Enriching Library Holdings for English Language Learners: Applying Traditional Readability Formulas and Modern Cohesion Methods to Film

ABSTRACT This study evaluates the effectiveness of various readability measures when assessing the difficulty of film materials for English Language Learners (ELLs). Library materials catering to ELLs are frequently limited to formal instruction texts and fiction materials. This study explores the feasibility of less laborious, computational text assessment methods to better understand library holdings from the perspective of ELL appropriateness. The investigation applies traditional formulaic readability measures and modern cohesion methods to film subtitle data. While text difficulty assessment with readability measures has been widely studied, there is a need to investigate which measures are most suitable for film application. In addition to evaluating existing readability measures, a more robust composite score is also presented, combining aspects of traditional readability formulas and modern cohesion methods. The experiments were conducted on real‐world datasets and tested on film data marked for difficulty by ELLs.