The readability of books for immersion schools

Abstract Few books are available to support reading instruction in minority language immersion programs. Since North American teachers provide children with a choice of books scaffolded in difficulty and suited to their interests, they must resort to creating or adapting their own minority language materials, networking, or spending hours online or in bookstores. A more systematic approach would be based on an interdisciplinary understanding of the concept of readability. We focus on German as a minority language in North America and examined research published in both German and English to develop a conceptual framework of readability as comprising text complexity, context, and literary aspects. Using this framework, we conceptualize a research program for investigating readability of books in minority languages. This research program would be language-specific, but adaptable to other minority languages, thereby serving as a call to action for researchers interested in the readability of books.