| Abstract: | When informal measures of reading assessment were used with a Further Education student the results were different to those obtained with the Basic Skills Agency’s reading test based on cloze exercises. After describing the informal assessment the reasons for the discrepancy between the two methods are discussed. These are based first on the language production demands of cloze, and second on the relationship between functional literacy materials and cloze success. The author concludes that the suitability of cloze for testing reading is in doubt; it is likely to underestimate some readers’ abilities and it should not be used to test reading in isolation from other measures. Please note ALBSU has changed its name to the Basic Skills Agency, and to avoid confusion BSA will be used throughout the article even if at the time referred to it was known as ALBSU. |
