Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Second Edition

Dictation
Dictation was, of course, used as a testing device long before
Lado and the structuralist/behaviourist nexus became
influential. Lado in fact criticised dictation on three grounds,
first that since the order of words was given by the examiner, it
did not test the ability to use this very important grammatical
device in English; second, since the words themselves are given,
it can in no sense be thought of as a test of lexis; and third,
since many words and grammatical forms can be identified
from the context, it does not test aural discrimination or
perception. On the other hand it has been argued that dictation

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involves taking in the stream of noise emitted by the examiner,
perceiving this as meaningful, and then analysing this into
words which must then be written down.
On this view the words are not given—what are given are
strings of noises. These only become words when they have
been processed by the hearer using his knowledge of the
language. This argument that perception of language,
whether spoken or written, is psychologically an active
process, not purely passive, is very persuasive. That dictation
requires the co-ordination of the functioning of a substantial
number of different linguistic systems spoken and written,
seems very clear so that its global, active nature ought to be
accepted. If this is so then the candidate doing a dictation
might well be said to be actually ‘driving the car’.
Cloze tests
A cloze test consists of a text from which every n
th
word has
been deleted. The task is to replace the deleted words. The
term ‘cloze’ is derived from Gestalt psychology, and relates to
the apparent ability of individuals to complete a pattern,
indeed to perceive this pattern as in fact complete, once they
have grasped the structure of the pattern. Here the patterns
involved are clearly linguistic patterns. A cloze test looks
something like the following:
In the sentences of this test every fifth word has been left
out. Write in the word that fits best. Sometimes only one
word will fit as in ‘A week has seven…’ The only word
which will fit in this blank is ‘days’. But sometimes you can
choose between two or more words, as in: ‘We write with
a…’ In this blank you can write ‘pen’ or ‘pencil’ or even
‘typewriter’ or ‘crayon’. Write only one word in each
blank. The length of the blank will not help you to choose
a word to put in it. All the blanks are the same length. The
first paragraph has no words left out. Complete the
sentences in the second and following paragraphs by
filling in the blanks as shown above.
‘Since man first appeared on earth he has had to solve
certain problems of survival. He has had to find ways of

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satisfying his hunger, clothing himself for protection
against the cold and providing himself with shelter.
Fruit and leaves from trees were his first food, and his
first clothes were probably made from large leaves and
animal skins. Then he began to hunt wild animals and
to trap fish.
In some such way…began to progress and …his
physical problems. But…had other, more
spititual…—for happiness, love, security, …divine
protection.’ etc.
Like dictations, cloze tests test the ability to process strings
of aural or visual phenomena in linguistic terms such that
their potential signification is remembered and used to
process further strings as they are perceived. Cloze tests are
usually presented through the written medium and
responded to in that medium too, but there seems no reason
why oral cloze should not be possible, and indeed there have
been attempts to devise such tests. (See the University of
London Certificate of Proficiency in English for Foreign
Students, Comprehension of Spoken English, 1976.) Cloze
tests too are global in nature demanding perceptive and
productive skills and an integrating knowledge of the various
linguistic systems, grammatical and lexical since some of the
words left out will be grammatical and others will be lexical.
There is a good deal of discussion still going on about the
technicalities of constructing cloze tests but useful pragmatic
solutions to many of the problems have been found and it
would seem that cloze offers a potentially very valuable way
of measuring language proficiency.
There are, however, two substantial criticisms to be made
of all tests which have a fundamentally structuralist/
behaviourist theoretical base, whether they are discrete item
tests like those of Lado, or global tests like dictation and
cloze. The first of these criticisms is that such tests rarely
afford the person being tested any opportunity to produce
language spontaneously. The second is that they are
fundamentally trying to test that knowledge of the language
system that underlies any actual instance of its use—
linguistic competence in Chomsky’s terms—they are not
concerned with the ability to operate the system for

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