AT 23rd Scandinavian Conference of Linguistics

Uppsala, 1-3 October 2008

 
  
 
 
 
 

 
 
Readability and Multilingualism

Organizer
Sofie Johansson Kokkinakis, Institute for Swedish as a Second Language, Språkbanken, Department of Swedish, Gothenburg University

This workshop will cover the subject ”Readability and Multilingualism”. Heavy focus is today put on texts for different purposes that they must be readable and even in some cases easy-to-read and understand. This is partly dependant upon the fact that we live in a society where information is intensive and where it is getting more and more important to find the information and to retrieve the information available especially on the Internet. That some texts in certain situations have to be easy-to-read and understand is due to the fact that the information has to be accessible for everyone irrespective of educational background or mother tongue. Texts in this situation are often directed to adults concerning information from the government, the society, news, social and medical care etc.

Similar demands on readability are raised for texts directed to children and youth, where texts might be literature and school textbooks and texts in different kinds of test situations.

 

In this workshop we will be discussing issues concerning readability on a more general level where multilingualism is the common denominator. The issue of readability will be treated from a broad perspective covering both adults, children and youth.

 

Program, 2 Oct


11.30-12.00 Katarina Mühlenbock: Legible, readable or plain words - presentation of an easy-to-read Swedish corpus.


12.00-12.30 Åsa Wengelin:
Reading your own emergent text or someone else’s finished text -- with and without reading and writing difficulties -- which is easiest?


14.00-14.30 Caroline Liberg, Eva Forsbom:
Text and Language in Assessment of Mathematics and Science


14.30-15.00 Caroline Liberg, Åsa af Geijerstam & Jenny Folkeryd: Testet under lupp - konstruktion av läsförståelse i internationella läsundersökningar


15.00-15.30 Inger Lindberg, Sofie Johansson Kokkinakis:
A survey of words in Swedish Secondary School Textbooks and Multilingual students’ understanding. Presentation of a theory on word type grouping and working towards computer-based estimation of a student’s vocabulary.

 

In the workshop, the groups will have a presentation of 30 minutes each. The presentations will be followed by a discussion of these and other approaches to research on readability and multilingualism. Among other things we will discuss questions like: “What common issues are there in our research?”, “How can we co-ordinate research based on similar ideas and interests?” and “What should we aim for in the future?”

 

Invited speakers and participants

 

  • Sofie Johansson Kokkinakis, researcher at the Institute for Swedish as a Second Language, Språkbanken, Department of Swedish, Gothenburg University
  • Caroline Liberg, Professor of Educational Science Department of Didactics, Uppsala University.
  • Åsa af Geijerstam, researcher at the Department of Didactics, Uppsala University.
  • Jenny W Folkeryd, researcher at the Department of Didactics, Uppsala University.
  • Inger Lindberg, Professor of  Swedish as a Second Language at the department for Swedish Language, Gothenburg University, professor of bilingualism with focus on second language learning, Centrum för tvåspråkighetsforskning, Stockholms universitet.
  • Katarina Mühlenbok, PhD-student in the Graduate School of Language Technology (GSLT), Gothenburg University
  • Åsa Wengelin, researcher in Linguistics, Språk och litteraturcentrum, Lingvistik/Språkteknologi, Lunds universitet
  • Eva Forsbom, PhD-student in the Graduate School of Language Technology (GSLT), Uppsala University

 

Contact

Sofie Johansson Kokkinakis <firstname@svenska.gu.se>
Institute for Swedish as a Second Language, Språkbanken, Department of Swedish, Gothenburg University


Last Update 09-01-31
 

 
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