An Objective Method of Determining Reading Difficulty

Abstract

The difficulty of vocabulary in reading material is an exceedingly important factor in selecting textbooks and reading matter for children. For lack of a simple and reliable method of determining this difficulty, however, the attempts to adapt vocabularies to various grades and ages have been largely a matter of guess work or personal judgment. Several methods of evaluating vocabulary difficulty have been sug gested. S. L. Pressey and Bertha A. Lively1 worked on the theory that the higher the frequency of use, as discovered by Dr. Thorndike's study, the easier the vocabulary. This method they found rather cumbersome and inconvenient because each selection contained words of unknown frequency and, therefore, unknown difficulty. L. C. Pressey2 made a study of the technical vocabulary, believing that the percent of technical words employed might be a measure of the vocabulary burden of a given textbook. She did not proceed, however, to use it as such a measure. Washburne and Vogel3 worked out a formula which they found satis factory for the grade placement of books by combining in certain pro portions the following elements : 1. The number of different words that occur in a sampling of 1000 words. 2. The number of uncommon words found in a 1000 word sampling, as determined by the Thorndike list of 10,000 words. 3. The number of prepositions in a 1000 word sampling. 4. The number of simple sentences estimated in a sample of 75 sentences. Alfred S. Lewerenz4 reported a study made by the Educational Re search Division of the Los Angeles Public Schools. By comparing the