Comment by Cthulhu_
9 months ago
Granted, domain or general knowledge is important in reading comprehension; I kinda know what a megalosaurus is but had no idea what Michaelmas Term was.
But, you can only gain that by having a broad interest and reading a lot in the first place. Call me grandpa but over the past 100 years or so of radio, TV, then internet, people have been reading less and less, so naturally reading comprehension has gone down too.
Flip it around and have an avid reader watch a modern gaming video and you'd see similar poor comprehension I suspect.
In the study, the subjects have access to both reference books and phones to allow them to look these things up. I didn't know Michaelmas Term either and looked it up while I was reading.
I am doubtful that this is about people not reading as hard and often. Alternate hypothesis: the problem is that people are not thinking as hard and often.
If someone gave this test to me, and I was volunteering my time and it didn’t matter to my grades/etc, no chance in hell I’m going to look up every single term I don’t know. I’m a busy person and I’ll just say “meh, it’s some old English thing that I’m sure will be explained through context in later paragraphs, and if I got through the whole first chapter of the book and it turned out to be an important word, I’d look it up. Next question please.”
According to the authors I’d be “functionally illiterate.”
> the problem is that people are not thinking as hard and often.
Modern language as understood by modern readers doesn’t require you to think as hard, and that’s a good thing. We shouldn’t strive to make language intentionally difficult just so we can feel smug and call those who don’t waste their time on it “illiterate.” Dickens’ prose is a sort of poetry and is more about creating a mental picture. The definition of “michaelmas term” and “lord chancellor” don’t seem like important parts of that paragraph at all. The important thing of the paragraph is for you to read it and get a picture in your minds eye about how dreary and muddy London was then. That’s all. Giving this to readers and saying “If you don’t choose to look up the word michaelmas, you are functionally illiterate” just shows that the authors need to look up what a fucking “study” is supposed to accomplish. Hint: it’s not about stoking the author’s ego.