‘Opening Up’ Literary Cloze

This article reports on case-study research which explored English as a second language (ESL) learners’ perceptions of the role played by the literary cloze activity in the development of their language and literary awareness. The subjects, four students from a variety of language, culturaland literarybackgrounds, attended a semester-long university ESL subject which adopted a language-based approach to literature. Data included the subjects’ evaluations of the technique, a multiple-choice literary cloze exerciseand an audiotaped discussion in which the subjects retrospectively explained and analysed their responses. The findings shed light on why the subjects considered that the cloze procedure and following discussion had influenced their vocabulary acquisition and development, interpretative skills and confidence to form and express opinions. Data analysis demonstrated that cloze may be used to highlight the cohesive structureof a textand ‘open up’ its meaning, and equally to sensitiselearnersto stylistic features. Finally, the findings provide an indication of the way language proficiency may have influenced the subjects’ responses to the cloze activity, but also suggest that cultural and literary background, as well as personality and age factors, may have affected their ability to interpret and express opinions about the text.