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TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents Pages Statement of Authorship Acknowledgements TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS LIST OF TABLES LIST OF CHARTS LIST OF FIGURES ABSTRACT CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the research 1.2 Aims of the research 1.3 Significance of the research 1.4 Scope of the research 10 1.5 Structure of the thesis 10 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 11 2.1 Introduction 11 2.2 Language Testing 11 2.2.1 Definitions of testing 11 2.2.2 Purposes of testing 12 2.2.3 Qualities of a good test 13 2.3 Testing reading comprehension 15 2.3.1 Definitions of testing reading comprehension 15 2.3.2 The nature of the reading skills 16 2.3.3 Types of reading comprehension tests 17 2.4 Subjective and Objective testing 21 2.4.1 Objective and subjective testing 21 2.4.2 The advantages of objective and subjective tests 22 2.5 Relationship between teaching reading and testing reading comprehension 23 2.5.1 Teaching and testing reading comprehension 23 2.5.2 Some general descriptions of teaching reading and testing reading comprehension at upper secondary schools in Vietnam 24 2.6 Cloze tests 26 2.6.1 Overview and definitions of cloze tests 26 2.6.2 Purposes of cloze tests 28 2.6.3 Types of cloze tests 28 2.6.4 Marking 32 2.6.5 Backwash effects of cloze tests on learners 33 2.7 Relationship between cloze procedure and reading 34 2.7.1 Cloze procedure measuring reading ability 34 2.7.2 Cloze tests and reading comprehension 34 2.8 The situation of the use of cloze tests at some upper secondary schools at Dong Nai province 35 2.9 Conclusion 36 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 37 3.1 Introduction 37 3.2 Research approach 37 3.3 Research methods 37 3.3.1 Questionnaires 38 3.3.2 Paper test examinations 39 3.3.3 The interviews 40 3.4 Participants 41 3.5 Research site 41 3.6 Data analysis 41 3.7 Conclusion 42 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 43 4.1 Introduction 43 4.2 Findings and discussion 43 4.2.1 Teachers‟ perceptions about using cloze tests to develop students‟ English reading skill 43 4.2.2 Effectiveness of cloze tests are designed and used by teachers to develop students‟ English reading skill 61 4.2.3 Ways to those cloze tests be used more effective 73 4.3 Conclusion 75 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 76 5.1 Summary of the findings 76 5.1.1 What are teachers‟ perceptions about using cloze tests to develop students‟ reading skill? 76 5.1.2 How effective are the cloze tests designed and used by the teachers to develop students‟ reading skill 76 5.1.3 How can those cloze tests be used in a more effective way? 77 5.2 Implications 77 5.2.1 For teachers 77 5.2.2 For educational administrators 78 5.3 Limitations 79 5.4 Further research 79 REFERENCES 80 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS MOET : Ministry of Education and Training TOEFL : Test of English as a Foreign Language IELTS : International English Language Test System N : Number of Informants % : Percent LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1: Types of cloze tests teachers often design and use when testing students‟ English reading skill 48 Table 4.2: Appropriate time cloze tests can be used in 49 Table 4.3: Language skills and language areas can be tested in a cloze test 50 Table 4.4: Criteria are focused on when designing a cloze test 54 Table 4.5: Topics teachers often use when designing a cloze test 46 Table 4.6: How words are manipulated in a cloze test 56 Table 4.7: Ways teachers design cloze tests 56 Table 4.8: The positive benefits of cloze tests to students 58 Table 4.9: The difficulties teachers often encounter when designing a cloze test 59 Table 4.10: The disadvantages of using cloze tests 60 Table 4.11: Students‟ awareness of influence of cloze tests on reading skill 62 Table 4.12: Students‟ feeling when doing cloze tests 65 Table 4.13: Students‟ feeling after doing cloze tests 65 Table 4.14: Types of cloze tests students want to 67 Table 4.15: Types of cloze tests students feel difficult to 69 Table 4.16: The advantages cloze tests help students 70 Table 4.17: The skills students have been involved when doing cloze tests 72 Table 4.18: Teachers‟ perceptions about a successful cloze test 73 LIST OF CHARTS Chart 4.1: Teachers‟ awareness of the importance of using cloze tests to develop students‟ English reading skill 43 Chart 4.2: The inclusion of cloze tests in school examinations 45 Chart 4.3: Arrangement of function words and content words in designing a cloze test 51 Chart 4.4: The resources that teachers usually use to design a cloze test 52 Chart 4.5: Options teachers choose with a multiple choice cloze 55 Chart 4.6: The advantages of using cloze tests 57 Chart 4.7: The skills students can develop when doing cloze tests 63 Chart 4.8: Students‟ feeling before doing cloze tests 64 Chart 4.9: Students‟ satisfaction with the results of cloze tests 66 Chart 4.10: The difficulties students often encounter when doing cloze tests 71 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1: