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Linguistic Simplification of SL Reading Material: Effective Instructional Practice?
Author(s) -
Young Dolly N.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
the modern language journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.486
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1540-4781
pISSN - 0026-7902
DOI - 10.1111/0026-7902.00027
Subject(s) - reading comprehension , recall , comprehension , linguistics , reading (process) , psychology , computer science , cognitive psychology , natural language processing , philosophy
Linguistic simplification of authentic texts is a common practice in second language (SL) reading material but research results on whether it actually increases comprehension are inconsistent. This study examined the types of simplifications made to 4 authentic texts and investigated whether there were differences in recall scores based on whether students read simplified or authentic versions. Four different recall scoring methods were used to assess reading comprehension. Findings indicated that a high percentage of the modifications made were lexical in nature and that recall scores for the simplified texts were not superior to the authentic ones. Moreover, 1 scoring method in particular, scoring based on the number and weight of misunderstandings, led to significant insights into the relationship between text processing and reading comprehension.