Comprehension Cloze is one of the most difficult sections of the English paper because it focuses on testing the overall language ability of students.
One way for parents to help is to build up the thematic vocabulary of their children. This is because the cloze passage is always based on a theme and the words that are required to fill in the blanks will usually be words associated with the theme. That is also precisely why in RG Channel, we focus quite a bit on building general knowledge and vocabulary based on many different themes.
So, what can parents do?
- You and your child can do some research on a topic. This can be done online, from a newspaper or a magazine.
- Together with your child, highlight the vocabulary that is usually used. For example, if you are researching about the topic of war, you might want to highlight words like ‘casualties’, ‘blockade’ or ‘skirmish’ when they are used in the research.
- Organise the words in a vocabulary list so that your child has a handy list of words that might be used if a cloze passage of the same topic comes out.
Repeat and create as many vocabulary list as you like. Of course, this is not a method that will guarantee marks for your child – since there is no certainty that the topic will come out. But what you have done will definitely benefit your child in both reading, writing, speaking and listening.