Reader Response to Text Adaptation: A Study of Female Emirati Undergraduate Students

Current research explores the response of female Emirati undergraduate students to text adaptation. Incorporated at the time of developing learning aids, students’ response can serve as one of the tools for enhancing students’ language skills required for their academic success. The analysis is based on the response of two groups of students (24 and 25 students respectively) obtained through a test and a text difficulty survey addressing their comprehension skills of authentic versus adapted texts. The effect of the text and sentence length, grammatical complexity, vocabulary, and cohesion on students’ comprehension were considered in the study. The research identifies requirements for amending the text for Emirati female students, and the areas of concern that helps material designers working in the Arab world to choose the most appropriate approach to text manipulation