<p>The purpose of this study was to analyze texts from four English textbook series for Swedish school years 7-9 as regards their readability and to investigate whether the text difficulty progresses within series with grade level and with each assigned difficulty level. The study also wished to make comparisons between these textbook series to determine if they are equivalent as regards their average readability level. The readability formulas Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid in Microsoft Word 2007 was used for calculation of the readability grade levels of a selection of 231 texts from the series <em>Good Stuff</em>, <em>Happy</em>, <em>Time </em>and <em>Wings. </em>The results from both formulas indicated that the texts in general become more difficult for each school year and with assigned level. However, the study showed that there are differences among the four series as regards their average difficulty levels and that there is a great difficulty range among texts.</p>

Teachers employ traditional readability measurements to estimate text difficulty when assigning textbooks to meet the students’ current proficiency level. The purpose of this study was to see if modern textbooks published by five major publishing companies in Sweden were more difficult to read according to traditional readability formula compared to textbooks published in the 90’s. This study also aims to investigate whether readability in textbooks was similar among the five publishers. The readability formula Flesch Reading Ease in Coh-Metrix was utilized to calculate text difficulty in textbooks intended for Swedish grade 7. The primary material used for this study consisted of 70 texts selected from textbooks from three different time periods and five different publishers. The results from the formula indicated that the modern textbooks, published in between 2012-2016, were more difficult to read compared with the older ones. In addition, the results indicated that readability was similar among the different publishers. However, the study showed that modern textbooks published by Liber were easier to read in comparison with the older ones of this particular publisher. That modern textbooks have longer sentence structures and more complex syntax suggests increased expectations of 7th graders’ reading abilities.

The purpose of this study was to analyze texts from four English textbook series for Swedish school years 7-9 as regards their readability and to investigate whether the text difficulty progresses within series with grade level and with each assigned difficulty level. The study also wished to make comparisons between these textbook series to determine if they are equivalent as regards their average readability level. The readability formulas Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid in Microsoft Word 2007 was used for calculation of the readability grade levels of a selection of 231 texts from the series Good Stuff, Happy, Time and Wings. The results from both formulas indicated that the texts in general become more difficult for each school year and with assigned level. However, the study showed that there are differences among the four series as regards their average difficulty levels and that there is a great difficulty range among texts.

I detta arbete undersöks två etablerade och en experimentell metod för bestämmande av läsbarheten hos texter. Metoderna undersöks genom att de appliceras på två litterära verk: Atemschaukel av Herta Müller och Berühre mich. Nicht. av Laura Kneidl. Metoderna som undersöks är läsbarhetsformeln Flesch-Reading-Ease (meningslängd och ordlängd) och ordfrekvens (hur vanliga orden är). Dessa båda läsbarhetsundersökningar är väletablerade och har använts flitigt. I detta arbete testas även en ny möjlig läsbarhetsfaktor: Upprepningar av ord, där upprepningar av innehållsord räknas. Resultaten av analyserna enligt de olika metoderna sammanställs och jämförs för att besvara två frågor: 1. Vilket verk förefaller mest lättläst enligt de två etablerade läsbarhetsundersökningarna? 2. Samvarierar mängden upprepningar med resultaten från de andra två läsbarhetsundersökningarna? Resultaten ger en något splittrad bild: Atemschaukel är enligt Flesch-Reading-Ease det mest lättlästa verket, medan ordfrekvensen visar på motsatt förhållande: Berühre mich. Nicht. har de genomsnittligt vanligare orden. Huruvida upprepning av ord har ett samband med läsbarheten är svårt att avgöra baserat enbart på resultaten i denna undersökning. Användandet av språkliga stilfaktorer för eventuellt att läsbarhetstest inte lämpar sig för undersökning av skönlitterära texter.