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Bu araştırmada dördüncü sınıf öğrencilerinin cümle doğrulama testi, boşluk tamamlama testi, yeniden anlatma ve açık-uçlu sorular ile ölçülen okuduğunu anlama puanları arasındaki ilişkiler incelenmiştir. Bununla birlikte öğrencilerin farklı tekniklerle ölçülen okuduğunu anlama puanlarının cinsiyet, okuma ortamı tercihi, evde kitaplığa sahip olma ve okunan kitap sayısına göre farklılaşıp farklılaşmadığı araştırılmıştır. Araştırma sonucunda genel olarak bütün okuduğunu anlama ölçümleri arasında düşük düzeyden yüksek düzeye kadar pozitif ve anlamlı ilişkiler tespit edilmiştir. Kızlar erkeklere göre tüm okuduğunu anlama ölçümlerinde daha üstün performans göstermiştir. Ayrıca okuma ortamı açısından bütün testlerde basılı okumayı tercih edenler lehine anlamlı farklılık bulunmuştur. Evinde kitaplık bulunan öğrencilerin olmayanlara göre yalnızca yeniden anlatma puanları anlamlı derecede yüksek bulunmuştur. Aylık daha fazla kitap okuyan öğrenciler yalnızca cümle doğrulama testinde yüksek performans elde etmiştir.

Cloze tests are commonly used in language testing as a quick measure of overall language ability or reading comprehension. A problem for the analysis of cloze tests with item response theory models is that cloze test items are locally dependent. This leads to the violation of the conditional or local independence assumption of IRT models. In this study, a new modeling strategy is suggested to circumvent the problem of local item dependence in cloze tests. This strategy involves identifying locally dependent items in the first step and combining them into polytomous items in the second step. Finally, the partial credit model is applied to the combination of dichotomous and polytomous items. Our findings showed that the new strategy results in a better model-data fit than the dichotomous model where dependence is ignored but with a lower reliability. Results also indicated that the person and item parameters from the two models highly correlate. The findings are discussed in light of the literature on managing local dependence on educational tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Mother Tongue Education / Ana Dili Egitim Dergisi is the property of Journal of Mother Tongue Education / Ana Dili Egitim Dergisi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study investigates the effect of task demands on the predictive processing of morphosyntactic cues (word class, noun/adjective gender, case, and number) in reading among Heritage Speakers of Russian (N = 29), comparing them with Russian language learners (N = 29) and monolingual Russian speakers (N = 63). Following the utility account of bilingual prediction, we hypothesized that the predictive use of morphosyntactic cues would be more evident in a less-demanding reading cloze task (Experiment 1) than in a more-challenging eye-tracking reading task (Experiment 2), and for cues that RHSs regard as more reliable (word class and number vs. gender and case cues). The results confirmed our predictions: In Experiment 1, Heritage Speakers (and L2 learners) used all cues predictively to generate the upcoming lexical item, with higher accuracy for word class and number cues compared to gender and case cues. In Experiment 2, in contrast to monolingual readers, neither Heritage Speakers nor L2 learners used gender cues on adjectives to anticipate the gender of the upcoming noun. The results are discussed in respect to the interplay between task demands, cue weight, oral fluency, and Russian literacy experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continuous Discourse Tracking (CDT) is a functional test of speech perceptual ability, which has been criticised on account of the procedural variation inherent in the method. This study sought to reduce this variation by using synthetic speech, which was subsequently vocoded to simulate listening with a cochlear implant. We also assessed the complexity of three text excerpts with auditory (n = 10) and written Cloze tests (n = 10). These same passages were used in an auditory-only CDT experiment (n = 12) performed with the synthetic-vocoded material. Mean tracking rates were lower, and the number of blockages was higher for the most difficult text as determined by the Cloze results. We also noted some anomalous realisations from the speech synthesis, but these were unlikely to have contributed to the differences in tracking rates that were observed for text complexity. These results show that Cloze testing is suitable to predict text complexity for CDT performed with synthesised speech. Furthermore, they indicate that the use of text-speech synthesis is viable and may be a useful addition to rehabilitation where functional measures are used to assess communication aptitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the occurrence and impact of local item dependence (LID) in a cloze test. LID refers to situations where responses to test items are influenced by other items. The researchers used the Rasch model to analyze a cloze test and identified three pairs of items that exhibited LID. Removing these items improved the test's fit and unidimensionality, but did not affect the overall ability of test takers. The study emphasizes the importance of detecting and addressing LID in language testing, while also suggesting the need for alternative approaches to handle LID without compromising the test's properties. [Extracted from the article]

