Definition of Readability

Monday, April 9, 2018

Kang Ogud - kang ogud lovers in this day we will reviwe about .  Readability is one of the most important aspects that should be considered in selecting a good passage for student.1 Since readability can determine the achievement of the goal in teaching reading, some experts or researches define the term readability of a text differently. Actually, readability is not only determined by the length of the passages or the length of the words, but it is also determined by how interestingly and attractively the text is written.2 Barbara Woods also defined that the readability of text was investigated to measure the writing complexity and to estimate the reading or education level required for comprehension of the text.3

There are so many textbooks that are published by the publishers. However, it is not an easy matter to decide the appropriateness of the textbook that will be used with the students’ level. As a result, analyzing the readability level can be used to help the teachers in assessing the textbook.

Based on some definitions above, it can be concluded that readability is the complexity level of the reading text which is influenced by some factors in accordance with the level of a certain readers.

Factors that Influence Readability

According to Klare cited in Dubay, factors that affected comprehension in text are:

Word Characteristics Some of features may interact with this characteristics are proportion of content (functional) words, length of content words/ frequency/ familiarity, concreteness, association value, active vs nominalized verb construction.

Sentence Characteristics Some of features may interact with this characteristics are length. Active vs passive, affirmative vs negative embedded vs non-embedded, low depth vs high depth (branches).4

Style Average Sentence Length

in Words Average no. of syllables

per 100 words Grade

Very easy 8 or less 123 or less 4th

Easy 11 131 5th

Fairly easy 14 139 6th

Standard 17 147 7th to 8th

Fairly

difficult 21 155 Some high

school

Difficult 25 167 High school

or some college

Very

difficult 29 or more 192 or more College

Richard R. Day also explains about the factors that influence readability. He mentions five factors as follow:

Lexical Knowledge Lexical knowledge is an important factor because when the number of unknown lexical items in a reading passage increases, students will get more difficulty in comprehending the text.

Background knowledge

Background knowledge is essential in the readability of a text. The more readers know about a particular topic, the more quickly and accurately they can read it.5

Organization

Organization refers to both the rhetorical organization of the text and clarity of the organization. A passage that is not well organized might present problems for ESL students, especially at the beginning stages.

Discourse phenomena A textual phenomenon at the level of discourse includes the arrangement of topics and comments in a reading passage, and considerations of cohesiveness and coherence.6

Length of passage

The final factor of readability concerns the length of the potential reading passage. The most common mistake of inexperienced teachers or teachers who are not able to judge the reading abilities of their students is to select a passage that is too long.7

Therefore, the teachers have to know about these factors because by knowing the factors that influence readability, the teacher can decide the readability level of the texts. When the textbook that will be used has higher readability level for students, it means that a teacher has to choose another reading text from another source. However, when the text that will be used has lower readability level for students, the teacher has to look for or change some sentences in order to make it appropriate for certain students.

Methods in Readability Assessment

In assessing readability, there are some methods that can be applied. Teachers who want to select appropriate text for the students in the process of teaching and learning reading can use any kind of method depends on their beliefs. The purpose of readability assessment is to help someone in knowing the readability level of text for certain reader.

Basically, readability of the text can be measured in two ways,8 they are:

Readability formulas

Readability is a measure of the style of reading. Principally, readability formula is an instrument to estimate the difficulty level in understanding reading text.

The readability score based on this formula is got by amount of difficult words, amount of words in a sentence and the length of sentences in the reading text. The parts of readability formulas are mentioned as below:

Flesch Reading Ease Formula

Flesch reading Ease formula is created by Rudolf Flesch. It is a statistical readability formula that analyzes the readability level through the numbers of syllables, words and sentences. Chall states on Dubay’s book that  it  is the  most  popular formula and the most tested and reliable.9 Furthermore, Flesch formed the formula as follow:

Score = 206.835 – (1.015 x ASL) – (84.6 x ASW)10

Where:

Score : Position on a scale of 0 – 100

ASL : Average Sentence Length  (the  number of words divided by number of sentences)

ASW = Average number of Syllables per Word (the number of syllables divided by the number of word).

It calculates reading ease on a scale from 1 to 100, with the range of 0 – 30 being

“very difficult”, 30  –  50 being “difficult”, 50

–  60  being “fairly difficult”,  60  –  70  being

“standard”, 70 – 80 being “fairly easy”, 80 –

90  being  “easy”  and  90  –  100  being “very easy”. The description can be easier to be understood in the table below:

Table 2: Reading Ease Scale of the Flesch Formula 11

Score Difficult Level Reading Grade

0 to 30 Very Difficult College graduate

30 to 50 Difficult 13th to 16th grade

(college)

50 to 60 Fairly Difficult 10th to 12th grade

60 to 70 Standard 8th and 9th grade

70 to 80 Fairly Easy 7th grade

80 to 90 Easy 6th grade

90 to 100 Very Easy 5th grade

SMOG Formula

G. Harry McLaughlin developed the SMOG (Simple Measure of Gobbledygook) Readability Formula in 1969 through an article, SMOG Grading – A New Readability Formula in the Journal of Reading. It is a tool designed to estimate the readability level of the texts by taking the sample of word and sentence length. The SMOG examines 10 consecutive sentences from the beginning, middle and end of the text.12

Here are the steps in analyzing readability using SMOG formula: Count 10 sentences in a row near the beginning, 10 in the middle, and 10 in the end for a total of 30 sentences.

In the 30 selected sentences, count every word of three or more syllables in each group of sentences, even if the same word appears more than once. Calculate the square root of the number arrived at in Step 3 and round it off to nearest 10.

