Textbook writers, Chinese language teachers, and test designers need to ensure readability of the texts they use or intended to use. They often resort to "expert judgements" based on professional experience rather than apply objective measures. This happens because there is a lack of suitable readability formulas like those established…

This article examines how English as a foreign language learners might be better matched to reading texts using automatic readability analysis. Specifically, I examine how the lexical decoding component of readability might be validated. In Japan, readability has been mostly determined by publishers or by professional reading organizations who…

This booklet describes and discusses a method for determining the readability level of prose passages in reading materials for children. The method discussed in the booklet assigns a value to each noun in selected passages on the basis of its frequency level on standard word-frequency charts, correlated in a number of studies with independent…

Forty-two experienced teachers rated a set of reading passages by the SEER and the Rauding procedures. Findings indicated that the two procedures resulted in significantly different ratings, that teaching experience did not affect the rating, and that the SEER ratings agreed substantially with readability formula estimates of the same passages.…

Describes recent Austrian research concerning readability formulas, especially the Swedish Lix formula. Describes a prototype for a system of evaluating the individual variables that contribute to the difficulty of student reading materials. (FL)

Describes research conducted in France on text readability and suggests that readability formulas give high scores to redundant texts that have no great interest and penalize texts with original information. Argues that a coefficient should be incorporated into readability formulas that reflects the nature of the text. (MKM)

Five contributors separately discuss (1) a formula for describing the anticipatory process in reading; (2) a combined reading, writing, and comprehension exercise that proved popular with rehabilitation students; (3) an adult education project involving reports on recreational reading; (4) limitations of the Fry Readability Graph; and (5) a method…

Designed to appeal to students who want a short but up-to-date overview, researchers who are interested in a critical appraisal, and consumers who would like to know what leaders in the field think, this collection of articles highlights the changes that have occurred in readability research from the past to the present and makes predictions about…

To develop a new model of the reading process, a longitudinal study investigated the importance of the concepts of cohesion and register (fiction or nonfiction) in the assessment of text readability. Subjects, 436 8-year-olds (Cohort A), 474 10-year-olds (Cohort B), and 445 13-year-olds (Cohort C) from 23 urban and rural British schools--most of…

The multicultural pattern in recent Australian immigration poses a pressing issue for reading instruction. Students coming from homes where only English is spoken, or English and a Northern European language are spoken, perform better on reading tests than do students from homes where other languages are spoken. There is also little reflection…