Development of a Chinese Readability Formula

• In Event: Roundtable Session 50
  In Roundtable Session: Research in Reading and Literacy SIG Roundtable 2: Reading and Writing

Abstract

This study tried to develop a Chinese Readability Formula to provide parents, teachers, educators, and researchers an objective and a convenient way to get text difficulty information. Several regression analyses were used to get regression formulas, which are the readability formulas, and these regression models were used to identify the text difficulty level of each article. Among several regression models, the results showed that the accuracy of the best readability formula providing the text difficulty information was 79%. Also, the difference between the estimated grade level and the grade level defined in the text book was less than one grade level.

Author

• Yi-Chen Wu, National Center on Educational Outcomes