Readability Analysis of Text in English Textbooks of FederalBoard of Intermediate and Secondary Education for HigherSecondary Level

Abstract

This study mainly focuses on the readability of the text of the HSSC-II textbook. Considering the importance of textbook evaluation, the study evaluated the English textbook of HSSC-II, which is taught at all the colleges affiliated with the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE). Selected texts from the book have been analyzed so as to determine their readability. The texts were analyzed through an online text evaluation tool, the Text Readability Consensus Calculator (TRCC), which determines the grade level, text readability level, and age of the reader as well as the appropriation of the text. The readability scores of the text yielded by the TRCC were compared with the students' results of the comprehension test. This comparison reveals that the original text is "fairly difficult to read" for 13–15-year-old native readers among 8th and 9th grade students, while the evaluator rates the simplified text as "fairly easy to read" for native readers among 12–14-year-old 7th and 8th grade students. While the comprehension test results for non-native readers show that the text is extremely difficult, non-native 12th graders with an average age of 17 could only get 39% in the original text and 47.6% in the simplified text. The research concludes with some suggestions for the text designer to consider various features for making text readability compatible with the grade level of the students.