Typography in children’s reading schemes may be suboptimal: Evidence from measures of reading rate

Hughes, Laura E.; Wilkins, Arnold J.

doi:10.1111/1467-9817.00126

Cited by 49 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…The decision to use realistic test material meant that the children's reading performance would be influenced by what Hughes and Wilkins (2002b) describe as the 'linguistic and semantic aspects of reading', as well as the 'visual aspects'. In their studies of typography in children's reading schemes (2002b) and 'big books' (2002a), they used a specially designed Rate of Reading Test which consisted of a list of 15 different words randomly ordered in a set of 10 lines, 15 words to a line.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘You can't see what the words say’: word spacing and letter spacing in children's reading books

Reynolds

Walker

2004

Journal Research in Reading

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This paper describes two tests designed to find out whether children would be helped in their reading by the use of word and letter spacing that was looser or tighter than commonly used default values. In each test, 24 six-year-old children were asked to read aloud in a classroom; the realistic, high-quality test material was set using a range of either word spacing or letter spacing values. Audiotapes of the children's reading were analysed to determine reading rates; miscue analysis was used to compare the number and kind of errors they made on the different settings. The children were also asked for their views about the texts they read. The results suggest that children in the test groups did not benefit significantly from spacing that was substantially looser or tighter than our default values, and that they noticed differences in letter spacing more easily than differences in word spacing. This paper describes two tests concerned with evaluating the effect of larger and smaller amounts of horizontal space, in the form of letter and word spacing, on children's reading. Smith (1994) uses the term 'the visual information of print' when writing about distinctive features that help readers identify words and letters. A 'distinctive feature' relevant to the identification of words and letters in languages that use the Latin alphabet is the space that defines the boundary between one word and another or one letter and another. This use of space is one of the conventions of written English that children learn when they begin to read and write. Careful control of word and letter spacing helps to maintain horizontal cohesion within a line of type, and is one way typographers strive to make text easy to read. There are conventions for the use of horizontal space that vary according to tradition, context and reader expectation.Most typographers prefer relatively narrow word spacing. In the UK this practice was strongly endorsed in 1947 by Tschichold, who in defining rules for typesetting for Penguin Books wrote: 'All text composition should be closely word-spaced. As a rule, the spacing should be about y the thickness of an ''i'' in the type size used', and that 'All major punctuation marks -full point, colon, and semicolon -should be followed by the same spacing as is used throughout the rest of the line'. When Tschichold was writing, it was still the case that much continuous text setting used relatively wide word spacing, and some printers, along with most typists, used two word spaces after full points until well into the twentieth century. The Penguin composition rules reinforced good

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘You can't see what the words say’: word spacing and letter spacing in children's reading books

Reynolds

Walker

2004

Journal Research in Reading

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“…This study also was against the idea of Bloodsworth (1993) that by summarizing other research concludes that font size has an effect on comprehension. The results also did not support Hughes and Wilkins' (2000) idea. Because they believe that when there are fewer words in a page, the readers have to process fewer words in each page, and consequently their comprehension becomes better.…”

Section: Type Sizementioning

confidence: 57%

“…For being legible, a text must be read rapidly and easily (Hughes & Wilkins, 2000). Legibility is related to perceiving letters and words and reading a text rapidly, easily, and with understanding.…”

Section: Legibility Eye Movement and Speed Of Readingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In their idea, features of a text are really important for readers to be able to make meaning. For example, Serif fonts in 16 point are the most preferable ones considering legibility (Hughes & Wilkins, 2000). Legibility of a text affects its readability which means the ease of comprehension (Mills & Weldon, 1987).…”

Section: Legibility Comprehension and Recallingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Effect of Text Typographical Features on Legibility, Comprehension, and Retrieval of EFL Learners

Soleimani¹,

Mohammadi²

2012

ELT

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This experimental study investigated the relationship between font type, font size, and line spacing and legibility, as measured by speed of reading, comprehension, and recalling. Instruments for testing legibility and reading comprehension were presented in eight typographical styles in print. The study tested 90 students for legibility and 76 students for comprehension. The subjects were chosen from Urmia Language Center in Urmia, Iran, and they were both girls and boys. Two weeks after the reading comprehension test, the subjects took part in recalling test. In all tests, the subjects were randomly assigned to one of the eight different typographical styles with Arial or Bookman Old Style (font selection) and 10pt or 12pt (font size). But the subjects had both set solid and double spaced leading in their instruments. Results indicated that the 12pt was read faster than 10pt. But font selection and line spacing did not have any significant effect on reading speed. Also, there were no significant results with regard to comprehension and recalling.

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“…Legibility is the characteristic which indicates us how easy and fast a text can be read with regards to its graphic features (Carter, 1997, p. 12) (letter font (Duñabeitia, Perea, & Carreiras, 2009;Fiset et al, 2008;Hillier, 2007Hillier, , 2006Feely, Rubin, Ekstrom, & Perera, 2005;Perera, 2003;Sassoon & Williams, 2000), size (Hughes & Wilkins, 2002;Hughes & Wilkins, 2000), inclination, weight (Sassoon & Williams, 2000), spacing (Reynolds, 2006;Feely et al, 2005;Sassoon & Williams, 2000), back-image contrast, text justification (Sassoon, 1993;Sassoon & Williams, 2000), and spacing (Reynolds, 2006;Sassoon, 1993;Sassoon & Williams, 2000) among others).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dixy: A Connection Between the “Typographic Appearance” and the Brain of Children

García¹

2014

JLAS

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This study presents a comparison between three different fonts in order to know the possible influence they may have when used in educational materials for children with readers difficulties resulting from dyslexia. Two of the three selected fonts (Arial and MeMimas) are frequently used in textbooks in Spain. The third type of letter (Dixy) was specially developed for typographic research purposes, following graphic features that according to literature and previous studies on reading patterns favor the dyslexic, and could improve reading skills in these individuals.To examine the quality of reading (speed and accuracy) between fonts, a small-but significant-sample was used.Ten children in Madrid, from eight to 10 years old were examined while reading words and pseudowords with three different fonts (Arial, MeMimas, and Dixy). The result of the study shows the influence of the shapes of the letters in the legibility of texts with familiar and unfamiliar words (pseudowords) in children with dyslexia. The study showed that using the font Dixy, despite not being known by the children, reading is more accurate than using fonts known to them, such as Arial and MeMimas. As to the reading speed, the results indicate that, although the Dixy is a font never seen before by the children, reading speed is similar to a known font for them, as is the Arial, and greater than a hand writing font such as MeMimas.

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Typography in children’s reading schemes may be suboptimal: Evidence from measures of reading rate

Cited by 49 publications

References 13 publications

‘You can't see what the words say’: word spacing and letter spacing in children's reading books

‘You can't see what the words say’: word spacing and letter spacing in children's reading books

The Effect of Text Typographical Features on Legibility, Comprehension, and Retrieval of EFL Learners

Dixy: A Connection Between the “Typographic Appearance” and the Brain of Children

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