Can lexical cohesion cloze exercises help EFL students understand what they read?

Details

The study examined whether lexical cohesion cloze reading exercises could improve reading comprehension among students learning English as a foreign language (EFL). In these exercises, deleted material involved various types of lexical cohesive devices.

Sixty-four Thai university students were randomly assigned to control and experimental groups. Both groups received 12 sessions of skill-based instruction, while the experimental group also practiced recognizing lexical relations through cloze passages. Mean pretest and posttest scores were compared using a paired samples t-test. After the treatment, questionnaires investigated students’ attitudes toward the assigned extra reading exercises.

The experimental group achieved a significantly higher mean posttest score than the control group (p < 0.05). Mean attitude scores did not differ significantly between the groups (p > 0.05). However, the experimental group was more positive about using the extra reading exercises and found the technique useful for fostering English reading comprehension.

The researchers concluded that lexical cohesion cloze reading was effective in improving Thai EFL students’ reading performance and should be used to equip EFL students with knowledge for better reading comprehension.