Objectives: The study reports adult L2 Italian learners' and native speakers' (NS) choices between null and overt subject pronouns in a written illustrated story. The aim of the study is to ascertain whether learners have different perceptions of the aboutness topic compared with NS. Methodology: A total of 338 adult L2 Italian learners having different L1s filled in the blanks of a written story by choosing between the null pronoun and the third-person pronoun lui "he." Data and analysis: The outcome variable was learners' and NS' choices between null and overt pronominal subject. Independent variables were: "anaphora" ("null" or "pronominal") and "position" ("intrasentential," when the antecedent and the gap were in the same sentence, and "intersentential," when the antecedent and the gap were in two separate sentences). Findings: When the antecedent and the gap occurred in adjacent scenes of the story separated by punctuation, L2 learners—unlike NS—tended to reactivate the overt subject pronoun. Learners' proficiency, L1, length of instruction, and knowledge of verb morphology significantly modulated the results. Originality: Punctuation in written texts strongly affects the likelihood that L2 learners use anaphoric means to reactivate the topic. L2 learners' perception of aboutness in discourse is less robust and more affected by topic shifts and interruptions. Implications: Null subjects in texts should be dealt with upfront in second language instruction. Syllabi should deal with the difference between the use of overt and null pronouns in discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated Korean-English second language (L2) speakers' recognition of high- and low-frequency English words and compared two individual difference measures in their role of representing lexical quality in L2: cloze test scores and inverse efficiency scores (IES; response latency corrected for the amount of errors committed), obtained from lexical decision on a separate set of words. Cloze test scores aimed to assess general L2 proficiency, whereas IES was purported to measure lexical processing efficiency. 109 adult Korean-English L2 speakers participated in the study. Results showed significant main effects of word frequency, cloze test scores, and IES on lexical decision times, replicating previous findings and confirming the predictions of the lexical quality hypothesis. Crucially, IES was revealed to be a better measure of individual differences in L2 lexical quality than were cloze test scores. These findings suggest that lexical quality (which can be operationalized in terms of online lexical processing efficiency) comprises a distinct subdomain of language skills on its own, which cannot be measured in full using conventional language proficiency tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the readability level of second-grade secondary school scientific stream Chemistry and Physics textbooks in Jordan, determining the effect of gender on the degree of readability, in addition to knowing the order of the textbooks according to the degree of their readability in both books. The current study was conducted to determine the readability level of chemistry and physics textbooks by involving 300 second-grade secondary school students of the public schools affiliated with the Directorate of Education, Jordan. Four Cloze tests were prepared from different topics of both textbooks to measure their readability. The test included four texts with 20 words omitted from each text, and the texts were presented in the same format as in the textbooks, with clear instructions provided for the students. A pilot sample outside the study sample was administered with the test-retest method to confirm the reliability of the four tests for both textbooks. The findings revealed that physics textbooks had a higher level of readability than chemistry textbooks. A significant difference (p≤0.05) was observed based on the type of textbook in the readability of chemistry and physics textbooks. The scientific texts in the chemistry textbook were ordered in light of their readability level. In contrast, the scientific texts in the physics textbook were not ordered in light of their readability level. The study concluded that the readability level of Jordanian Chemistry and Physics textbooks of the second grade of the scientific stream differed significantly (p≤0.05). The study recommends that the Jordan Ministry of Education should appoint a panel of experts to review the textbooks and make the necessary changes to improve their readability level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the sources that determine the success of the educational process are textbooks. However, we often come across Arabic textbooks that are difficult for students to understand. The content of textbooks is related to the ease or complexity of the material, known as readability. The importance of readability cannot be overestimated, as it directly affects the effectiveness of written texts. The content of the text must be clear, effective and adapted to the abilities of the students so that the learning objectives are achieved, and their language skills are improved. Therefore, this study aims to determine the level of readability of the Extended Arabic Language Textbook (BAL) for graduate students from one of the Malaysian higher education institutions at the Islamic University of Sultan Ahmad Shah Pahang (UnIPSAS), Malaysia. A quantitative survey design using the Close test was conducted among 169 graduate students from UnIPSAS. The data, which were analyzed using descriptive analysis, shows that the level of readability of the BAL textbook as a whole is at an unsatisfactory level, which does not correspond to the goals of teaching and learning. Textbook authors should review the texts selected as academic texts for the course (BAL). It is hoped that the results of this study can be used by Arabic language textbook authors to improve the quality of students' reading skills and understanding of the language.

