The present study investigated the effect of classroom-based syntactic training on children's abilities to produce passive sentences. Thirty-three monolingual English children (mean age 5;2), were involved in passive-voice training based on storytelling sessions within a priming design. The training was delivered in a classroom setting, with two…

The present study aimed to describe and evaluate the current assessment practices prevalent in the different translation courses offered at the College of Languages and Translation (COLT). A sample of specialized translation final exams in 18 translation subject areas was collected. Each final exam was analyzed in terms of the following: (1) # of…

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to review readability formulae and offer a critique, based on a comparison of the grading of a variety of texts given by six well-known formulae. Methodology: A total of 64 texts in English were selected either by or for native English speaking children aged between six and 11 years. Each text was assessed…

"Lasbarhetsindex" ("Lix") is a readability formula developed in Sweden that holds promise for assessing text difficulty in other languages, including English. So far three separate studies have been conducted to test Lix with French and English texts, with German and English texts, and with Greek and English texts. In all three…

A study investigated the readability of current laws for Canadian francophones and anglophones. The 63 subjects were asked to read a variety of brief legal texts available in parallel styles in both languages and to answer questions about the texts' content. Subjects were also surveyed about their preference for a formal or vulgarized style of…