The Trait Structure of Cloze Test Scores

Although there is considerable evidence supporting the predictive validity of cloze tests, recent research into the construct validity of cloze tests has produced differing results. Chihara et al. (1977) concluded that cloze tests are sensitive to discourse constraints across sentences, while Alderson (1979) concluded that cloze tests measure only lower-order skills. Anderson (1980) has concluded that Cloze tests measure sensitivity to both cohesive relationships and sentence-level syntax. Factor analytic studies (Weaver and Kingston 1963, Ohnmacht et al. 1970) have identified several factors in cloze and other language tests and suggest that cloze deletions should be based on the linguistic and coherence structures of language. In the present study, the trait structure of a cloze test was examined using confirmatory factor analysis. A cloze passage with rationally selected deletions of syntactic and cohesive items was constructed and given to two groups of non-native English speaking students entering the University of Illinois. A trait structure with three specific traits and one general trait provided the best explanation of the data. The results suggest that a modified cloze passage, using rational deletions, is capable of measuring both syntactic and discourse level relationships in a text, and that this advantage may outweigh considerations of reduced redundancy which underlie random deletion procedures.