Choosing reading materials for language practice
Does anyone have a reliable way to determine if an article or a book chapter is actually suitable for a specific proficiency level? I often find that what is labeled as intermediate can sometimes feel way too complex or surprisingly simple.
9 Views
Actually I have been looking into this lately because guessing the difficulty of a text manually is quite time consuming. I found a tool that uses vocabulary distribution and sentence complexity to provide a more data based estimate. It classifies words into categories from A1 to C2 and calculates a total score based on how many advanced terms or complex connectors are used. I tried it with a few news articles and the results seemed quite rational as it even highlights which specific words contribute to a higher level. You can find the tool here https://lingoharvest.com/calculators/713-cefr-text-level-checker.html to see how the analysis works. It is helpful for someone who wants to adapt their reading list or for those who prepare materials for others. The interface is quite simple and it handles texts up to 10,000 words which is enough for most blog posts or essays. It does not replace a teacher but it provides a useful snapshot of lexical density and style.