Detecting Manipulated Second Language Reading Texts
Scott A. Crossley, David F. Dufty, Gwyneth A. Lewis, Max M. Louwerse, Philip M. McCarthy, Danielle S. McNamara · eScholarship (California Digital Library) · 2006
An important debate in the field of second language learning concerns assumed differences between authentic and simplified text. Texts are simplified through techniques such as increasing high frequency vocabulary, controlling for connective and abstract language, revising complex syntax, and increasing redundancy within text to reduce cognitive processing load (Simenson 1987). Crossley (2006) argued that moderate, shallow, textual changes can significantly affect discourse structures and have the potential to affect discourse processing. Crossley also demonstrated that teachers of English could reliably distinguish these two text-types. In this study, we build on this research by evaluating the use of the computational tool, Coh-Metrix (Graesser et al., 2004) as a means to replicate human ability to distinguish the two text types.