290 likes | 462 Views
Selamat Datang 欢 迎 Vaazhga Welcome. Many thanks for coming to today’s meeting. Funded by the British Academy and Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris A project to establish a research network to explore the concept and operation of readability in a range of languages and scripts.
E N D
Many thanks for coming to today’s meeting Funded by the British Academy and UniversitiPendidikan Sultan Idris A project to establish a research network to explore the concept and operation of readability in a range of languages and scripts
What we would like from the day • To share some ideas and to make you as enthusiastic as we are about this topic • To develop some plans for building a research network • To develop a clearer view about what next
Exploring the nature of readability • The science (or is it art) of matching texts to readers • A taken-for-granted concept – even Word does it for you! • Easily measured, easily understood http://www.online-utility.org/english/readability_test_and_improve.jsp • It’s just about how difficult texts are to read • Isn’t it …..?
Word says: Reading Ease = 65.9 Reading Grade level = 6.8
Word says: Reading Ease = 65.4 Reading Grade level = 6.9
Word’s readability scores for these two texts are almost identical. Yet they are clearly different in nature and effect on the reader.
Exploring the nature of readability • In research into readability, measuring it has tended to get more attention than actually analysing what it is. • Measurement has usually been approached through the use of formulae. • For example, Flesch Reading Ease score = 206.835 − (1.015 × ASL) − (84.6 × ASW) Where: ASL = average sentence length (number of words divided by number of sentences); ASW = average word length in syllables (number of syllables divided by number of words)
Exploring readability formulae • We applied 6 commonly used readability formulae to 64 texts chosen by primary school children. • The first table shows correlations between the rank ordering of the texts by the six formulae. • The second table shows the mean grade levels assigned to the texts by the six formulae.
Exploring readability formulae Table 1: Spearman's rank order correlation coefficients (rho) between the SMOG, FOG, Flesch-Kincaid, Spache, Dale-Chall and ATOS formulae
Exploring readability formulae Table 2: The mean text grade levels predicted by the six readability formulae
Exploring readability formulae • These results suggest that the readability formulae (with the exception of the Dale-Chall) generally agree about which texts are harder and which are easier. • But they do not agree about the levels of difficulty of the texts. • Therefore a teacher cannot rely on them to match texts to readers.
Why such variability? • Various formulae measure different things • Word length • Sentence length • Unfamiliar / Difficult words • Polysyllabic words • Each of these is problematic
Why such variability? • Various formulae measure different things • Word length • adze • gneiss • velociraptor
Why such variability? • Various formulae measure different things • Sentence length • The princess kissed the frog and he turned into a handsome prince so, of course, they married and lived happily ever after. • One is and then one is not. That is the problem of man.
Why such variability? • Various formulae measure different things • Unfamiliar / Difficult words • rug • neighborhood
Why such variability? • Various formulae measure different things • Polysyllabic words • footballer • reported • strengths
Readability or legibility? • Which of these is more readable? • Which of these is more readable? • Which of these is more readable? • Which of these is more readable? • Which of these is more readable? • Which of these is more readable? • Which of these is more readable?
Readability has faded from view – or has it? • Research into readability has seriously declined in educational fields. • But the concept is still heavily used in Health and Medical fields.
Readability has also become theoretically problematic Most 9 year olds could ‘read’ this aloud, but not understand it.
Readability has also become theoretically problematic When you are told this is about washing clothes, everything becomes clear
Changing paradigms • Theories of readability have changed because theories of reading have changed. Think how much information the reader supplies in the following short texts. • Mary heard the ice-cream van coming down the street. She remembered her birthday money and rushed into the house. • Mary heard the bus coming down the street. She remembered her birthday money and rushed into the house.
Changing paradigms • Mary heard the ice-cream van coming down the street. She remembered her gun and rushed into the house. • Mary heard the ice-cream van coming down the street. She remembered her stomach and rushed into the house.
Non più andrai, farfallone amorosoA new model of readability