“LEXICAL COMPARISON BETWEEN THE COMMON EUROPEAN FRAMEWORK OF REFERENCE FOR LANGUAGES AND THE FLESCH-KINCAID”

Abstract

This article presents the results of an exploratory study pertaining to the use of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for Languages and its Text Inspector; an automated tool measuring proficiency level, text complexity, and readability. This tool alsoanalysed text based on Flesch reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grade. The assessment of the text in the current study is based on seven text parameters: CEFR levels, types, tokens, sentence count, Flesch reading ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grades. Ten academic texts at tertiary level (Essays) were analysed to find how specific parameters collaborate with each other. As shown by the findings, conventional readability equations, such as the Flesch-Kincaid Ease and Grades, are not as accurate predictors of text quality
as are the CEFR text characteristics. A comprehensive approach for selecting appropriate academic texts for a given audience may be strengthened by using the discovered connection between the text complexity characteristics.