We contrast three views of how words contribute to a listener’sunderstanding of a sentence and compare correspondingquantitative models of how the listener’s probabilistic prediction onsentence completion is affected in online comprehension. TheSemantic Similarity Model presupposes that the predictor of a wordgiven a preceding discourse is their semantic similarity. TheRelevance Model maintains that utterances are chosen to maximizerelevance. The Bayesian Pragmatic Model assumes a relevance-guided modulation of a word’s lexical meaning that can be regardedas a Bayesian update of statistical regularities stored in memory. Inaddition to a Cloze test, we perform an EEG study, recording theevent-related potential on the predicted word and take the N400component to be inversely correlated with the word’s predictiveprobability. In a multiple regression analysis, we compare the threemodels with regard to Cloze values and N400 amplitudes. TheBayesian Pragmatic Model best explains the data.

The research aimed mainly at measuring the readability of some Egyptian agricultural magazines among the extension employees in Minya Governorate, and more specifically to achieve the following objectives: (1) Measuring readability of some agricultural magazines among extension employees in Minia governorate using the cloze test; (2) Examining the significant differences among the studied magazines according to their readability. The readability of three agricultural journals (agricultural extension magazine, agricultural newspaper magazine, and shams magazine) were measured by applying the cloze test for nine randomly selected texts from nine topics representing the three studied magazines. Data were collected using questionnaire forms during the period from October to December 2022, from 73 respondents representing 60.8 % of the total extension employees in Minia Governorate (120 individuals). Frequencies, percentages, arithmetic mean and Kruskal-Wallis test were used for data presentation and analysis. The results indicated that the studied agricultural magazines generally fall within the frustration level. The results also showed significant differences among the studied magazines. The research presented a set of recommendations to the staff in charge of editing the studied magazines to help improving the readability of their content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reading is a complicated cognitive procedure of deciphering symbols to create meaning. It's a complicated relationship that the reader has with the text and is lead by a reader's previous knowledge, experiences, attitude, and culture. Second language (L2) reading comprehension is perhaps a more complicated procedure and there's a need to ensure that L2 reading comprehension is being properly and accurately assessed. Currently, there are several different authentic assessment methods in practice (i.e. Author, 2015), but most others are similar in nature and used for similar purposed. This article offers a brief introduction and an objective discussion regarding the strengths and weaknesses of three of the most common methods to assessing reading comprehension: the multiple-choice test, the written recall method, and cloze reading tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims at investigating EFL university students written performance in cloze tests compared to their performance in standardized tests in relation to the grammatical mistakes, vocabulary, and discoursal mistakes of the texts they write. Exploring whether or not the cloze test can be successfully used to measure the grammar, discourse aspects and vocabulary of EFL writing texts. The researcher used a causal-comparative design. There were 275 third graders at Mosul University who made up the study's population. A random sampling method was used to collect samples for this study. During the academic year 2021-2022, a total of 110 male and female 3rd grade university students from four distinct classes made up the sample. Two groups made up of 55 students each are used for each test to divide the sample into. In this study, a test was the instrument used. Specifically, cloze tests and standardized tests were the two test types offered. The results of the current study demonstrated a significant difference between the students' written performance on the cloze test and their written performance on the standardized test, which was used to measure written performance among thirdgrade students at Mosul University. