Cloze procedure as a measure of reading difficulty and reading comprehension will be treated briefly in the relevant section of the chapter on testing reading comprehension .
Research studies,however,have shown that performance on cloze test correlates highly with the listening,writing and speaking abilities.In other words,cloze testing is a good indicator of general linguistic ability,including the ability to use language appropriately according to particular linguistic and situational contexts.It is argued that three types of knowledge are required in order to perform successfully on a cloze test : linguistic knowledge,textual knowledge,and knowledge of the world.2 ## As a result of research findings,cloze tests are now used not only in general achievement and proficiency tests but also in some classroom placement tests and diagnostic tests.