A Missing Link at the Intersection of Academic Language and Text Complexity Research: Syntactic Complexity

• In Event: Roundtable Session 4
  In Roundtable Session: Academic Language in Content Literacy Classrooms

Abstract

This paper examines syntactic complexity of sentences as an aspect of text complexity that is not well defined by the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) model for measuring text complexity and is not well measured by most readability measures. The study highlights the importance of looking at syntactic complexity in a text, especially for the purpose of assisting students to more effectively engage with academic texts that tend to use specific types of more complex syntactic structures. Findings of the study are relevant to current work around measuring readability and text complexity. Findings will also be useful to classroom teachers, who, under the CCSS model, must think more deeply about the language of the texts that they are teaching from.

Authors

• Roger S. Frantz, Pearson Assessment Center

• Laura Starr, Pearson

• Alison L. Bailey, University of California - Los Angeles