基于Coh-Metrix的大学英语教材难易度研究——以《新视野大学英语》第三版为例

Research on the Coefficient of Difficulty for College English Textbooks Based on Coh-Metrix——A Case Study of New Horizon College English (Third Edition)

教材难易度是教材编写的重要原则,也是衡量学生学习质量的重要依据。通过使用Coh-Metrix文本处理软件对《新视野大学英语》第三版《读写教程》前四册教材词汇、句法和衔接三个维度的难度变化特征进行研究,结果表明,四册英语教材之间难度递进不明显,缺乏合理有序的梯度变化规律;教材难度的差异性跨度大,主要体现在第一册和第四册之间,难度"两极化"明显;语言特征上,难度变化主要体现在词汇、句法的表层特征上;而在衔接中,深层语义的构建比较欠缺。

The coefficient of difficulty for textbooks is an important principle in compiling textbooks and also an important basis for measuring students’learning quality.Through the use of Coh-Metrix text-processing software to research the characteristics of difficulty change in such three dimensions as vocabulary,syntax and cohesion of the first four textbooks of Reading and Writing Course in New Horizon College English(Third Edition),the results show that the progression for the coefficient of difficulty between the four textbooks is not obvious,without reasonable and orderly law of gradient change;the difficulty span of the textbooks is large,mainly reflected in Book 1 and Book 4,with an obvious'polarization'in the coefficient of difficulty;in terms of linguistic features,the change of the coefficient of difficulty is mainly reflected in the surface features of vocabulary and syntax;whereas in cohesion,the construction of deep semantics is relatively deficient.