Korean EFL Learners' Vocabulary Use in Writing According to the Cloze Scoring Methods and Item Types

The present study explores whether Korean EFL learners' vocabulary in writing differs according to doze scoring methods and test item types. Two doze tests (C1 and C2) were administered to the students to provide different proportions of function word items. Cl contains 23 function words out of 30 test items, whereas C2 consists of 12 function words out of 25 test items. The scoring methods used in the study were the exact-word method and the acceptable-word method. Korean college students (n=l14) were asked to write an English composition after they read an English book. The students were assigned to a high and low proficiency group in accordance with their scores on the two doze tests. The students' vocabulary profiles were produced by VocabProfile, which provides four lexical frequency lists: the first 1000 frequent words including function words and content words, the second 1000 frequent words, academic word list, and off the list words. The results indicated that cloze scores of Cl did not differentiate the students' vocabulary use in writing across proficiency groups regardless of scoring methods, showing significant differences in Kl, FW, and OLW. On the other hand, those of C2 demonstrated significantly different word token percentages in Kl and K2 under the exact-method and Kl , FW, and K2 under the acceptable-word method. Findings and implications are discussed in more detail.