Cloze 테스트의 구인과 안면 타당도

The present study addresses the usefulness of cloze test in terms of its construct and face validity. While cloze has been claimed to be a useful and practical tool that measures language learners’ proficiency, discussions on its validity have been mostly limited to its correlations with other tests. Aiming to explore the constructs underlying cloze test, this study conducted a factor analysis based on Korean EFL leaners’ test scores on a cloze test. In addition, the study analyzed participants’ responses to a questionnaire on the learners’ percieved validity of the test. Factor analysis of the paticipants’ cloze scores identified genral English ability, as well as phrase-, sentence-, and discourse-level language ability as underlyng constructs. The analysis of the participants’ responses to the questionnaire revealed that the cloze had only moderate degree of overall face validity, although the learners tended to perceive the tests’ relevance to word-, sentence-, and discourse level language abilities. Correlation analyses suggested that poor topic familiarity is a factor that can lower learners’ perceived validity of the test.