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How do I standardize a comparison between the efficiency of reading and writing in from one written language to another?

An example of what I mean would be words-typed-per-minute in a given language standardized to a norm within typist for that language.

blunders
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  • Can you elaborate a little bit? I'm not sure I got what you're asking... – Alenanno May 12 '12 at 23:33
  • By efficiency in writing, do you mean average transcription speeds measured in morphemes transcribed per second? By efficiency in reading, do you mean the greatest speed with the greatest comprehension? I don't know, I'm just guessing. I assume you're talking about averages over a sample population of literate speakers of at least 100 for each language. Looking forward to your elaboration. – James Grossmann May 12 '12 at 23:58
  • I'd start by finding out how many writing systems can be typed. – James Grossmann May 13 '12 at 00:01
  • By the way, please add the elaborations in your question... Re-word it so that it's clear for new visitors (even if they ignore the comments). – Alenanno May 13 '12 at 00:01
  • @James Grossmann: Yes, both transcription and comprehension. Flesch–Kincaid readability test and Gunning fog index would be example of indexing readability, but to my knowledge there meant to be used within English, and not sure how you'd compare languages. Does that help, or confuse the questions intent more? Thanks! – blunders May 13 '12 at 01:12
  • Well, you'll need instruments that compare comprehension vs. speed and morphemes per second transcription rates across languages. Are there such? – James Grossmann May 13 '12 at 02:41
  • @James Grossmann: Don't believe instruments are really required, other than a stop watch and an audio recorder, since to really compare languages the concepts presented would have to be "universal expressions". What sort of instruments were you thinking of? – blunders May 13 '12 at 02:55
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    @ blunders: Standardized tests. – James Grossmann May 13 '12 at 05:33
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    This paper applies to speech, but might give you some ideas on variation and standards: http://lsadc.org/info/documents/2011/press-releases/pellegrino-et-al.pdf – Arkadiy Kukarkin Jun 13 '12 at 19:58
  • +1 @Arkadiy Kukarkin: Thank you for pointing out the paper, and I agree the paper is relevant to the topic, and very interesting to see the results of the research too. Please post the paper as an answer, and I will select it as the answer. It might also be of use to know how you knew about the paper, or went about finding it; meaning knowing that might make it easier for me to find more information on my own. Again, thanks! – blunders Jun 14 '12 at 14:09

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