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THE ESTIMATION OF READABILITY OF BOOKS OF LOW DIFFICULTY
Author(s) -
McLEOD JOHN
Publication year - 1962
Publication title -
british journal of educational psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.557
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 2044-8279
pISSN - 0007-0998
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8279.1962.tb01746.x
Subject(s) - readability , reading (process) , psychology , test (biology) , comprehension , reading comprehension , grade level , linguistics , mathematics education , developmental psychology , philosophy , paleontology , biology
S ummary . The paper describes an experimental procedure designed to provide a meaningful index of the readability of four elementary reading books. Two hundred‐and‐fifty‐five children, whose reading ages had been assessed individually on a test of Word Recognition, were required to read thirty‐word extracts from each book. From the proportions of children at different reading levels who read an extract with not more than two mistakes, each book's readability, expressed as a threshold in the manner of the Constant Method of psychophysics, was calculated. Reliable readability levels were obtained for each book. A second, parallel experiment, in which children's reading ages were assessed by a reading comprehension test, was also carried out. A sample of 375 children was used. Readability levels which agree substantially with the earlier estimates, were again obtained. Readability levels of the books according to the Spache and Dolch formulae bore no consistent relationship to the experimental findings nor to each other.