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Laufer, Batia – Reading in a Foreign Language, 2021
In the late 1980s Batia Laufer worked with teachers who believed that to understand a text it was enough to understand 80% of the text's word tokens. In response, Laufer set out to calculate the minimal text coverage, i.e., percentage of running words in a text the reader should understand to comprehend it reasonably well. In 1992, she explored…
Descriptors: Second Language Learning, Second Language Instruction, Vocabulary Development, Inferences
Murray, Maria S.; Munger, Kristen A.; Hiebert, Elfrieda H. – Elementary School Journal, 2014
In this study, the student texts and teacher guides of two reading intervention programs for at-risk, first-grade students were analyzed and compared: Fountas and Pinnell's "Leveled Literacy Intervention" (LLI) and Scott Foresman's "My Sidewalks" (MS). The analyses drew on the framework of available theory and…
Descriptors: Reading Programs, Intervention, Reading Instruction, Comparative Analysis
Wray, David; Janan, Dahlia – Curriculum Journal, 2013
The concept of readability has had a variable history, moving from a position where it was considered as a very important topic for those responsible for producing texts and matching those texts to the abilities and needs of learners, to its current declining visibility in the education literature. Some important work has been coming from the USA…
Descriptors: Readability, Text Structure, Foreign Countries, Textbooks

Granowsky, Alvin; Botel, Morton – Reading Teacher, 1974
Acknowledging widely recognized shortcomings of readability formulas, the authors propose a technique for analyzing syntactic complexity. (RB)
Descriptors: Difficulty Level, Elementary Education, Measurement Instruments, Readability
Davison, Alice – 1981
Readability formulas were originally conceived of as being evaluative measures. However, if a text is being rewritten or revised so that it matches a particular level of ability in its intended readers, it is rather inescapable that readability formulas will influence the changes made. Tacitly or not, formulas now are used to diagnose what causes…
Descriptors: Content Analysis, Readability, Readability Formulas, Reading Difficulties

Duffelmeyer, Frederick A. – Reading Teacher, 1982
Reveals that the Rauding Scale of Prose Difficulty provides results closer to Spache and Dale-Chall values than does the Singer Eyeball Estimate of Readability (SEER) technique. (FL)
Descriptors: Comparative Analysis, Difficulty Level, Elementary Education, Readability
DuBay, William H., Ed. – Online Submission, 2007
Early in the 20th century, educators began looking for scientific methods for matching texts with readers. Some of the best minds in education dedicated themselves to this task, including Edward L. Thorndike, William S. Gray, Ralph Tyler, Edgar Dale, Irving Lorge, and Jeanne S. Chall. The purpose of this book is to bring students of reading into…
Descriptors: Reading Materials, Readability, Placement, Textbooks
Brittain, Mary M. – 1985
A study examined basal readers and trade books in terms of reading ease as estimated by readability formulas and the incidence of figurative language. Based on an earlier study, the study had three major goals: to (1) assess and compare two reading series ("A" and "B") at each of two grade levels; (2) assess and compare…
Descriptors: Basal Reading, Content Analysis, Elementary Education, Figurative Language
Olson, Arthur V. – 1984
Four readability formulas were analyzed to determine the reading grade equivalence of instructional materials at the middle grades and above: the Dale-Chall formula, the Gunning-Fog Index, the Flesch Reading Ease Formula, and the McLaughlin SMOG Grading. In addition, Spache and Wheeler/Smith formulas were analyzed for evaluating primary grade…
Descriptors: Content Analysis, Elementary Secondary Education, Readability, Readability Formulas
Williams, Allan R., Jr.; And Others – 1974
This literature review documents the state-of-the-art of readability assessment and indicates directions for future research in readability measurement. The period since 1953 is emphasized, although there is some consideration of earlier work. Primary emphasis within the review is based on readability measurement; however, a final section is…
Descriptors: Armed Forces, Literature Reviews, Readability, Readability Formulas

Allen, Jo – Teaching English in the Two-Year College, 1985
Presents a brief history of readability formulas (discussing their capabilities and liabilities) and synthesizes current readability research for teachers who want to use readability principles in their work and who want to teach these principles to their students. Contains a table of the most commonly used formulas that lists their variables,…
Descriptors: College English, English Instruction, Readability, Readability Formulas
Bouffler, Chrystine – Australian Journal of Reading, 1984
It has been customary to simplify texts to increase their readability for young readers. Recent studies suggest that it is the predictability of texts that is the key to their readability and that simplification may actually create problems for the reader. (RBW)
Descriptors: Elementary Education, Readability, Readability Formulas, Reading Comprehension

Richaudeau, Francois – Journal of Reading, 1981
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)
Descriptors: Comparative Education, Discourse Analysis, Elementary Secondary Education, Foreign Countries
Stahl, Norman A.; And Others – 1984
Readability formulas were applied to the drivers' manuals of each of the 50 United States and Puerto Rico to determine whether the manuals were appropriate materials for motivating reluctant or low achieving adolescent readers. Four 100-word samples were chosen from each manual, according to four themes common to each manual and of particular…
Descriptors: Driver Education, High Schools, Low Achievement, Motivation Techniques
Anderson, Richard C.; Davison, Alice – 1986
The problems arising from treating word and sentence complexity as the direct causes of difficulty in comprehension are surveyed in this paper from the perspective of readability formulas. The basic choices and assumptions made in the development and use of readability formulas are discussed in relation to the larger question of text…
Descriptors: Basal Reading, Readability, Readability Formulas, Reader Response