Recently, the readability of texts has become the focus of reading research because it is believed to have implications for reading comprehension, which is of utmost importance in the field of English as a foreign language (EFL), particularly in the teaching, learning and assessment of reading comprehension. Unfortunately, the influence of text…

The effectiveness of English Language Teaching (ELT) materials significantly influences the learning outcomes of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners, positioning these resources as cardinal in the acquisition process. Despite this widely acknowledged significance, there remains a notable gap in research concerning the evaluation of key…

This study aims to determine the effectiveness of Fry readability-based digital storybooks on reading comprehension skills among elementary school students. The method used in this study was an experimental research design with a pretest-posttest control group design to measure students' reading comprehension skills. The sample of this study was…

This paper discusses the 'fuzziness' of Hungarian legal language as an issue of language planning addressed in the Hungarian language strategy to be published by the Hungarian Research Centre for Language Planning. First, we give a concise historical overview on the status of Hungarian language in Hungary, only to make it evident how its status…

Estimating the difficulty of reading tests is critical in second language education and assessment. This study was aimed at examining various text features that might influence the difficulty level of a high-stakes reading comprehension test and predict test takers' scores. To this end, the responses provided by 17,900 test takers on the reading…

Purpose: The study aims to evaluate the readability, comprehensibility, and vocabulary knowledge of SRH educational materials available online and on paper to inform health educational material development for young adolescents. Design/methodology/approach: The study used a sequential mixed-method design. Thirty-four online and one print…

The aim of the study is to examine the effect of readability on comprehensibility. The study is quasi-experimental as it was not possible to assign groups randomly and the groups were partially controllable. Therefore, the "pretest-posttest unequaled control group quasi-experimental design" was used in the study. The study group consists…

Though the empirical findings of the past studies in the literature have offered strong support to the significant role of language knowledge and background knowledge in reading comprehension, this issue has not been explored with regard to specific purposes tests in the Iranian higher education context. Therefore, this study aimed at exploring…

This study examined the effects of relevance instructions on English as a foreign language (EFL) readers' text processing and memories. The participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: the experimental condition, where they read texts to identify a specific category of information, and the control condition, where they read texts…

Readability formulae have been used to predict text difficulty, but their construction has been challenged. Previous readability formula designers typically adopted correct responses to reading comprehension questions (RCQs) as dependent variables, but they did not assess the effect of linguistic predictors concerning RCQs in the formula. Thus,…

Readability has long been regarded as a significant aspect in English language teaching as it provides the overall picture of a text's difficulty level, especially in the context of teaching and testing. Readability is a practical consideration when making decisions on materials to match a text with target readers' proficiency. However, few…

Testing reading has always been indispensable in language tests. The present study aims to evaluate three parallel reading tests from the National College English Test Band Four (CET-4) in June 2021 in terms of reading ability orientations, text readability and its correlations with reading performances. The quantitative analysis reveals: (1) in…

Empirical research has shown that poor comprehenders use reading strategies less frequently than good comprehenders. Moreover, poor comprehenders tend to use simple strategies (e.g. slowing down reading when the text is hard to understand) instead of using more complex strategies (e.g. choosing between main and trivial information). The present…

The psychological aspects of the properties and relationships that emerge during text comprehension have primarily been studied from both subjective and objective viewpoints. This paper aims to explore the psychological factors influencing scientific text comprehension, focusing on the quantitative and qualitative patterns of how students perceive…

This research compared the contributions of lexical inferencing, decoding, and listening comprehension to reading comprehension in Chinese-speaking learners of English as a second language (ESL) enrolled in university bridging programs in the U.S. and Chinese-speaking university learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) in mainland China.…