A Survey of Studies on Readability

Readability refers to the ease with which a text is read and understood. The study of readability is of great practical as well as theoretical significance. The key question here is how to measure the readability of a text scientifically and accurately. In this paper the author attempts to synthesize and comment on previous studies on readability and discuss the major factors which may influence readability, contending that in measuring readability not only text-related factors but also reader- related factors and aituational factors need to be considered.