Universal Journal of Educational Research 8(7): 2980-2989, 2020 http://www.hrpub.org DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2020.080726 Variants of Cloze-Test Based Tasks and Vocabulary Achievement Zachary Farouk Chai * , Suyansah Swanto, Wardatul Akmam Din Faculty of Psychology and Education, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Malaysia Received March 26, 2020; Revised May 4, 2020; Accepted May 27, 2020 Copyright ©2020 by authors, all rights reserved. Authors agree that this article remains permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License Abstract Vocabulary is an integral part of a language and language education. In view of the close relationship between vocabulary knowledge and language learning, there is a significant need for language learners, especially in the ESL context, to develop, enrich and master their vocabulary in order to be proficient users of the language. ESL teachers could help learners acquire vocabulary knowledge if they have the pedagogical knowledge on how vocabulary may be learned and taught effectively. The study aimed to determine Malaysian primary school learners’ vocabulary achievement by using cloze-test based tasks. A total of five primary schools from Sabah, Malaysia were selected in this study. The total number of research participants was 135 and they were at low to intermediate level of proficiency. This study made use of four different cloze-based passages as research instruments in assessing learners’ vocabulary knowledge. This research primarily concerned on the descriptive data in the form of frequency and percentage of the learners’ vocabulary achievement scores and qualitative data from semi-structured interview. The findings of this study revealed that the research participants scored well in the fourth task whereby cloze-based passages were given along with general pictures and multiple-choice items. A significant correlation between these four variants of cloze-based task with the learners’ vocabulary achievement was established. The main pedagogical implication of the research is that teachers should ponder what type of variants to be used in vocabulary task as this could enhance ESL learners’ vocabulary achievement. Keywords Cloze-based Tasks, Multiple-choice Items, Pictures, Vocabulary Achievement 1. Introduction Language is used to communicate ideas, thoughts and experiences in our daily life. As we are moving towards a globalised world of education, learners need to master English language as part of their learning development. The acquisition of vocabulary is seen as an imperative aspect of learning English language in formal education. Without a strong vocabulary knowledge base, one would face difficulty in understanding information conveyed through communication. Cameron (2001) states that vocabulary is one of the knowledge areas in English language and it plays a vital role for learners in acquiring a language. Hence, when learners especially those who study in primary school have mastered English vocabulary in the syllabus and English textbooks, they are expected to be able to communicate, write and comprehend effectively. In Malaysia, the English Language Curriculum for Primary Schools has an important aim to equip primary school learners with basic language skills to enable them to communicate effectively in different contexts that are appropriate to the learners' level of development (Ministry of Education Malaysia, 2011). In other words, the aim of teaching the English language in primary school is to produce learners who are able to communicate effectively in a variety of contexts be it in spoken and/or written forms. Thus, for learners to communicate effectively after their schooling years, vocabulary knowledge plays an essential role in general language ability. 1.1. Background of the Study Vocabulary is fundamental to language and an important aspect of second language learning (Zimmerman, 1997). In relation to this, Richards & Rodgers (2001) claims that the building blocks of language learning and interaction are not grammar, notions, roles, or some other planning and teaching structures, but rather lexis, which is made up of combinations of terms and letters. In view of this close relationship between vocabulary knowledge and language