The Testing Continuum ABSTRACT This thesis aims to investigate teachers' perceptions about the design and use of cloze tests to develop students' English reading skill at three upper secondary schools in Dong Nai province The data were collected by means of questionnaires and interviews conducted with teachers and students the reviews of 10 sample tests currently used at three upper secondary schools in Dong Nai province The results show that most of the teachers were well aware of the importance of the use of cloze tests for the purpose of developing students‟ English reading skill However, the teachers encountered many difficulties in designing and using cloze tests to develop students‟ reading skill The difficulties ranged from lack of knowledge about cloze procedures, students‟ mixed ability, and lack of time for designing effective tests It is suggested that teachers need to consult many sources of materials about designing cloze tests so that they could design suitable ones that fit students‟ level of proficiency as well as motivate students in doing cloze tests In addition, teachers need to provide students with many different kinds of cloze tests such as banked cloze, pure cloze, fixed- ratio cloze, rational cloze, gap- filling, multiple choice cloze, C-test and cloze- elide to bring about students opportunities to be familiar and proficient in various types of cloze tests CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the research In fact, language testing is considered an essential tool for developing language skills Tests are officially used in many schools to test students' abilities such as finding out progress, encouraging students, discovering learning difficulties, selecting and placing students in the right level, and evaluating their proficiency Especially, it is also used to pinpoint strengths and weaknesses in learning abilities of the students as well as to know how well they progress in their study From this practice, we can see the intertwined relationship between language testing and teaching Testing helps teachers receive feedback from students and adjust their ways of teaching According to Harrison (1986), testing is seen as a natural extension of classroom work, providing teachers and students with useful information that can serve each as a basis for improvement In order to promote testing of learning students' language abilities, teachers should design many kinds of tests such as question and answer tests, true false tests, multiple – choice tests, cloze tests, and matching tests… to evaluate their learning abilities as well as develop students‟ reading skill Among the tests mentioned earlier, the cloze test is one of the important tests which is officially used in upper secondary classes of English to assess students' reading proficiency as well as develop students‟ reading skill In recent decades, many authors have paid much attention to the use of cloze tests Harrison (1986), for example, believes that the cloze test is a means of assessing the difficulty of a reading text for native speakers and it could be used for assessing the progress of second and foreign language learners Heaton (1990) says that cloze testing is very useful for assessing language proficiency in a short time and can be used for selection and proficiency purpose (but not for achievement tests) Edge (1993) suggests that cloze tests are proficiency tests which are easy to produce and mark, and have acceptable validity and reasonable reliability Therefore, cloze tests seem to play a very essential role in developing students‟ reading skill as well as in assessing students‟ proficiency Cloze tests are considered as not only a modern technique to assess students‟ proficiency in a wide range of skills like reading, writing based on students‟ ability and writing sub –skills but also a neat tool to help us assess students‟ current levels Nowadays, cloze tests are widely used in many international large –scale standardized examinations such as TOEFL, IELTS, and examinations at upper secondary schools in Viet Nam such as the one - period tests, the English Graduation exams However, in Viet Nam in general and at some upper secondary schools in particular, teachers have not used cloze tests effectively and designed suitably for students‟ level to develop their reading skill Being an English teacher at Hong Bang upper secondary school in Dong Nai province, I observed that cloze tests were used by many teachers with the aims of measuring the achievement of students and the success of the teaching However, teachers‟ perceptions about using cloze tests to develop students‟ reading skill are supposed not to be positive and this affects the quality of the tests designed Therefore, I wish to conduct this study to find out how teachers use cloze tests to develop their students‟ English reading skill at three upper secondary schools in Xuan Loc District This project is also a good chance for me to explore effective ways of designing and using cloze tests 1.2 Aims of the research This project aims to investigate teachers‟ perceptions