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims at investigating EFL university students written performance in cloze tests in relation to the grammatical, vocabulary and discoursal mistakes of the texts they write. The causal-comparative design was used by the researcher. The study's population was made up of (275) male and female thirdyear students at the University of Mosul's English department and College of Basic Education. A random sampling technique was applied for sample selection. The total number of the sample was (110) male and female students during the academic year 2021-2022. The sample is divided into two groups (male and female); each group consisted of (55) students. This study's instrument was the test. There was only one type of test provided, which was a cloze test that passed the instrument validation stage. When the cloze test was used to measure written performance, the study's findings revealed that most third-grade students at Mosul University demonstrated a significantly different level of written performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the reading comprehension performance of Italian-speaking university students learning Portuguese as a foreign language (PLE), to compare it with the reading comprehension of Italian-Portuguese bilingual young people who speak Portuguese as a heritage language (PLH). Our paper discusses the possibility of using the cloze test as a tool to assess reading comprehension and, more specifically, to understand the similarities and differences between these two categories of participants in relation to the pragmatics required for the correct understanding of a written text. The aim is to understand the sensitivity of the cloze test to verify syntactic and lexical proficiency, within the linguistic and non-linguistic variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Ciencias Sociales (13159518) is the property of Revista de Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad del Zulia Venezuela and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Target language proficiency assessment has become an integral part of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research design, with cloze tests frequently serving this purpose for reasons of practicality. Assumptions underlying the interpretation of such cloze test scores, however, are often not examined. With the goal of providing researchers with better means for drawing inferences from cloze test scores, we present an analysis of a combined dataset comprised of scores from 1,724 test takers on a frequently used English cloze test (Brown 1980). We examine variation in score distributions and reliability estimates among L2 groups, between L2 and native-speaker (NS) examinees, and for different scoring methods, and investigate the degree to which different sets of items were effective for classifying low- vs high-proficiency L2 examinees and L2 vs NS test takers. Standardized scores are provided for each scoring method so that future researchers can reference their scores to this larger set. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional cloze tests (such as the CBM-maze) may be poor measures of comprehension processes beyond the single sentence level. This paper presents an alternative, a deep cloze test with gaps that are strategically chosen to assess comprehension beyond the sentence level. To fill each gap, the reader has to draw global cohesion inferences during reading. A study with 83 adult students found support for the validity of the deep cloze test. It contributed unique variance to global reading comprehension as measured with a conventional test even after controlling for sentence-level cloze, word decoding, and vocabulary knowledge. The deep cloze also explained all of the shared variance between reading comprehension and a topic identification task designed to require global comprehension. Future studies may explore how the deep cloze format can be used to tap other component processes of reading comprehension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present an algorithm for the automatic processing of cloze test results that are traditionally analyzed and adjusted by hand. The algorithm accurately includes inflected and derived forms of the target word as correct responses, as well as minor spelling mistakes and typographical errors. We provide a test of the algorithm against the coding of one expert human observer and find that the algorithm performs with equal accuracy. We further examine the utility of the algorithm for the analysis of data involving word identification with typed responses. The routines are implemented in R-software and are freely available.

