Cloze items are a foundational approach to assessing readability. However, they require human data collection, thus making them impractical in automated metrics. The present study revisits the idea of assessing readability with cloze items and compares human cloze scores and readability judgments with predictions made by T5, a popular deep…

The present study aims to determine the readability and clarity levels of certain Turkish tales for middle-school students. The study was conducted with a survey model. The study material consists of three tales each chosen from the books titled "Az Gittik Uz Gittik" and "Masal Masal Içinde," and the study group consists of 90…

Nowadays, text readability is of great importance. Simple but very often ignored, readability statistics can provide information about the level of difficulty of the readability of particular documents and increase an evaluator's credibility. Hence, this research aims to examine the readability index of the test instrument for BIPA (Bahasa…

In recent years, readability formulas have gained new prominence as a basis for selecting texts for learning and assessment. Variables that quantitative tools count (e.g., word frequency, sentence length) provide valid measures of text complexity insofar as they accurately predict representative and high-quality criteria. The longstanding…

Textbooks remain as major learning aids in all levels of education worldwide. Thus, textbooks must constantly be subjected to critical analysis in order to establish their curricular usefulness. This paper analyzed four commercial science textbooks designed for third grade Filipino learners. The four textbooks were analyzed according to…

English for specific purposes research reveals that learners at a variety of levels experience difficulty reading science text, sufficient to impede their acquisition of science understanding. However, little research exists regarding subject-specific language styles or reading difficulty in Arabic. Difficulties with specialised language may…

The present study examined the technical adequacy of maze-selection tasks constructed in 2 different ways: typical versus novel. We selected distractors for each measure systematically based on rules related to the content of the passage and the part of speech of the correct choice. Participants included 262 middle school students who were…

Appendix A of the Common Core State Standards (hereafter CCSS) contains a review of the research stressing the importance of being able to read complex text for success in college and career. The research shows that while the complexity of reading demands for college, career, and citizenship have held steady or risen over the past half century,…

In light of increasing mandates to incorporate close reading of primary source historical documents at the elementary level, this study explored the reading difficulty level of the US Constitution with preservice elementary teachers using a traditional cloze assessment procedure. While best practice pedagogy of social studies has long included…

This paper reports activities (as part of a university course in language teacher education on teaching reading) in which primary school student teachers (all ESL in-service teacher trainees) explored their own skills of determining textbook readability using an online software tool and a cloze test completed by two hundred and seventy-eight Grade…

Discusses the definition of readability, the history of readability formulas, writing adult materials to a desired readability level, matching readability levels of material to the reader's skill level, and uses of these concepts in adult education. (CT)

Reviews the literature and research on readability. Examines early formulas that relied on sentence length and difficulty of vocabulary, the subsequent use of cloze procedure to measure text readability, and other factors now recognized as influences on the comprehensibility of a text. Concludes that readability formulas have not served education…

Argues the cloze procedure is the appropriate method of assessing the readability of business writing. Uses this procedure to determine the readability of a statement issued by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). Finds one important GASB statement unreadable by college-level readers. (NH)

Advocates using the cloze procedure and varying the criteria of success, according to the group, in order to determine the readability of instructional materials. (MKM)

Suggests that readability formulas are methodologically flawed and inappropriate measures of the readability of materials written for adults. Argues that the cloze procedure is preferable because it assesses the readability of material by its intended audience. Notes that possible users of the cloze procedure include school systems, government…