Generalizability of readability factors across Dutch speaking populations

Description

In my dissertation (Kleijn, 2018) I studied the effects of different linguistic features on the readability of texts for Dutch adolescents. Sixty texts were turned into cloze tests using the newly developed HyTeC-cloze procedure and all texts were carefully manipulated on one stylistic linguistic feature to create an ‘easy’ and ‘difficult’ version of the same text. As a result, causal effects of these linguistic features on readability could be separated from correlational relationships. Or in other words: we know how well these factors predict readability versus how much they can actually improve the readability of texts for Dutch adolescents. In the current study we look at the generalizability of these results with regard to other Dutch speaking populations. In two replication studies we collected comprehension data from Dutch and Flemish adults as well as data from Flemish adolescents. I will present the results of these studies and compare them to the earlier findings for Dutch adolescents.

Period	5 Apr 2018
Event title	Workshop Predicting and improving readability: Which data, which predictors?
Event type	Conference
Location	Utrecht, NetherlandsShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International