International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature (IJSELL) Volume 2, Issue 7, July 2014, PP 17-27 ISSN 2347-3126 (Print) & ISSN 2347-3134 (Online) www.arcjournals.org ©ARC Page | 17 A Comparative Study on the Effects of Cloze Tests and Open- Ended Questions on Reading Comprehension of Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners Dr. Hooshang Khoshsima Faculty of Management and Humanities/English Department/Associate Professor Chabahar Maritime University Chabahar, Iran khoshsima@cmu.ac.ir Farnoush Pourjam Faculty of Management and Humanities/English Department/MA Candidate Chabahar Maritime University Chabahar, Iran f.pourjam1990@yahoo.com Abstract: The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of cloze tests and open-ended questions on reading comprehension ability of Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners. 47 EFL language learners at intermediate level, all female, from a high school in Chabahar were selected for this purpose. The homogeneity of their proficiency level was determined by using a TOEFL proficiency test. Then they were randomly divided into the control and experimental group. The control group received the traditional way of teaching reading comprehension while the experimental group worked with cloze tests and open-ended questions in addition to traditional way of teaching reading comprehension. Two reading comprehension tests as pretest and posttest were given to the students of both groups to find out their reading comprehension ability at the beginning and at the end of the study and the treatment. The results of data analysis revealed that the students in the experimental group outperformed the students in the control group in their reading comprehension ability. Finally the findings of this study suggest that cloze tests and open-ended questions empower students ‘reading comprehension ability. It also indicates that open-ended questions are significantly more effective on students’ reading comprehension. Keywords: Test/ Reading / Reading Comprehension/ Cloze-test/ Open-ended question 1. INTRODUCTION If we believe that the main purpose of language teaching is communication, then improving students’ reading comprehension competence becomes an overall goal in language teaching. No doubt reading ability is one of the most important skills when we use a foreign language. Therefore, reading comprehension has long been hold as an important way of testing testees’ language ability. Cloze-tests have been widely used for measuring reading comprehension. Wilson Taylor first developed the term “cloze-test” in 1953 (Cloze procedure: A new tool for measuring readability, 1953). He explains that the term cloze derived from Gestatt psychology concept of “closure”. It describes a tendency that humans have to complete a familiar, but not quite finished pattern. Another way of testing reading comprehension is by open-ended questions. Open-ended question allows the person to take the test and answer the questions in his or her own way, in contrast to questions with limited multiple-choice possibilities (Richards & Schmidt, 2002). The aim of present study is to investigate the result of Iranian Intermediate EFL learners’ reading comprehension tested by using cloze-test and open-ended question .The subjects of the study were 47 female EFL learners at intermediate level. The purpose of this study is to answer the following question: Q1. Do cloze tests and open-ended questions have significant effects on reading comprehension of Iranian intermediate EFL learners?