​​​Better ways for measuring the readability of texts in Afrikaans 

Readability formulas are often used to measure how difficult it is to comprehend a given text. To date, four readability formulas have been developed for Afrikaans. Two such formulas were published by Van Rooyen (1986), one formula by McDermid Heyns (2007) and one by McKellar (2008). In a recent study, Rose Richards and Liezl van Zyl of the SU Language Centre and I tested the validity of these four formulas, using existing Afrikaans texts from a popular magazine and texts taken from government communications.

All characteristics included in the four readability formulas were first measured for each text. We then developed five different cloze tests for each text to assess actual text comprehension. Thereafter, 149 Afrikaans-speaking participants with varying levels of education each completed a set of two cloze tests.

By comparing the data on text characteristics to the cloze test scores from the participants, the accuracy of the predictions of the four existing formulas for Afrikaans could be determined. Only the McKellar formula produced readability scores that correlated significantly with the actual readability scores gained from the cloze tests. That said, the formula still did not perform particularly well. (For more information, please see our article in Stellenbosch Papers In Linguistics Plus, 53: http://cjpublications.nl/Jansen_et_al_2017.pdf) We came to the conclusion that the four existing formulas did in fact not offer suitable assistance to writers who wished to improve the readabiliy of their texts for their target audience. Thus, there is room for new (preferably automated) ways of determining the readability of texts in Afrikaans.

In this presentation, I will discuss our methods of investigation, with a focus on the cloze tests that we used. In addition, I will present our newly automated and tested readability formula for Afrikaans. In conclusion, I will discuss our further plans for testing the validity of our new formula.