Development and Validation of a New Instrument to Assess the Readability of Spanish Prose

Abstract

A MAJOR TOPIC IN READING RESEARCH, IN BOTH English and foreign language study, has been the assessment of the difficulty levels of instructional materials. Numerous studies have provided language educators, researchers, and textbook authors with theoretical and practical information concerning various readability techniques. Reading difficulty of selected materials can be determined in two diverse ways: first, through formulas, using as input only the syntactic and semantic elements extant in the material under examination;1 second, by measuring the readability of selected materials by testing a sample population and evaluating the mean scores of the group for each particular passage. Selection of either readability technique will depend upon the factors of time, availability of subjects, and the degree of accuracy required in assessing materials for target groups.2 This article is intended to familiarize readers with procedures utilized in the assessment of reading difficulty with particular emphasis on the development of a new and innovative instrument for use with Spanish materials. A survey of the literature indicates that little significant progress has been made in the area of the readability of prose in Spanish since the development of the Spaulding formula in 1956. Today's language educators require an objective and efficient method to determine the suitability of available materials for classroom use.