This research aimed at: (1) Measuring readability of agricultural extension pamphlets among farmers using Colze test; (2) Examining the differences among the agricultural extension pamphlets according to their readability. The readability of four pamphlets (Maize, Sorghum, Grapes and Citrus) was measured by applying the cloze test. Data were collected using questionnaire forms from 120 farmers who were selected from four villages chosen from four districts in Assiut Governorate. Frequencies, percentages, arithmetic mean, and Kruskal-Wallis test were used for data presentation and analysis. The Colze test results indicated that the studies pamphlets generally fall within the frustration level for the respondents. The results also showed significant differences among the studied pamphlets according to their readability using cloze test. Finally, a set of recommendations were drawn for the officials of the agricultural extension pamphlets to help them improve their readability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to verify the relationship between reading comprehension and performance in the Reading and Text Production 1 discipline. Study participants were 203 students, of both sexes, with a mean age of 23 years, of the Psychology, Pedagogy and Letters courses. The participants responded to the Cloze Misunderstanding Test, with the performance in the Reading and Text Production discipline obtained through the grades in the test applied at the end of the semester. The results demonstrated a significant mean difference in the scores of the Cloze Test and of the grades in the discipline only when the extreme groups (high and low) of scores and grades were compared. The correlations found between the two instruments were significant, positive and strong or very strong. These data suggest an important relationship between the two constructs evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate the psychometric properties of the Metatextual Awareness Assessment Questionnaire (Questionário de Avaliação da Consciência Metatextual; QACM). The sample consisted of 618 students from the 3rd to the 5th year of public schools, aged between 8 and 13. The instruments used were the QACM and two Cloze tests, which assess reading comprehension. There was evidence of validity based on the internal structure for the 15-item version of the QACM (RMSEA=.03; CFI and TLI=.98). Evidence of validity based on the relationship with other variables, criterion type, was established by identifying differences in performance in the QACM according to the school year variable. The QACM presented 42% and 38% of the variance explained by Cloze 1 and 2, respectively, providing evidence of validity based on the relationship with other variables, convergent type. Psychopedagogical implications are discussed, considering possible alternative uses for the instrument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study measured competencies and conceptual knowledge developed by undergraduates who participated in a 2-month interdisciplinary research project at a large urban university in Southeast US. Working in groups, students chose a shared topic of significant interest and examined it through the combined lens of multidisciplinary insights toward a more comprehensive understanding of the topic. Significant gains were observed on a cloze test of students' conceptual knowledge of their topic in addition to perceived gains in cognitive abilities and skills associated with interdisciplinarity and most-sought-out 21st century skills. Limitations and recommendations are discussed for designing and implementing similar interdisciplinary engagements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the readability levels of some integrated science textbooks approved for use in junior high schools (JHS) in Ghana. To assess the readability levels of the approved integrated science textbooks in order to ascertain their difficulty or ease, the researchers used the Flesch Readability Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Readability Formulas Cloze Test to determine the comprehension levels for a sample of students. A sample of 135 pupils, drawn from rural, peri-urban and urban JHS years 1 through 3 in the Ashanti region participated in the study. The outcome of the assessments revealed that the selected textbooks had a problematic level of comprehension for many of their intended readership except those who had additional resources for assistance. The study also revealed that these approved books employed long sentences and multi-syllabic words to deliver lessons and instructions, making them difficult for JHS pupils to understand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstratct This research aimed to investigate the reading comprehension and possible associations with self-perception of academic performance in elementary and middle school students. The study included 298 students enrolled from the 2nd to 9th grades in public schools the states of São Paulo and Parana. Two Cloze tests were collectively applied: one specific for elementary school (first stage of basic education) and another for the middle school (second stage). Results indicated that the students presented an instructional reading comprehension. It was also possible to observe statistically significant differences between Cloze score and self-perception of academic performance. In general, it can be stated that the students who presented better levels of reading comprehension are also the ones that better self-assessed. The data are discussed considering the psychoeducational implications concerning the mode of education investigated.

