Enhancing 11th grade students' use of reading strategies during Cloze Test Procedure at Gimnasio Moderno Montecatini

Abstract

Cloze tests are being currently used in the English section of the Colombian high-stake exam known as Pre Saber 11. Nevertheless, participants' perception to this exam might be negative since they do not know how to face the reading questions in the Clozes. For this reason, this research project has emerged to present a study with the aim of finding out the problems some students had with Cloze tests. Such aim tends to provide students with some tools which help them succeed in Cloze tests. Students need to know what it is evaluated with these kind of tests, how they can systematically apply the reading strategies and why reading is assessed in such way in different high-stake tests. This study concentrated on a group of students from 11th grade who were studying at Gimnasio Moderno Montecatini in Magangué (Bolivar). This study follows a qualitative paradigm using a case study as a method. The data was collected through interviews with the students, a Cloze test completed by the students and a questionnaire distributed to the students. The findings of this study revealed that the problems the group of students from 11th grade had with the Cloze tests were related to their inefficient use of reading strategies. Moreover, the students did not receive enough explicit reading strategy instruction in strategies to deal with Cloze tests.