2018-2021: Effects of linguistic complexity on students’ text comprehension
Factual texts (e. g. in a textbook) are among the primary resources for teaching and learning in physics. They influence classroom activities as well as learning. Surveys have shown that students frequently perceive texts in schoolbooks as linguistically complex and incomprehensible. While studies on textbooks show a stagnation of linguistic complexity across grades, even though the language proficiencies of students differ between grades. In addition, large-scale assessments have shown moderate to strong correlations of students’ text comprehension with their science performance. Which leads to the assumption that the linguistic complexity of a factual text might affect students’ comprehension. However, there is no clear empirical evidence for the effect of linguistic complexity on the comprehension of factual texts. Thus, this experimental study investigates, if linguistic complexity of factual texts in physics affects students’ comprehension.
The study is integrated into a research program of the working group “subject learning and language” (AG FuS) which aims at a better understanding of effects of linguistic complexity of texts for teaching, learning, and assessment. The AG FuS provides an empirically and theoretically derived heuristic model of linguistic complexity in German (Heine et al. 2018). The model variates several linguistic features at once and has been used to variate the linguistic complexity of items in former studies. For this study, factual physics texts were developed on three levels of linguistic complexity keeping other readability features at a constant high level. Based on findings of two qualitative studies (N = 16 and N = 23) and one quantitative (N = 144) study the instrument, consisting of texts and items, has been analyzed and improved. In the main study three introductory texts in thermodynamics and a total of 27 items were presented to N = 812 secondary school students. Overall results as well as results of differential analysis will be used to answer the research question.
The project will be conducted in close cooperation with Prof. Lena Heine (University Bochum).
Further reading
Hackemann, T., Heine, L., & Höttecke, D. (2022). Challenging to Read, Easy to Comprehend? Effects of Linguistic Demands on Secondary Students' Text Comprehension in Physics. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-022-10306-1
Hackemann, T., Heine, L., & Höttecke, D. (2020). Textverständlichkeit sprachlich variierter physikbezogener Sachtexte. In S. Habig (Hrsg.), Naturwissenschaftliche Kompetenzen in der Gesellschaft für morgen (S. 306-309). GDCP, Jahrestagung in Wien 2019.
Heine, L., Domenech, M., Otto, L., Neumann, A., Krelle, M., Leiß, D., Höttecke, D., Ehmke, T. & Schwippert, K. (2018). Modellierung sprachlicher Anforderungen in Testaufgaben verschiedener Unterrichtsfächer: Theoretische und empirische Grundlagen [Modeling language requiremet levels of test items in different subjects: Theoretical and empirical foundation]. Zeitschrift für angewandte Linguistik, 69, 69-96.