about using cloze tests to develop students‟ English reading skill at three above-mentioned schools It particularly aims to answer the following questions: What are teachers‟ perceptions about using cloze tests to develop students‟ English reading skill? How effective are the cloze tests already designed and used by teachers to develop students‟ English reading skill? How can those cloze tests be used in a more effective way? 1.3 Significance of the research As mentioned earlier, this research will investigate teachers‟ perceptions about using cloze tests to develop students‟ English reading skill at three upper secondary schools in Dong Nai province Hopefully, the research will bring about many benefits for designing and using cloze tests in paper tests as well as examinations in Vietnam in general and at some upper secondary schools in Dong Nai in particular Moreover, teachers have an overall perception about using cloze tests to develop students‟ reading skill The research mainly identifies teachers‟ perceptions about using cloze tests to develop students‟ reading skill The findings will help upper secondary school teachers design and use cloze tests in a more effective way 1.4 Scope of the research The research focuses on an investigation into teachers‟ perceptions about using cloze tests to develop students‟ English reading skill at three upper secondary schools in Dong Nai province The scope of the study is the learners in the 10th, 11th, 12th form at the above – mentioned schools Although the project is necessarily limited in scope, the findings are likely to be generalized to similar contexts 1.5 Structure of the thesis This thesis includes five main chapters as follows: Chapter presents the background of the research, the aims of the research questions, the scope of the research and the structure of the research Chapter provides a fundamental overview of the theoretical concepts relevant to the research, and lead to rationale of the project Chapter describes research methodology including instruments, the data collection methods, the subjects of the research and data analysis for this research Chapter reports the findings and discussions after data collections are analyzed Chapter gives summary of the research, pedagogical implications and some suggestions for further research 10 Besides, students also wanted to “banked cloze” Precisely, 6.9%, 52.4% and 23.8% of the percentages of the teachers admitted that their students wanted to banked cloze because they were familiar, easy and interesting Moreover, gapfilling was also paid attention to by the students 13 (61.9%) of the teachers agreed that their students wanted to cloze tests because they were familiar, easy (38.1%) and interesting (42.9%) Table 4.14 also revealed that there were the same answers that 4.8% of the teachers assumed that their students wanted to fixed-ratio cloze and rational cloze No teachers assumed that C-test and cloze-elide were interesting Similar to the data from students‟ questionnaire, 34% of the students wanted to banked cloze, 30% of them wanted to multiple choice cloze and 26% of them chose gap - filling Because they thought that these types of cloze tests were familiar, easy and interesting to Moreover, they often got high marks with multiple - choice cloze, banked cloze and gap- filling As expressed by a student “I like to multiple- choice cloze, banked cloze and gap- filling because they are familiar These types of cloze tests, I often get high marks more than the others and it helps me improve reading skill” (Student interview, April 25, 2010) From the numbers and percentages as mentioned above we can see that the effectiveness of designing cloze tests by teachers Firstly, multiple choice cloze, banked cloze and gap - filling always had high effectiveness in students‟ testing In fact, they liked to it However, the types of cloze tests such as fixed –ration cloze, rational cloze, most of the teachers seldom used them to test students‟ ability Only 4.8% of the teachers thought that their students wanted to Especially, C-tests and cloze –elide were not used to test students‟ abilities These points can prove that the effectiveness of designing fixed rational cloze and rational cloze were not still high They were not widely used at upper secondary schools 68 4.2.2.6 Types of cloze tests students feel difficult Table 4.15 below describes the types of cloze tests students find most difficult Types of cloze tests are difficult N = 50 % Fixed –ratio cloze 18 Rational cloze 17 34 Banked cloze 10 Pure cloze 30 60 Multiple choice cloze 15 30 Gap-filling 25 50 C-test 0 Cloze – elide 0 Table 4.15: Types of cloze tests students find difficult to As displayed in Table 4.15, the majority of the students thought that pure cloze was one of the cloze test that is most difficult Precisely, 60% of the students agreed with „pure cloze” and 50% of them chose “gap-filling” The data from teachers‟ interviews also brought the same results involving the above As expressed by a teacher: “I think “pure cloze” is the most difficult test for students because “pure cloze” is a cloze in which