The Impact of Formal Schema and Readability on Cloze Test for EFL Learners

ABSTRACT: This study investigates the effect of formal schema and readability on the performance of the EFL learners. To this end, to conduct the present study in Grade Three at high school, 75 students out of 120 students were chosen through nonrandom judgment sampling and randomly divided into two experimental groups (i.e., Group A and Group B) and one control group (i.e., Group C). Students were assessed by using two types of multiple-choice cloze tests consisted of 60 items. Group A and B made use of separate treatments, whereas Group C lacked such treatments lasted for 10 weeks. After administrating the post-tests for both experimental and control groups, the mean scores of experimental groups and those of control group were compared through a one-way ANCOVA. Data analysis revealed that formal schema and readability led to significantly better performance of the participants (P < .05). Also, after collecting the results of the questionnaire regarding reading skills,it showed thateach experimental group made use of certain reading skills regardless of being affected by the treatments exerted for both groups.