College of Basic Education, CLOZE TESTS: an integrative approach Introduction One of the axioms of language testing is that the purpose of a test affects the nature of that test, i.e., if the evaluators are after the development of conscious knowledge of grammatical structures and vocabulary items, they have to use discrete-point approach to testing. But if they are after the development of the language skills the learners need when they use the target language in real transactional situations at home or overseas, then they have to adopt integrative approach to language testing. Obviously, the starting-point for language instruction is to equip its learners with the skills that enable them to use the target language interactively. Therefore the integrative approach to language teaching and learning should be adopted. Thus the problem of the present study stems from the fact that the discrete-point approach which is widely adopted in testing the language ability of Iraqi learners of English does not cater very well for the purposes behind teaching English in Iraq. As a result, there is a validity tension between the purposes behind teaching English in this country and what is actually ensured by the tests used for the evaluation of those purposes. To provide a solution for this tension, the present study is meant to suggest the use of some other evaluative techniques which are capable of measuring the aspects that are immeasurable by the discrete-point tests such as text coherence and contextual constraints. Such aspects cannot be measured at the sentential level which most of the discrete-point tests work at. To be specific and profound in the discussion of the topics presented in this study, the researcher is going to limit himself to the discussion of cloze tests as an example of integrative tests. In order to suggest or use any testing technique, it is quite necessary to have knowledge of all its characteristic features, the type of skills it measures and the