involves the removal of words regular intervals usually every 6-8 words and normally not less than every Therefore, they don’t classify according to function and content words They require students to have profound background knowledge to this exercise Moreover, the banks that pure cloze requires are very abundant The missing words are equal length; it is very difficult to guess” (Teacher interview April 26, 2010) Another teacher said “Gap-filling with the more gaps and the more random are more difficult tasks for students because they mixed among verbs, adverbs, and prepositions vocabularies” (Teacher interview April 26, 2010) In addition, as can be seen from Table 4.15, pure cloze and gap - filling with random gap were the difficulty of cloze tests for students Multiple choice cloze, banked cloze were familiar, easy and interesting for students to Fixed –rational cloze and rational cloze were average level Only C-test and cloze- elide students 69 did not mention because they were not familiar and even teachers seldom used it to tests students‟ abilities 4.2.2.7 The advantages cloze test helps students Table 4.16: Advantages cloze tests help students Cloze tests help students N = 50 % Developing reading and writing skill 29 58 Increasing their vocabularies 39 78 Overcoming their weaknesses 16 32 Identifying their learning styles are proper or not 12 Table 4.6 shows us the advantages cloze tests help students, 78% of the students agreed that cloze tests helped them increase their vocabulary In fact, they said that when doing cloze tests they discovered and guessed many new vocabularies through text Moreover, through vocabulary, they could improve the native of reading test to identify the main points in a text 58% of the students thought that cloze tests helped them develop reading and writing skill As a student expressed: “When I cloze test, I have to read many times to understand content of the text When reading it many times, I remember vocabulary, structure and grammar Therefore, it helps me both reading and writing skill” (Student interview, April 26, 2010) Moreover, 32% of the students thought that cloze tests could help them overcome their weaknesses such as vocabulary, grammar and structure Most of the students thought that cloze tests were difficult exercises; however, they helped students in many aspects such as reading comprehension, grammar and vocabulary Therefore, they could overcome their weaknesses such as verbs, prepositions and synonyms… to improve themselves Only 12% of the students reveals that cloze tests helped them identify their learning styles were proper or not In short, to some extent, cloze tests that were provided by teachers could be considered reliable The effectiveness of cloze tests helped students a lot 70 4.2.2.8 The disadvantages students encounter when doing cloze tests Chart 4.10 describes the difficulties students often encounter when doing cloze tests 54% 60% 50% 40% 40% 30% 20% 6% 10% 0% Time limit Content of cloze tests Quantitative of questions Chart 4.10: The difficulties students often encounter when doing cloze tests Chart 4.10 shows that the biggest difficulties that 54% of the students met were “content of cloze tests” In fact, most of the students thought that cloze tests were very difficult They took a lot of time to it A student said: “When doing cloze tests, the difficulties I meet are “content of cloze tests” are long, the topics are difficult to understand It takes me a lot of time to these types of exercises” (Student interview, April 25, 2010) Another student expressed that “When doing cloze tests, I feel I’m lack of proficiency in English because my vocabulary and grammar that I have, separate from the contexts in which they can occur” (Student interview, April 27, 2010) Besides, 40% of the students also encountered „time limit” In fact, when doing a test (examination), students were tested with many aspects such as vocabulary, grammar, stress, phonetics and reading and writing skill as well Therefore, they did not have enough time to if cloze tests were too long As a student expressed: “When doing cloze tests, I have to try to read quickly and find out the main ideas of the content then guess and choose the answer Especially, I always estimate time to it because cloze tests take a lot of time By doing so, I will not have enough time to other parts” (Student interview, April 27, 2010) 71 In fact, when doing cloze tests, students were worried about the lack of time because cloze tests always includes a long reading text Another difficult that 6% of the students met were “quantitative of questions” In reality, for a cloze test, there are at least 5-10 questions Even though, some cloze tests have more than 10 questions It means that in a cloze test, there were so many problems to be required In sum, most students met certain difficulties in doing cloze tests such as content of cloze tests, the time limit and the difficult questions 4.2.2.9 Skills can be involved when doing cloze tests Table 4.17: Skills students have been involved when doing cloze tests The skills students have been involved N = 50 % Skimming for gist 36 72 Identifying the main points in cloze tests 24 48 Recognizing and understanding key words and phrases 24 48 Recognizing and understanding script and format 11 22 Reading in detail 11 22 As shown in Table 4.17, when doing cloze tests, 72% of the students used skill “skimming for gist” It is obvious that to complete a cloze, student could gain a good grasp of the comprehension of a text Therefore, they employed “skimming for gist” techniques in reading In fact, the results from the interviews further provided the same many students agreed that this was the first skill they always used when doing cloze tests They said that, when using this skill, they could grasp content of cloze tests and it quickly Besides, Table 4.17 points out that the same percentages were “identifying the main points in cloze tests” and “recognizing and understanding key words and phrases” accounting for 48% of each It means that students also paid attention to skills to cloze tests Moreover, they also said that after doing cloze test, they could understand the main points of cloze tests and express them into their understanding In fact, when doing cloze tests, students needed many skills By doing so, in one hand, students could improve their reading skill; on the other hand, they could improve vocabulary and grammar skill In addition, we can see that there were the 72 same answers about skills that students had been involved in doing cloze tests: “recognizing and understanding script and format” and “reading in detail” It means that students not only wanted to understand content of cloze tests but also understood script and format as well as reading in detail In short, to some extent, students used many skills to cloze tests It proved that cloze tests could make them interesting 4.2.3 Ways to those cloze tests be used more effective Table 4.18: Teachers’ perceptions about a successful cloze test A successful cloze test depends on N = 24 % Using different techniques for different purposes 11 52.4 Motivating students‟ interests in cloze tests 33.3 Helping to develop students‟ English reading skill 28.6 Content text related to students‟ knowledge 15 71.4 As indicated in Table 4.18, almost teachers strongly agreed that a successful cloze test depended on “content text related to students‟ knowledge” According to a large number of teachers (71.4%) assumed that a successful cloze test depended on “content text related to students‟ knowledge” It means that content had an important role in testing students‟ ability It could motivate students‟ interests in doing cloze tests as well as help them develop students‟ English reading skill Moreover, the majority of the teachers (52.4%) confirmed that a successful cloze test had to “use different techniques for different purposes” They thought that these techniques could help them in designing cloze tests in a more effective way For example, techniques to design a banked cloze, pure cloze, gap- filling, fixed –ratio cloze, rational cloze, C- test and cloze elide From these techniques, they could test students‟ ability in a variety of aspects Besides, 33.3% of the teachers thought that a successful cloze test depended on “motivating students‟ interests in cloze tests” and 28.6% of them also assumed that cloze tests had helped students develop their English reading skill From the numbers and percentages as mentioned above, it proved that contents and techniques had an essential part in designing a good cloze 73 test and then how to make students interested in doing cloze tests as well as help them develop students‟ reading skill When asked about implications for designing and using those cloze tests in a more effective way Teachers contributed the following valuable ideas: Firstly, when designing a cloze test, they said that they should find out the materials that had more various techniques about designing cloze tests such as banked cloze, pure cloze, fixed – ratio cloze, rational cloze, gap-filling, C- test and cloze elide Because they thought that, these techniques were very important for them to have adequate knowledge to use it effectively Secondly, teachers also said that they should refer cloze tests from teachers‟ and students‟ books as well as other materials such as the sample tests or the standard reference materials from workshops to pick out some good quality cloze tests that had good organizations and techniques One teacher said: “Sometimes, I pick some cloze tests out that have good designed and have to content related to the lesson to test my students’ abilities” (Teacher interview, April 27, 2010) Thirdly, many teachers said that they should share, consult and collaborate with each other so that they could exchange the cloze tests and help them find out the good ways to design and use cloze tests in a more effective way for students Therefore, there should be organized the specialized meetings in English department to exchange experience in designing and using cloze tests From that, they could draw out the good and bad points in testing As a teacher said: “At school, teachers should organize the meetings on