Similarly, texts that match students' interests are likely to be more motivating, thus increasing the chance of a successful and satisfying reading experience. Teachers can determine students' interests and backgrounds by surveying them. Brief questionnaires or surveys given at the beginning of a course can easily enlighten teachers about students' backgrounds and interests. Texts can then be found that tap into students' backgrounds. Text Language Text language can easily add to difficulty.
Conceptual load refers to the difficulty of the words and concepts that are part of the text.
Teachers should be sensitive to the words in a text by previewing the material before assigning it to students and asking to what extent students will be familiar with the concepts and words central to text understanding. Teachers also need to consider language patterns in determining the appropriateness of a text. Many stories for children, poems, songs, and chants contain repeated sentences or phrases, rhythmic patterns, or rhyming schemes. These features tend to create patterns within the text that make it more predictable and hence, easier to read. Stories, poems, and other texts can also follow a generalized pattern of development that readers may be familiar with.