Readability Analysis of Texts in College English Textbooks and Reading Passages in CET-6

Abstract

English textbooks play an indispensable role in classroom teaching and learning. Teachers carry out different activities based on them and students also depend on them to enlarge their knowledge and prepare for an examination. Thus it is of great importance to select textbooks with proper text readability. What’s more, College English Tests are a criterion to evaluate students’ achievements in English in college. There have been some studies on the text readability of textbooks and test papers, however, there are very few studies on the consistency of the readability of the texts from English textbooks with that of College English Test papers. To make up for the gap, this research makes a comprehensive analysis of the texts in volumes 3 and 4 of New Target College English Integrated Course and the reading passages in College English Test band 6 from July 2020 to June 2022 in terms of text readability. Flesch Reading Ease formula and other five commonly used readability formulas are employed as the detection tools to study the text readability of texts from textbooks and papers. The research aims at finding out the characteristics of the text readability of the two volumes and test papers and the differences between them. Hoping that this study can provide some suggestions for teachers as well as students who use the same textbooks.