Master Colloquium Jenni Schmidt (EST) - Textual Complexity in Dutch Physics Secondary Education Textbooks from 1965 to 2024

Speaker  

:

Jenni Schmidt

Title

:

Textual Complexity in Dutch Physics Secondary Education Textbooks from 1965 to 2024

Abstract

:

Reading comprehension is an essential skill for functioning in society. However, the reading comprehension levels in the Netherlands are declining and therefore attention is given to reading comprehension instruction and education. One possible intervention is text simplification, which is often used in the context of second-language learning. However, research on the effectiveness of text simplification in education shows contradicting results and warnings are issued against over-simplification of texts, by comparing older and recent materials intuitively. Those claims are yet to be substantiated by systematic research. Therefore, this study explored the changes of textual complexity over time while controlling for the educational level, grade level and topic. This was done by investigating fragments from 39 educational textbooks. The quantification of text characteristics was performed by T-Scan, a software for Dutch textual analysis. Significant changes were found for four out of nineteen textual parameters. The findings indicate slightly less complex texts over time, especially in the sentence length and number of partial sentences. This study is the first step in bridging the gap between intuitive observations and structural textual complexity research, and hopefully influences the discussions about simplification of educational texts over time.

Date

:

April 22, 2025

Time

:

16:00 hrs.

Building/Room

:

Ravelijn 2337

Graduation     Committee    

:

dr. Hans Luyten

dr. Marieke van Geel