An Examination of Text Complexity as Characterized by Readability and Cohesion

Abstract

To better understand dimensions of text complexity and their effect on the comprehension of adolescents, 103 high school seniors were randomly assigned to 4 groups. Each group read versions of the same 2 informational passages and answered comprehension test items targeting factual recall and inferences of causal content. Group A passages had a challenging readability level and high cohesion; Group B passages had an easier readability and low cohesion; Group C passages had a challenging readability level and low cohesion; and Group D passages had an easier readability and high cohesion. Students in Group D significantly outperformed students in Group C (g = 0.78). Although the effect sizes of comparisons among all groups ranged from g = 0.13 to 0.73, no other comparisons were statistically significant. Results indicate that adolescents’ reading comprehension is dually influenced by a text's readability and cohesion. Implications for matching readers to instructional text are discussed.

Keywords:

• adolescents
• causal cohesion
• readability
• reading comprehension
• text complexity

Notes

Group differences were investigated using ANOVA to determine whether groups were similar based on gender, F(3, 98) =.13, p =.94; age, F(3, 99) =.78, p =.51; self-reported first language, F(3, 99) =.80, p =.50; and special education status, F(3, 99) = 1.35, p =.26.

An ANCOVA model with background knowledge and criterion-referenced test as covariates was conducted and resulted in the same pattern of results as the ANOVA model, that is a significant main effect of passage was found, F(3, 94) = 3.35, p =.02.

Table 4 One-Way Analysis of Variance: Passage Scores