The project intends to answer the following research questions:
- How can Linguistic Complexity (LC) be defined and assessed in general terms, what are the features contributing to it, and how do they interact within and across linguistic sub-domains?
- How can Processing Difficulty (PD) be defined and assessed in specific target populations, what are the features contributing to it, and how do they interact within and across linguistic sub-domains?
- How and to what extent does LC influence PD in different target populations, as a whole and as regards specific features?
- To what extent can NLP methods and techniques contribute to tracking and modelling LC and PD, especially as regards the identification, weighting, and interaction of underlying features?
- To what extent do the measures of LC/PD provide information on processes involved in solving reading comprehension items within a large-scale assessment framework? Do measures of LC/PD contribute to assessing item difficulty?
- What are the implications of these findings for teaching? For instance, how does LC affect students’ PD in reading textbooks and/or in the classroom assessment of their reading and writing skills?