every Tuesday afternoon one a week to exchange and share experience in designing and using exercises in testing students’ ability It is included cloze tests as well.” (Teacher interview, April 27, 2010) Fourthly, in order to design cloze tests in a more effective way, teachers said that they should provide students with many types of cloze tests such as banked cloze, pure cloze, fixed – ratio cloze, rational cloze, gap-filling, C- test cloze elide to help them be familiar with all kinds of tests Moreover, each type of cloze test, they chose the various aspects like grammar, vocabulary, content words, function 74 words…that are appropriate to their students‟ level More especially, they also gave them a lot of time to practice cloze tests in class time Fifthly, teachers suggested that many criteria such as students‟ competence, and their preferences should be focused in designing a cloze test Finally, teachers said that they should improve their knowledge of designing cloze tests In order to that, they had to join in many workshops, meetings to share experience in teaching in general and in designing and using cloze tests and marking in particular In short, teachers gave out many implications for designing and using cloze tests in a more effective way However, in order to enhance the ways to design and use cloze tests, teachers should pay attention to both sides; teachers and students On the one hand, teachers designed a good cloze test, on the other hand, teachers motivate students in doing cloze tests 4.3 Conclusion In conclusion, most of the surveyed teachers were aware of the importance of using cloze tests to develop students‟ English reading skill In reality, cloze tests were widely used in testing students‟ abilities However, teachers had many difficulties in designing cloze tests Types of cloze tests were seldom used at schools such as C- test and cloze elide Furthermore, in this chapter, I have presented the effectiveness of the cloze tests are designed and used by the teachers to develop students‟ English reading skill as well as some implications and suggestions for designing and using cloze tests in a more effective way These are the profound analyses and syntheses that are taken into account from the questionnaires, in – depth interviews and test papers analysis sheets to make the study more reliable and valid 75 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS The aim of this research was to find out teachers‟ perceptions about using cloze tests to develop students‟ reading skill This research was conducted to reveal how the effectiveness of the cloze tests were designed and used by the teachers to develop students‟ reading skill as well as the implications for designing and using those cloze tests in a more effective way 5.1 Summary of the findings 5.1.1 What are teachers’ perceptions about using cloze tests to develop students’ reading skill? The research results show that most of the teachers were well aware of the importance of using cloze tests to develop students‟ reading skill These were also showed through the reality of designing and using cloze tests at three upper secondary schools in Dong Nai province On the one hand, teachers had widely used cloze tests in English tests at their schools with the aim of developing students‟ reading skill as well as measuring their abilities On the other hand, many teachers had designed many types of cloze tests such as fixed- ratio cloze, rational cloze, gap- filling cloze banked cloze, multiple choice cloze to improve students‟ reading skill However, they also got some disadvantages in designing and using cloze tests to develop students‟ reading skill 5.1.2 How effective are the cloze tests designed and used by the teachers to develop students’ reading skill The survey from students‟ and teachers‟ questionnaires as well as students‟ and teachers‟ interviews shows that cloze tests were always a concerning issue of both teachers and students because of influencing on developing reading skill as well as their background knowledge In fact, through cloze tests, students are expected to improve skills such as reading, writing, thinking and understanding However, cloze tests were the types of difficult exercises, so it involved many skills from students Therefore, some students felt very trust and comfortable but some of them felt very anxious and nervous before doing cloze tests Moreover, the types of 76 cloze tests that most of the students wanted to were multiple choice cloze, banked cloze, rational cloze Only C-test and cloze - elide were seldom to be done by students as teachers hardly used to test students‟ ability Some of them were difficult to such as pure cloze, gap-filling In addition, when doing cloze tests, some students encountered some disadvantages about content of cloze tests: so difficult and not related to students‟ lessons More importantly, students also involved many skills such as skimming for gist, identifying the main points in cloze tests and recognizing, understanding key words and phrases In general, cloze tests were designed and used by the teachers had influenced