A Study on the Readability of American English Textbooks and Korean English Textbooks Comparing Syntactic Complexity and Conjunction Frequency in Sentence Structures
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The purpose of this study is to investigate the differences in readability as defined by Kim (2002) between textbooks used in grades 3~6 in American textbooks and 9~11 in Korean English textbooks. Based on Park (2015)’s observations on conjunction length and readability, has been hypothesized that the number of conjunctions used in complex sentences differentiates readability between language proficiency levels. Using 17 textbook samples from three widely used American textbook publishers ranging from grades 3~6 and 39 samples from twelve official Korean English textbooks ranging from grades 9~11—for a total of over 200,000 words—the study used the L2 Syntactic Complexity Analyzer (L2SCA), the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL), and the Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) scale, finding that the American textbooks had far more frequent instances of conjunctions used in between complex sentences, leading to decreased readability—as supported by Lee (2010), who found the readability of Korean English textbooks to be higher than corresponding American English textbooks. The study was limited in the scope of its sampled data and further studies should include datasets from more publishers and sources in order to corroborate the present findings.
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate the differences in readability as defined by Kim (2002) between textbooks used in grades 3~6 in American textbooks and 9~11 in Korean English textbooks. Based on Park (2015)’s observations on conjunction length and readability, has been hypothesized that the number of conjunctions used in complex sentences differentiates readability between language proficiency levels. Using 17 textbook samples from three widely used American textbook publishers ranging from grades 3~6 and 39 samples from twelve official Korean English textbooks ranging from grades 9~11—for a total of over 200,000 words—the study used the L2 Syntactic Complexity Analyzer (L2SCA), the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL), and the Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) scale, finding that the American textbooks had far more frequent instances of conjunctions used in between complex sentences, leading to decreased readability—as supported by Lee (2010), who found the readability of Korean English textbooks to be higher than corresponding American English textbooks. The study was limited in the scope of its sampled data and further studies should include datasets from more publishers and sources in order to corroborate the present findings.
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