ESL Bible

Choosing a Bible translation or paraphrase that fits our individual needs can be a formidable task with the variety of versions available. As dearly loved and well-known as the Authorized Version is, we recognize its limitations with regard to the ease of reading. Children, new adult readers, and English as a Second Language students need to find appropriate Bible texts. Readability of books (the ease with which we are able to understand a particular selection of text) involves several factors.

Language level is most important, but perhaps just as important is the motivation to read that a reader brings with him or her to the reading task. The overall appearance of the book will initially determine if a reader is attracted or not. The size and weight of the book, its cover appearance, the size of print, subdivisions of text, and boldfacing, color, and pictures will all add up to give a reader a "feel" for a particular book, even before reading it. Not until a person actually begins to read will the structure of the language itself affect the reader. Enjoyment of reading is encouraged by a language style that is natural and free-flowing. Language is anticipatory. As we understand what we are reading, we will read faster and anticipate future words, as long as the text is written with natural language. Our reaction is, "This is easy to read." When we find a Bible text that has a language style and structure matching our own reading level and thinking style, we will read with understanding and enjoyment. The frustrating environment created when a reader stumbles over words will not occur when the text meets individual needs.

Past experiences of the reader affect the readability of a particular text. Situations new to the reader may be described in the text, making understanding difficult. Cultural and historical references may have no meaning. The common farming references used in the Bible relate to the culture of the Middle East. For people of any other culture, Bible study must include an understanding of the context of the examples and metaphors for complete understanding and cross-cultural transitions. Bible translators are particularly aware of this in selecting vocabulary. Specialized Bible vocabulary may not be familiar to new readers of the Bible. The language used by the author/ translator affects a Bible's readability. Long words and sentences, complex grammatical structures, and sentences which are arranged in an unnatural word order make reading difficult ("Why trouble ye her" Mark 14:6 KJV). Pronoun referrants are particularly tricky or obscure in some Bible passages. ("He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. " John 7:18 KJV). A greater distance between the noun and the verb of a sentence can make it more difficult to understand (Fry 1977). For example: "Certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre . . . " Luke 24:24 KJV. Variety of sentence structure also contributes to reading enjoyment; the simple sequence of subject-verb-object can become tedious if repeated too often.

Readability Formulas

The definite readability level of a text is very difficult to pinpoint. Many researchers have tried to develop successful formulas to determine a book's reading level, or "readability." Most readability formulas measure the length of the words and sentences of a particular text. Formulas are statistical: word and sentence length are concrete numbers that can be counted. For this study, a sentence was defined as ending with a period, question mark, or exclamation mark. Semi-colons and colons were not counted as sentence endings. The statistics, however, cannot tell the whole story. Generally, longer sentences are more difficult to read; but it is the complexity of the sentences that makes them difficult. Yet some complex sentences are more natural and convey a relationship between ideas that two simple sentences cannot. For example, compare the following:

"Rejoice and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven. Matt. 5:12 KJV.

"Be glad and full of joy because your pay will be much in heaven." Matt. 5:12 New Life Testament

"Be happy and glad. You have a great reward waiting for you in heaven." Matt. 5-12 International Children’s Version

Neither can the formulas measure word concept levels, abstract grammatical elements, or symbolic word levels. Notice for example the difficulty of "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." John 6:53 KJV. Even word length is not an accurate measure of readability since familiar long words are easier to read than unfamiliar short words. Compare 'grandchildren', 'remember', 'happiness', and 'happening' with 'abhor', 'debt', 'enmity', and 'gnat'.

Formulas can give us, however, a general "ball park" figure of a book's reading level. The readability level of a book is given in grade levels. A book with a sixth grade readability level means that until a person reads on a sixth grade level, he or she will experience frustration during reading. A person's actual grade or age makes no difference: a fourth grader may read on a sixth grade level; many adults read on a fifth grade level; English as a Second Language learners read on many levels, depending on their backgrounds. Different types of reading materials are written at different levels. For example, a novel which is usually read quickly for enjoyment has a lower reading level than a technical manual or college textbook where detailed information must be expressed concisely. Our individual background experiences will determine how we read the different types of texts. We read books about familiar topics more rapidly than those which are unfamiliar. In fact, there may be materials which we cannot read at all, due to the lack of vocabulary background. Certain Biblical words might affect persons from another culture in the same way, such as 'ark', 'covenant', 'antichrist', 'circumcise', or 'sacrifice'.

Vocabulary control presents a special problem for Bible translators. The vocabulary and grammatical choices are limited by the Bible context which is already present. A person translating the Bible into a lower reading level is not as free to use a strict, controlled vocabulary and syntax as is a story- writer. The integrity of the content must be maintained; the translation is driven by meaning, not by which words or word rules the beginning reader might have studied.

There are no pat answers; yet an awareness of the readability problem will raise our levels of understanding of Bible reading. Each text must continually be examined in the light of vocabulary selection, the flow of words, and the background of each reader.

The Research Study

The original study in 1983 examined nine versions of the New Testament and applied four readability formulas: Fry, Dale-Chall, Flesch, and SMOG. A computer program 'Reading Level Analysis' (Bertamax, Inc., 1979) was used for the Dale-Chall, Flesch, and SMOG readabilities. The Fry was computed manually, using the Fry Readability Graph (Fry, 1969). [Click below for instructions.]Examining the same six passages across the New Testament allowed comparison of translations. Commonly used texts and stories were used. (Other computer readability programs are now readily available.)

This report compares fifteen versions of the Bible, using the Fry Readability Graph. I most often use the Fry because it is easy and quick to use anywhere. (It takes me eight minutes to examine six passages to get the averages. Only three are suggested, but I prefer six to get better averages.) It also gives a figure that correlates with other longer formula computations usually within a grade level.

Results

The following chart shows the readability levels of the Bible translations.

Readabilities of Versions of the New Testament

Using the Fry Readability Graph

Version	Reading Level
New American Standard Bible (1960)	8.5
King James Authorized Version	8.5
The Bible in Basic English (1949)	8.5
New King James Version (1979)	8
New International Version (1978)	7.3
New Century Version (1987)	7.3
New Living Translation (1996)	7.2
The Living Bible (1973)	7.1
Today’s English Version (Good News Bible) (1976)	7.1
Simple English Bible (1978)	6.7
God’s Word (1995)	6.5
Contemporary English Version (1991)	6.1
International Children’s Version (1978)	3.9
The New Life Bible (1969)	3.9
New International Readers’ Version(NIrV) (1996)	3.6

Average of New Testament readabilities. Results are reported in grade levels. For example, 8.6 needs means a reading level of eighth grade sixth month; 6.3 would mean the third month of sixth grade. Six samples were used.

Recommendations

The three versions of the Bible which scored the lowest would all be useful for ESL students: International Children’s Version, New life Bible, and New International Readers’ Version. However, because each student needs a copy, it would be best to purchase the more inexpensive versions available which would be the New Life Bible and the NIrV.

They may be ordered from:

New Life Bible

Christian Literature International

P.O. Box 777

Canby, OR 97013

www.newlifebible.org

New International readers’ Version

International Bible Society

1829 Jet Stream Drive

Colorado Springs, CO 80921-3696

1-800-524-1588