A Comparative Study of Educational Texts for Native, Foreign, and Bilingual Young Speakers of Russian: Are Simplified Texts Equally Simple?
Studies on simple language and simplification are often based on datasets of texts, either for children or learners of a second language. In both cases, these texts represent an example of simple language, but simplification likely involves different strategies. As such, this data may not be entirel...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-10-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.703690/full |
| _version_ | 1818738867156549632 |
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| author | Anna Dmitrieva Anna Dmitrieva Antonina Laposhina Maria Lebedeva |
| author_facet | Anna Dmitrieva Anna Dmitrieva Antonina Laposhina Maria Lebedeva |
| author_sort | Anna Dmitrieva |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Studies on simple language and simplification are often based on datasets of texts, either for children or learners of a second language. In both cases, these texts represent an example of simple language, but simplification likely involves different strategies. As such, this data may not be entirely homogeneous in terms of text simplicity. This study investigates linguistic properties and specific simplification strategies used in Russian texts for primary school children with different language backgrounds and levels of language proficiency. To explore the structure and variability of simple texts for young readers of different age groups, we have trained models for multiclass and binary classification. The models were based on quantitative features of texts. Subsequently, we evaluated the simplification strategies applied to readers of the same age with different linguistic backgrounds. This study is particularly relevant for the Russian language material, where the concept of easy and plain language has not been sufficiently investigated. The study revealed that the three types of texts cannot easily be distinguished from each other by judging the performance of multiclass models based on various quantitative features. Therefore, it can be said that texts of all types exhibit a similar level of accessibility to young readers. In contrast, binary classification tasks demonstrated better results, especially in the R-native vs. non R-native track (with 0.78 F1-score), these results may indicate that the strategies used for adapting or creating texts for each type of audience are different. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-18T01:15:45Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-14c9cb87714a4ebeb2bce07c0b837b96 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-18T01:15:45Z |
| publishDate | 2021-10-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-14c9cb87714a4ebeb2bce07c0b837b962022-12-21T21:25:57ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782021-10-011210.3389/fpsyg.2021.703690703690A Comparative Study of Educational Texts for Native, Foreign, and Bilingual Young Speakers of Russian: Are Simplified Texts Equally Simple?Anna Dmitrieva0Anna Dmitrieva1Antonina Laposhina2Maria Lebedeva3Language and Cognition Laboratory, Pushkin State Russian Language Institute, Moscow, RussiaFaculty of Arts, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, FinlandLanguage and Cognition Laboratory, Pushkin State Russian Language Institute, Moscow, RussiaLanguage and Cognition Laboratory, Pushkin State Russian Language Institute, Moscow, RussiaStudies on simple language and simplification are often based on datasets of texts, either for children or learners of a second language. In both cases, these texts represent an example of simple language, but simplification likely involves different strategies. As such, this data may not be entirely homogeneous in terms of text simplicity. This study investigates linguistic properties and specific simplification strategies used in Russian texts for primary school children with different language backgrounds and levels of language proficiency. To explore the structure and variability of simple texts for young readers of different age groups, we have trained models for multiclass and binary classification. The models were based on quantitative features of texts. Subsequently, we evaluated the simplification strategies applied to readers of the same age with different linguistic backgrounds. This study is particularly relevant for the Russian language material, where the concept of easy and plain language has not been sufficiently investigated. The study revealed that the three types of texts cannot easily be distinguished from each other by judging the performance of multiclass models based on various quantitative features. Therefore, it can be said that texts of all types exhibit a similar level of accessibility to young readers. In contrast, binary classification tasks demonstrated better results, especially in the R-native vs. non R-native track (with 0.78 F1-score), these results may indicate that the strategies used for adapting or creating texts for each type of audience are different.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.703690/fullsimple languagesimple Russianyoung readerssimplification strategiestextbook analysistextbook corpus |
| spellingShingle | Anna Dmitrieva Anna Dmitrieva Antonina Laposhina Maria Lebedeva A Comparative Study of Educational Texts for Native, Foreign, and Bilingual Young Speakers of Russian: Are Simplified Texts Equally Simple? Frontiers in Psychology simple language simple Russian young readers simplification strategies textbook analysis textbook corpus |
| title | A Comparative Study of Educational Texts for Native, Foreign, and Bilingual Young Speakers of Russian: Are Simplified Texts Equally Simple? |
| title_full | A Comparative Study of Educational Texts for Native, Foreign, and Bilingual Young Speakers of Russian: Are Simplified Texts Equally Simple? |
| title_fullStr | A Comparative Study of Educational Texts for Native, Foreign, and Bilingual Young Speakers of Russian: Are Simplified Texts Equally Simple? |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Comparative Study of Educational Texts for Native, Foreign, and Bilingual Young Speakers of Russian: Are Simplified Texts Equally Simple? |
| title_short | A Comparative Study of Educational Texts for Native, Foreign, and Bilingual Young Speakers of Russian: Are Simplified Texts Equally Simple? |
| title_sort | comparative study of educational texts for native foreign and bilingual young speakers of russian are simplified texts equally simple |
| topic | simple language simple Russian young readers simplification strategies textbook analysis textbook corpus |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.703690/full |
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