positive on students 5.1.3 How can those cloze tests be used in a more effective way? As the survey results from teachers, most of the teachers highly agreed that they had designed successful cloze tests depending on using different techniques for different purposes(52.4%), motivating students‟ interests in cloze tests (33.5%), helping to develop students‟ reading skill (28.6%) and content text related to students‟ knowledge (71.4%) 5.2 Implications 5.2.1 For teachers In order to design and use cloze tests with the aim of developing students‟ reading skill in a more effective way, some implications and solutions may be suggested that: - When designing and using cloze tests, it is essential that teachers are aware of influences of cloze tests on students‟ abilities They also need to know students‟ level, their strengths and weaknesses to have the way to design and use cloze tests suitably - Teachers need to read the books to master appropriate techniques for designing cloze tests such as banked cloze, pure cloze, fixed –ratio cloze, rational cloze, gap-filling, multiple choice cloze, C- test and cloze - elide to gain a profound knowledge about designing cloze tests 77 - When designing cloze tests, teachers need to pay attention to criteria as well as time – consuming, content in cloze tests to ensure the reliability of a cloze test for different classes - Teachers need to have a close co-operation with colleagues to share experiences in designing cloze tests with the aim of making cloze tests much easier and more interesting - Teachers need to provide students with many kinds of cloze tests such as banked cloze, pure cloze, fixed –ratio cloze, rational cloze, gap-filling, multiple choice cloze, C- test and cloze - elide to bring about students opportunities to be familiar and proficient in various types of cloze tests - Teachers need to consult many sources of material such as teachers‟ books, students‟ books, the sample tests, the standard reference materials from seminars, conferences, and workshops in order to design good cloze tests that ensure the implementation of the criteria of authenticity, reliability, practicality and validity of the cloze tests - More importantly, when designing cloze tests, teachers need to choose the suitable topics and contents that facilitate the effectiveness of students‟ English reading skill as well as help them develop their reading competences 5.2.2 For educational administrators Firstly, cloze tests are one of the difficult exercises but they play an important part in the process of testing students‟ abilities Therefore, Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) need to provide teachers with many useful materials about how to design different types of cloze tests as well as the ways of marking and scoring as well Secondly, Ministry of Education and training (MOET) need to have some seminars, conferences and workshops that are organized monthly or yearly for all teacher staff about designing and using cloze tests in a suitable and effective way Thirdly, MOET need to have a standard materials or reference materials about designing the types of cloze tests as well as exercises that are frequently updated so that teachers can refer whenever they need 78 Fourthly, MOET need to encourage teachers in their own designing cloze tests as an initiative or special subject in their teaching at school 5.3 Limitations Due to the limitations of time, ability and other factors, this research has to bear some shortcomings are following: Firstly, this research was conducted with only 21 teachers and 50 students at three upper secondary schools in Dong Nai province The scale of the research is too small Therefore, the data result does not reflect the reality accurately in general Secondly, cloze tests are one of the types of difficult exercises with many types of cloze tests, the data of the research are analyzed to appreciate the effectiveness of using and designing cloze tests by teachers to develop students‟ reading skill are unsatisfactory Some of cloze tests such as C- test and cloze- elide have not widely used in schools so the results are not convincing as I expected 5.4 Further research This research focuses mainly on teachers‟ perceptions about using and designing cloze tests to develop students‟ reading skill In spite of some limitations as mentioned above Further research, I hope that it can be carried out on national – wide scale with a large number to contribute to the more effective use as well as the ways to design cloze tests or exercises to improve students‟ reading skill as well as help them develop reading competences 79 REFERENCES Cakir, A (1998) Teaching through Testing, Retrieved October 29th, 2009 from www.sosyalbil.selcuk.edu.tr/dergi/sayi1-8/4/18.pdf Cemilin, Jessica & Doris (2006) Viewing English Teaching and Testing Method from a Brand new Perspective, Retrieved October 29th, 2009 from www.linguist.org.cn/doc/su200605/su20060515.pdf Bachman, L (1990) Fundamental Considerations in Language Testing, Oxford: Oxford University Press Bachman, L F & 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