A study investigated whether there was a relation between methods of language arts instruction and reading comprehension as measured by the Cloze-procedure. Subjects, 88 third-grade students in 4 classes (2 "traditional" and 2 "whole language") at 2 elementary schools in South Dakota, had their reading comprehension tested 6 months into the school year using a 35-item Cloze procedure. The two traditional teachers and the two self-taught whole-language teachers had identified themselves on a self-report measure of teaching strategies. Data from the comprehension test were analyzed using a t-test. Results indicated no significant difference between the reading comprehension of students instructed using traditional (basal reading) and whole language methods of instruction. (The teacher survey instrument, the checklist of classroom items normally found in a whole language environment, a sample Cloze-procedure passage, a sample of verbatim and acceptable answers, and a table of data are included.) (RS)