A Quantitative Comparison of EFL Graded Readers: Vocabulary Coverage and Text Complexity Variation

• In Event: Roundtable Session 47
  In Roundtable Session: Exploring Classroom Discourse, Vocabulary, and Academic Language Use in Second Language Learning

Abstract

Extensive reading has been shown to increase second language (L2) acquisition. Publishers who develop materials for English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners have produced series of Graded Reader books to encourage practice and growth in EFL learners’ English acquisition. These books are created with strict publisher-dictated guidelines that control for vocabulary, syntactic complexity, and subject matter among other characteristics. This study analyzed text characteristics of three graded reader series from prominent international EFL publishers. The overall difficulty of the texts within and across levels was examined as well as the texts’ vocabulary demand, structural demand, and syntactic demand. Variation both within and across series was found suggesting that examination of these features can inform educators’ selection of appropriate texts for their students.

Authors

• Heather Hughes Koons, MetaMetrics

• Laura Bush, MetaMetrics