Abstract:

Selecting the appropriate reading materials for students with reading difficulties is considered an essential issue regarding reading intervention. Texts are the fundamental element on which all the teaching strategies and methods rely. Matching the reader with the text is the first step towards successful intervention planning. For that purpose, numerous tools for measuring text complexity or readability have been developed for the English language. Recent developments in reading instruction and intervention, such as the Response to Intervention (RtI) model and computerized assessments for reading, have led to a renewed interest in the field of readability and text complexity. Despite the well-established necessity, such tools and methods have not been developed yet for the Greek language. This study investigated the methodological issues for selecting the appropriate materials for reading intervention. We examined the readability measurement approaches that could be used in the Greek language. Finally, we followed a judgment-qualitative approach to create a scale for informational text difficulty evaluation. We considered aspects of text complexity, such as cohesion and coherence, vocabulary, word and sentence length, visualization, relative pronouns, and text structure. We also examined the curriculum for Greek language teaching in primary school for each grade. The scale was designed to provide a template of the appropriate informational text difficulty for primary school according to students ' grade level. Several reading experts in intervention and assessment examined the scale and found it an adequate method for assigning informational texts to a grade level. Therefore, it is possible that teachers and writers could use the scale as an exemplar of the appropriate text difficulty according to students' grade level. Further studies are necessary to establish the technical adequacy and the practical implications of the scale.

Keywords:

Reading difficulties, informational text, reading intervention, readability, text complexity, grade leveled text.