French linguist Alain Bentolila answers a number of questions about his work and the work of the International Center of Continuing Education, which he directs. (FL)

In this article, the author describes G. Reid Lyon, the director of the branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development that sponsors studies on reading, whom crisscrossed the country to herald the findings of scientific research on the subject and press for sweeping change in reading instruction. Lyon's presentations on the…

Describes research conducted in France on text readability and suggests that readability formulas give high scores to redundant texts that have no great interest and penalize texts with original information. Argues that a coefficient should be incorporated into readability formulas that reflects the nature of the text. (MKM)