Estimate the square root of the number of polysyllabic words counted. This is done by taking the square root of the nearest perfect square. For example, if the count is  95,  the  nearest  perfect square is  100, which yields a square, choose the lower number. For instance, if the count is 110, take the square root of 100 rather than 121.

Add 3 to the approximate square root. This gives the SMOG grade.13 The conversion table of SMOG formula is stated in table below :

Table 3: SMOG Conversion Table

Word Count Grade Level

0 -2 4

3 – 6 5

7 – 12 6

13 – 20 7

21 – 30 8

31 – 42 9

43 – 56 10

57 – 72 11

73 – 90 12

91 – 110 13

13Allan Bailin and Ann Grafstein, Readability: Text and Context,

(Macmillan: Hofstra University, 2016), p. 45

111 – 132 14

133 – 156 15

157 – 182 16

183 – 210 17

211 – 240 18

Fry Readability Graph

Fry Readability Graph is developed by Burn, Roe and Ross in 2006. He claimed that he did not require the use of long vocabulary and mathematical computations. He explained that Fry’s Graph has its own advantage. By using a chart, the teacher can write down his own criteria. The procedure involves counting the number of sentences and syllables in each hundred word samples

plotting on the graph the average

number of syllables per hundred

words.14This method was popular

because it was purposely designed to save time. The attempt to save time and effort make Fry’s Graph achieve wide usage because of its convenience and ease of application.

The following are the directions for computing Fry’s Formula: Select three 100-word passages from near the beginning middle and the end of the book. Count the total number of sentences in each 100-word passage, estimating to the nearest tenth of a sentence. 

Average these three numbers.

Count the total number of syllables in each 100-word sample and average them for the three samples Plot on graph the average number of sentences per 100 words.

Burns, Roe and Ross further assert that the teacher’s first step in helping children to read content material is to be aware of the difficulty of the textbook assignments they make.15

The Dale-Chall Formula

The Dale-Chall Formula is the collaboration of two researchers who  had been working on the problem of readability. They are Edgar Dale and Jeanne Chall. They designed the formula to correct certain shortcomings in the Flesch Reading Ease formula. It uses a sentence-length variable plus a percentage of “hard words” – words not found on the Dale-Chall “long list” of 3000 easy words, 80 percent of which are known to fourth-grade readers.16 To apply the formula:

Select 100-word samples throughout the text (for books, every tenth page is recommended).

Compute the average sentence length in words.

Compute the percentage of words outside the Dale list of 3000 words.

Compute this equation:

Score = 0.1579 PDW + 0.496

ASL + 3.6365

Where:

Score = Reading grade of  a reader who can answer one-half of the test questions on a passage. PDW = Percentage of Difficult Words (Words not on the Dale- Chall word list).

ASL = Average Sentence Length in words.

Dale and Chall also published the following chart for correcting the grade-level scores at the higher grades.

Table 4: Dale and Chall grade- correction chart17

Formula

Score Corrected Grade

Levels

4.9 and

below Grades 4 and below

5.0 to 5.9 Grades 5 – 6

6.0 to 6.9 Grades 7 – 8

7.0 to 7.9 Grades 9 – 10

8.0 to 8.9 Grades 11 – 12

9.0 to 9.9 Grades 13 – 15

(college)

10 to above Grades 16 and above

(college graduate)

Cloze procedure test

The readability level also can be estimated by using cloze procedure test. Cloze procedure text is a readability test which uses the students’ ability in comprehending the text. In addition, it is a test constructed by deleting words from a selection and requiring students to fill in the blanks. The deleted words can be at random or mechanical procedure (every nth word) where n is usually a number 5 or above.18

REFERENCE

1. Allan Bailin and Ann Grafstein, Readability: Text and Context, (Macmillan: Hofstra University, 2016), p. 1
2. William H. Dubay, The Principles of Readability, (Costa Mesta: Impact Information, 2004), p. 3
3. Barbara Woods, Giana Moscardo and Tanya Greenwood, A Critical Review of Readability and Comprehensibility test, The Journal of Tourism Studies, 9, 1998, p. 51
4. William H. Dubay, The Principles of Readability, (Costa Mesta: Impact Information, 2004), p. 38
5. Allan Bailin and Ann Grafstein, Readability: Text and Context, (Macmillan: Hofstra University, 2016), p. 7
6. Allan Bailin and Ann Grafstein, Readability: Text and Context, (Macmillan: Hofstra University, 2016), p. 131
7. Richard R. Day, Selecting Passages for the EFL Reading Class, Journal of English Teaching Forum, Vol. 32, 1994.
8Allan  Bailin  and  Ann  Grafstein,  Readability:  Text  and Context, (Macmillan: Hofstra University, 2016), p. 34
9. William H. Dubay, The Principles of Readability, (Costa Mesta: Impact Information, 2004), p. 22
10. William H. Dubay, The Principles of Readability, (Costa Mesta: Impact Information, 2004), p. 21
11. William H. Dubay, The Principles of Readability, (Costa Mesta: Impact Information, 2004), p. 22
12. Allan Bailin and Ann Grafstein, Readability: Text and Context,
(Macmillan: Hofstra University, 2016), p. 44
14. William H. Dubay, The Principles of Readability, (Costa Mesta: Impact Information, 2004), p. 46
15Allan Bailin and Ann Grafstein, Readability: Text and Context, (Macmillan: Hofstra University, 2016), p. 42-43
16. William H. Dubay, The Principles of Readability, (Costa Mesta: Impact Information, 2004), p. 23
17. William H. Dubay, The Principles of Readability, (Costa Mesta: Impact Information, 2004), p. 23

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