Abstract:

Written and verbal communication is critical in all walks of life. And while Mandarin, Spanish and Hindi speakers dominate in various countries, most of these nations recognise the importance of English literacy and require compulsory English education at the primary school level. These countries recognise that reading and communicating in English is indispensable in modern life, as an individual’s literacy level affects their opportunities in life for education, employment, income and wellbeing.

This paper will provide a description of Readable English; an innovative system that replaces hundreds of English language irregularities with 22 easy-to-learn visual cues. Readable English turns English into a phonetic language for easier reading and pronunciation.

With this paper and presentation we will discuss and demonstrate the various features of the Readable English website, apps and learning games, the on-line dictionary, the eReader and additional resources such as printable teaching materials. We will demonstrate the key to Readable English – the 22 visual cues or glyphs and how the website provides a number of ways for students to quickly the glyphs. Other key aspects of Readable English include the greying out of silent letters and the inclusion of syllable breaks that divide words into readable chunks.

These components (i.e. the glyphs, greying out of silent letters and syllable breaks) provide Readable English with a critical feature not possessed by other phonetic systems. Readable English does not change the spelling of words.

One of our planned experiments is to test the hypotheses that keeping spelling intact is important not only for developing sight-word recognition, but also for visibly conveying the meaning of words. We will provide detailed outlines and descriptions for this and other experiments that are planned for 2020 and beyond. For the most part, these experiments will use cognitive load theory as the theoretical framework to evaluate the various outcomes achieved. Our main and overarching hypothesis that will be tested in various forms is that the use of Readable English will reduce the cognitive load for non-native English speakers. Such reduced cognitive load will then result in greater learning.

Keywords:

Language, Readable English, cognitive load theory.