reliable assessment materials. Subjects were 60 fourth and sixth grade students who were administered the…

Parallel studies at universities in Israel, Finland, Canada, and the United States used a "selected deletion gap-filling test," a variation on the cloze procedure designed to measure reading comprehension by testing the reader's familiarity with cohesive links and grasp of text coherence. The test design responded to the growing demand for a more…

A panel of classroom teachers and a Department of Education inspector respond to questions from participants in a conference on methodological advances in modern language teaching held in Ireland. The questions and answers address the following topics: (1) the usefulness and selection of cloze tests; (2) maintenance of high written language…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The seven titles deal with the following topics: (1) the effects of two mathemagenic activities on ninth grade good and poor readers' comprehension, retention, and attitudes; (2) the effectiveness of the cloze procedure in developing…

A British publisher conducted a readability study of its English language content area texts being used in foreign countries to determine how the texts could be made more readable. A cloze procedure assessment of a secondary school Hong Kong social studies series indicated that the English texts were too difficult for 91% of the pupils tested.…

Focusing on instruction in the English language arts by students for whom English is a second language, this yearbook contains the papers from the precongress institute, "Reading English in Asia," of the tenth International Reading Association World Congress on Reading--held in Hong Kong in 1984. Part 1 contains "Linguistic Theories and L2…

The content and utility of two models of reading comprehension tests, the basic skills assessment model and the multiple choice cloze (MCC) model, are discussed. The basic reading competency model assesses the ability to read or infer "basic" meanings from a range of written or symbolic communication, as is necessary for daily living in…

This study attempts to determine the extent to which performance on educational tests is dependent upon language proficiency. Three questions are involved: (1) Will the dictation and the cloze tests prove to be as successful in distinguishing degrees of proficiency among native speakers as among second language learners? (2) How well will scores…

The experiment reported measured the degree to which cloze tests deliberately biased on the basis of contrastive analysis would actually be harder for Vietnamese than for speakers of other languages. The experiment tested the approach to ESL (English as a second language) for Vietnamese described in a guide for teachers of Vietnamese refugees…

The project presented here explored the possibility of using computer-based systems to increase information access to non-text children's materials at the pre-school through elementary (6th grade) school levels. This final report includes an indicative summary as well as ten separate papers that describe a range of applications of proven computer…

This is the second of three readers in a series designed to impart survival communications skills to students of English as a second language. Four units cover the following topics: (1) measuring in feet and inches, and measuring from a scale model (as a step toward furnishing an apartment); (2) how to use a bus system, by way of the example of…

This teaching guide accompanies the speech skills and reading comprehension portions of a course in English as a second language for adult nursing aide students. The rationale of course organization is explained. The reading teacher is given general instructions on testing and review and the use of Cloze passages. The speech teacher is provided…

The matching cloze format used in constructing the reading comprehension parts of the Micronesian Achievement Test Series (MATS) is described as a holistic approach which measures skills comparable to those needed by English as a second language students in actual reading situations. Kenneth Goodman's theory about the strategies used by good…

Three measure of English language proficiency (a partial dictation [Cloze] test, a text-reading and recollection test, and a story-telling test) were administered to three groups of college-level students (Finns, Swedish-Finns, and Swedes). The results are analyzed in several articles presented here: (1) "The Comprehension of Function Words…