A Comparative Study of Cloze Test and C-Test in Assessing Collocational Competence of Iranian EFL Learners

Abstract

One of the dominant approaches to language testing is the integrative approach. This view of testing involves the testing of language in context. The present study aimed at shedding more lights into the effectiveness of the cloze test, C-test and open ended test in assessing Persian EFL learners' collocational competence. To this end, four hundred and twenty Persian EFL learners from Yazd and Shiraz universities were selected. They were from both intermediate and advanced proficiency groups. The participants were assigned into three groups of one hundred and forty learners and took each of the tests separately. The results yielded compelling reason to argue that advanced participants in all of these three tests performed much more efficiently compared to their intermediate peers and indicated more collocational competence. Moreover, the results did not provide support for the superiority of C-test over the other two tests which were mentioned. The study, suggested important implications for language learners, EFL instructors and materials developers.