Copyright of Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios Educativos (1900-9895) is the property of Universidad de Caldas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Polissema is the property of Polissema and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The transition from paper-based tests to corresponding computer-administered tests allows for the incorporation of improved interfaces that support response making. The main research question is whether innovative interfaces affect test response time and/or response accuracy. This study compared performance on banked cloze tests using a conventional interface (based on paper-based formats for responding by writing a number in a box) versus cloze tests with improved interfaces (based on computer-based affordances such as dragging and dropping responses to fill in a blank). In a banked cloze test, the left side of the page shows a text with words deleted and replaced with blanks that are numbered, and the right side shows the word list with a space to write in the corresponding number. In Experiment 1, 56 fourth graders in the conventional group responded more slowly but just as accurately, and spent more time looking at the word list on the right of the screen but spent equivalent time looking at the text as compared to a group that took the test with an improved interface. In Experiment 2, the same pattern of results was replicated with 148 sixth graders and for each of three versions of improved interfaces as compared to the conventional interface. Results support the idea that the improved interface affected the response execution phase but not the response development phase of performance on the cloze test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For almost a hundred years now, readability formulas have been used to measure how difficult it is to comprehend a given text. To date, four readability formulas have been developed for Afrikaans. Two such formulas were published by Van Rooyen (1986), one formula by McDermid Heyns (2007) and one formula by McKellar (2008). In our quantitative study the validity of these four formulas was tested. We selected 10 texts written in Afrikaans – five articles from a popular magazine and five documents used in government communications. All characteristics included in the four readability formulas were first measured for each text. We then developed five different cloze tests for each text to assess actual text comprehension. Thereafter, 149 Afrikaans-speaking participants with varying levels of education each completed a set of two of the resulting 50 cloze tests. On comparing the data on text characteristics to the cloze test scores from the participants, the accuracy of the predictions from the four existing formulas for Afrikaans could be determined. Both Van Rooyen formulas produced readability scores that were not significantly correlated with actual comprehension scores as measured with the cloze tests. For the McKellar formula, however, this correlation was significant and for the McDermid Heyns formula the correlation with the cloze test scores almost reached significance. From the outcomes of each of these last two formulas, about 40% of the variance in cloze scores could be predicted. Readability predictions based only on the average number of characters per word, however, performed considerably better: about 65% of the variance in the cloze scores could be predicted just from the average number of characters per word.

The task of sentence completion, which aims to infer the missing text of a given sentence, was carried out to assess the reading comprehension level of machines as well as humans. In this work, we conducted a comprehensive study of various approaches for the sentence completion based on neural language models, which have been advanced in recent years. First, we revisited the recurrent neural network language model (RNN LM), achieving highly competitive results with an appropriate network structure and hyper-parameters. This paper presents a bidirectional version of RNN LM, which surpassed the previous best results on Microsoft Research (MSR) Sentence Completion Challenge and the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) sentence completion questions. In parallel with directly applying RNN LM to sentence completion, we also employed a supervised learning framework that fine-tunes a large pre-trained transformer-based LM with a few sentence-completion examples. By fine-tuning a pre-trained BERT model, this work established state-of-the-art results on the MSR and SAT sets. Furthermore, we performed similar experimentation on newly collected cloze-style questions in the Korean language. The experimental results reveal that simply applying the multilingual BERT models for the Korean dataset was not satisfactory, which leaves room for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study addresses the controversial question of which is more effective; teaching to the test, or teaching to communicate. It also highlights the viewpoints of some scholars about tests in different regions of the world; the Middle East and the West. The content of the research embedded in this article shows that there are a number of teachers who still believe in teaching to test following the traditional method, while some others think tests -especially in the elementary phase- cause anxiety, chaos and disappointment, and should be ruled out as a means of assessing students. In the Arab World, tests are still considered the main criterion by which students prove eligible to move to upper classes and get admitted to university programs. To provide the readers with a more concrete grasp of the discussed viewpoints, a questionnaire has been distributed among sixty-five male and female students taking English courses in the Foundation Program at Ibri College of Applied Sciences- the Sultanate of Oman. The results, implications, and applications will be discussed throughout this article while tackling the two major controversial issues: teaching to test or communicate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aimed