>subjects [...] were asked to read the first seven paragraphs of Charles Dickens’ Bleak Houseout loud to a facilitator and then translate each sentence into plain English.>Only five percent of the subjects in our study were proficient readers who could translate most of the literal prose in the passage and had the reading tactics to understand most of Bleak House on their own.i have not read "Bleak House" by Dickens myself, but after hearing the results of this study (DOI:10.1353/cea.2024.a922346) where the majority of a sample of ENGLISH MAJORS in the US could not even understand the contents of the opening pages, i had this insane impostor syndrome where I had to make sure i was not a brainlet and could comprehend basic writingITT: if you were conducting this study among /lit/ users, what texts would you use to examine comprehension (where the alternative to full comprehension would be expulsion from the board).or more broadly: what books should people read just to make sure their comprehension isnt atrophied by online brainrot?
bumping for interest
>>25506386I second this
>>25506365Perhaps basic competency is more important than I gave it credit for. Albeit this admission does have a cost. What if I do need social interaction as well? This is a disturbing avenue, rectifiable only with a full reclamation and recovery of focus and intent. A sad, sad realization that work exists.
English majors don't read, they're most likely there to learn how to do so.Test serious music majors or foreign language majors and you'll have a much better spread, I reckon.You can read for free. Any intelligent man worth his literary salt can figure out that a library card and some postage stamps for correspondence is sufficient for the initial foray into a literary tradition. Conversely, one would expect a very dull person to take English Literature as a major when the best you could ask for is an even more Embarrassing mock up of literary prowess than what was presented in Finding Forrester.Plough all this together into the successful 50 year demoralization campaign pit and you gotta stew going, baby.
by the way, the answer to your question is the most dry, complex, and erudite text you can drill your eyes into without them crossing. if it doesn't kill you stone dead, it may just be too easy for you to use to properly inculcate your animal spirits with pre-phone discipline.
>>25506365Comprehension and translation. I see no better method of deduction of understanding, however, as I don't get the actual transcript it's immensely difficult to deduce what exactly went wrong with the students and their understanding. Typically a misunderstanding still follows a logical and structured pattern. Too much emphasis on powerful words rather than the relations and subtle cues that give them the pinpoint meaning. Keep in mind, this study is from 2015 Kansas. The situation is likely even worse.
>>25506365Maybe they understood but just can't put it in their own words
