Redundancy in language reduces the possiblity of error and permits communication where there is interference in the communicating channel. The relationship between creativity (the basic distinction between language-like behavior and knowing a language) and redundancy has been clearly established. Knowledge of rules is the key factor in creativity…

Teachers and testers should encourage children to repeat or restate verbal stimuli in order to enhance their comprehension. Changing the administration of a language comprehension test to include such restatement significantly raised the mean test scores of four- and five-year old Head Start children. (CTM)

Research employed two types of redundancy, each having two levels, at each stage of a programed sequence of non-verbal concept learning tasks. One type involved amount of variation and repetition of exemplars; the other, strength of feedback. A researcher presented tasks to 4th, 5th, and 6th graders, simulating a computer graphic display. The…

Compares the empirical performance of C-tests with other representatives of the family of reduced redundancy tests--classical cloze, cloze-elide, multiple-choice cloze--using the Duisburg English Language Test for Advanced Students as the criterion for empirical validity. Findings reveal that the C-Test emerges as the most economical and reliable…

The idea of reducing the redundancy of a verbal message in a statistical way is presented as a practiced technique of language testing. Considering the temporality of speech comprehension, and the necessarily sequential intake of information, these cues may include the serial order of elements and transitional probability. To give the background…