at: (1) Measuring readability of agricultural extension magazine using Flesch readability Formulas; (2) Measuring readability of agricultural extension magazine among farmers and extension personnel using Colze test; (3) Examining the differences of the readability of agricultural extension magazine between farmers and extension personnel. The study was conducted on the six issues of agricultural extension magazine published during 2018, through applying three Flesch readability Formulas and the Colze test. Data were collected for the completion of the Colze test by questionnaire during the period from March to April 2019 on two groups of respondents; one of which included 56 members of boards of directors of agricultural cooperative associations, in addition to 20 extension personnel in Al-Kharga District, New Valley Governorate. Frequencies, percentages, arithmetic mean, and t-test were used for data presentation and analysis. The results of the Flesch readability formulas showed that the agricultural extension magazine content is difficult and lack of a human interest. In addition, the Colze test results indicated that the agricultural extension magazine fall within the frustration level for farmers, while it falls within the instructional level for extension personnel. The results also showed significant differences between readability mean scores of farmers and extension personnel, in favor of the readability mean scores of extension personnel. Finally, a set of recommendations were drawn up for the officials of the agricultural extension magazine to help them improve the magazine’s readability, and to put it in a form that is easy to read and understand to suit the target farmers and extension personnel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, it is aimed to determine at what level the Meaning Identification Technique (MIT) can measure the reading comprehension skills of the 4th grade primary school students and to test the validity and reliability of the MIT test with different types of texts. In the study carried out in the survey model, MIT and Sentence Verification Technique (SVT) tests, which were developed by the researcher and are peculiar to narrative and informative texts, were used. The readability of the texts was tested with Cloze Tests (CT) developed specifically for each type of text. The study was carried out with the participation of 87 primary school 4th grade students in two primary schools randomly selected among the public schools in the city of Ankara. The results of the study demonstrated that MIT tests measure reading comprehension skills as reliable as SVT tests. While there was a significant difference between comprehension and the numbers of reading in narrative texts, it was found that there was no significant difference with the numbers of reading in informative texts. A great majority of students (approximately 75%) felt the need to read two or more times while making sense of the text. On the other hand, MIT tests are a significant predictor of Turkish course achievements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The starting point of most experimental and clinical examinations of bilingual language development is the choice of the measure of participants’ proficiency, which affects the interpretation of experimental findings and has pedagogical and clinical implications. Recent work on heritage and L2 acquisition of Russian used varying proficiency assessment tools, including elicited production, vocabulary recognition, and in-house measures. Using such different approaches to proficiency assessment is problematic if one seeks a coherent vision of bilingual speaker competence at different acquisition stages. The aim of the present study is to provide a suite of validated bilingual assessment materials designed to evaluate the language proficiency speakers of Russian as a second or heritage language. The materials include an adaptation of a normed language background questionnaire (Leap-Q), a battery of participant-reported proficiency measures, and a normed cloze deletion test. We offer two response formats in combination with two distinct scoring methods in order to make the testing materials suited for bilingual Russian speakers who self-assess as (semi-) proficient as well as for those whose bilingualism is incipient, or declining due to language attrition. Data from 52 baseline speakers and 503 speakers of Russian who reported dominant proficiency in a different language are analyzed for test validation purposes. Obtained measures of internal and external validity provide evidence that the cloze deletion test reported in this study reliably discriminates between dissimilar target language attainment levels in diverse populations of bilingual and multilingual Russian speakers.

This study aimed at comparing the performance of an experimental group composed of advanced Portuguese L2 learners and a norm group of native speakers of Portuguese on a reading task. Using the Cloze test as a comparison instrument between both groups, the study was based on the analysis of existing L2 reading research literature and the references provided by the CEFR in order to design a set of seven two hour lessons focusing on deep reading press columns featuring literary, complex and hybrid characteristics. The results showed that the performance of the experimental group were distant not only from those of the norm group but also from the illustrative descriptors of the CEFR for C1 and C2 proficiency levels. Research on the field of language learning methods and strategies was necessary in order to design reading activities that would enable the students to deepen reading comprehension. The second phase of testing leads to the conclusion that, with this group of subjects, the methodological choices implemented throughout the reading lessons that were held between both testing moments led to an improvement in reading processing.

Copyright of Psico-USF is the property of Universidade Sao Francisco, Programa de Pos-Graduacao Stricto Sensu em Psicologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)