Analyzing Readability Indices in Scholarly and NonScholarly Texts: Assessing Easability and Difficulty

• Tovar-Viera Rodrigo ^[1] ; Vélez Moreira Jonathan ^[2] ; Acurio Chimbo Jhon ^[2]
  1. [1] Ph.D. in English Applied Linguistics and Research Professor, Technical University of Cotopaxi, 050401, Pujilí, Ecuador
  2. [2] Student majoring in English in the Pedagogy of National and Foreign Languages Department, Technical University of Cotopaxi, 050401, Pujilí, Ecuador
• Localización: RISTI: Revista Ibérica de Sistemas e Tecnologias de Informação, ISSN-e 1646-9895, Nº. Extra 73, 2024, págs. 644-660
• Idioma: español
• Títulos paralelos:
  • Medición de la Legibilidad en Textos Escolares y No Escolares
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo (pdf)
• Resumen
  • español

    La legibilidad es una de las áreas de investigación de la lingüística y la lingüística aplicada; su función es determinar con qué facilidad los lectores pueden comprender un texto. Por ello, se examina la legibilidad de los textos para diferenciar su nivel de facilidad o dificultad lectora. El programa TextInspector y los indices Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid Grade y Gunning Fog midieron la legibilidad. Se analizaron quince muestras tomadas de (a) textos académicos (b) no académicos y (c) de entretenimiento. Los textos académicos reportan un nivel de complejidad alto y muy alto (Flesch: 46.04 a 23.23). Los textos no académicos muestran variabilidad lectora, estándar y dificil (Flesch-Kincaid: 6.73 a 12.67). Y, los textos de entretenimiento son fáciles y medianamente complejos (Gunning Fog: 5.42 a 16.83). La aplicación de estos índices ilustra cómo la legibilidad del texto condiciona su comprensión e interpretación, proporcionando información sobre el tipo de lectura a abordarse.

  • English

    Readability is one of the research areas of linguistics and applied linguistics; its function is to determine how easily readers can understand a text. Therefore, this study examines the readability of texts to differentiate their level of readability or difficulty of reading. The TextInspector software program and the Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid Grade, and Gunning Fog indices measured readability of texts. Fifteen samples taken from (a) academic (b) non-academic and (c) entertainment texts were analyzed. The results show that academic texts reported high and very high level of complexity (Flesch: 46.04 to 23.23). Non-academic texts showed reading variability, standard and difficult, respectively (Flesch-Kincaid: 6.73 to 12.67). Finally, entertainment texts were easy and moderately complex for readers (Gunning Fog: 5.42 a 16.83). The application of these indices illustrates how text readability conditions its comprehension and interpretation, providing information on the type of reading to be addressed.

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