For decades, educators have relied on readability metrics that tend to oversimplify dimensions of text difficulty. This study examines the potential of applying advanced artificial intelligence methods to the educational problem of assessing text difficulty. The combination of hierarchical machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) is…

Reading is an integral part of chemistry education. The language of chemistry plays a major role when reading chemistry texts and textbooks. Reading textual and non-textual explanations impact students' understanding of chemistry texts and textbooks. In our review we outline the importance of reading texts and textbooks in chemistry education. We…

Inferential comprehension is necessary to connect ideas in a text together in a meaningful manner. There have been multiple studies on inferential comprehension involving texts of different genres (narrative and expository), but not a coherent overview of the findings of inferential comprehension by genre. The purpose of this study is to provide a…

Inferential comprehension is necessary to connect ideas in a text together in a meaningful manner. There have been multiple studies on inferential comprehension involving texts of different genres (narrative and expository), but not a coherent overview of the findings of inferential comprehension by genre. The purpose of this study is to provide a…

Comparing language tests and test preparation materials holds important implications for the latter's validity and reliability. However, not enough studies compare such materials across a wide range of indices. Therefore, this study investigated the text complexity of IELTS academic reading tests (IRT) and IELTS reading practice tests (IRPrT).…

Even though readability formulas are being used more widely than ever before in schools, libraries, businesses, newspapers, and government, there are critics who argue against their use. Criticism includes blaming the formulas for the "dumbing down" of textbooks, for being poor writers' guides, and for not taking into account the background or…

Reviews the literature and research on readability. Examines early formulas that relied on sentence length and difficulty of vocabulary, the subsequent use of cloze procedure to measure text readability, and other factors now recognized as influences on the comprehensibility of a text. Concludes that readability formulas have not served education…

Provides guidelines for analyzing and evaluating textbooks based on their comprehensibility rather than their readability. (MKM)

A survey of the current research on readability formulas is presented in this paper, which distinguishes this research from research on the more general questions that surround formulas: What features of a text, particularly the language it is written in, make the text easy or difficult to read? and, What will predict that readers with particular…

Discusses methods of textual documentation that can be used for software documentation. Highlights include measurement of text comprehensibility; methods for the measurement of documentation quality, including readability and the Cloze Procedure; tools for the measurement of text readability; and the development of the Reading Measurability…

Outlines the current uses of readability measures in education, business, and government. (SRT)

Explains why applying a readability formula to a content text is not enough to determine whether a student can read and understand the book. (MKM)

The failure of readability formulas can be attributed to three weaknesses in the formulas. First, they ignore or violate current knowledge about the reading process. Most formulas affect only sentence length and word difficulty while ignoring factors that influence text comprehensibility, such as cohesion, the number of inferences required, the…

According to studies using the Degrees of Reading Power system for estimating readability, most high school graduates cannot read at a level enabling them to understand much of what they read in newspapers, periodicals, work-related documents, or many high school texts or tests. (PGD)

Writing, editing, and printing texts for schools has been the accepted role of publishers, while text researchers have concentrated on typography, content, and readability. The hundreds of readability formulas now available make readability the most sophisticated of these three areas. Research in reading comprehension suggests that publishers…