Readability and French Language Teaching Texts: An Analysis of French Language Teaching Websites and Textbooks

AbstractIn parallel with the rapid development of Internet, the number of online language learning resources created for self-study seems to have overtaken print-based resources and more and more language teachers orientate their students towards language teaching websites so that these documents could have a support role outside the classroom. With regard to research focus, as some researchers rightly stated (i.e. Kong, 2009), educationists centered their focus, on the contrary, more on print-based teaching materials while linguistic and interactional features of websites are mostly disregarded. One possible reason of this would be the consideration of online learning materials are simple reproductions of their print-based counterparts which is not true because web-based and print-based materials are different tools. Readability of texts serving as online documents is one of the neglected features concerning language teaching websites. To examine if online textual materials are simple duplicates of print-based materials, the present study aims to compare French language teaching websites and textbooks in terms of their lexical density and clause length which are common criteria for readability. Results showed similarities regarding both clause length and lexical density between websites and traditional textbooks. Based on these results, practical implications that would be needed for the design of appropriate online instructional resources have been then discussed