The Reading Difficulty of Textbooks for High-School Biology

Abstract

There appeared in two of the recent issues of The American Biology Teacher articles by Malatesta1 and Sister Payne,2 that dealt with the scientific terminology used in courses and textbooks for biology. The respective authors offered conflicting opinions about the scientific terminology in them. According to Malatesta, It (the book) consisted mainly of difficult scientific terms with equally difficult explanations. There was little to fire the imagination of the average student and lead him into what can be the wondrous field of nature. Sister Payne, however, seems to express an opposite view when she states, should scientific terminology be simplified for him (the student) Why substitute 'simple words' or slang phrases for distinctive, scientific phraseology that is purposeful and pointed? Why step down educational levels? We need not assume that the present generation of students is endowed with less ability than the parental generation who passed similar courses. Do we not insult both parent and progeny by catering to mediocrity ? It is obvious, to even a casual reader, that the opinions of both writers have considerable merit. It is axiomatic that the student cannot be expected to develop understandings in biology if the scientific vocabulary is beyond his comprehension. It is equally true that he cannot be expected to develop such understandings if the scientific terminology is too simple to express accurately the desired meanings. There are a number of major researches that have been undertaken to determine the vocabulary desirable for students at various grade levels and in various courses. Buckingham and Dolch3 summarized the results of a number of vocabulary studies, and listed words together with the grade levels of difficulty assigned to them by the different investigators. Curtis4 in his major investigation summarized the results of a hundred separate analyses of vocabularies for secondary science. As a part of the study he presented lists of words that were rated with respect to their desirability for use in courses in biology. Many of the words for biology in Curtis's list are rated by Buckingham and