About Lexile Audio Analyzer API
The Lexile® Framework for Listening is a scientific approach that places both students and listening resources on the same developmental scale. The Audio Analyzer API uses this framework to measure the listening complexity of audio files.
Note: Lexile Audio Analyzer is valid for English read audio
only.
Through this approach, educators can evaluate if the level of audio material is appropriate for a given student and ensure that students are matched with material that facilitates the optimal growth in students’ listening ability.
The Lexile Audio Analyzer evaluates acoustics and content of audio material to deliver a
Lexile measure. Vocabulary, grammar, word sounds and delivery are the indicators that
the Analyzer evaluates.
- Vocabulary provides information such as the sophistication of words used and how abstract or concrete a word is. Age of word acquisition is the most salient vocabulary variable.
- Grammar looks at how words are formed into sentences. Complexity and frequency of grammar structures, as well as sentence length, are the important variables here.
- Word sounds determine how easy it is to form a mental picture of the words as they are spoken. The most important variable here is the frequency of similar sounding words in the text, such as chair, hair, hare.
- Delivery refers to elements of speech rather than content such as amount and length of pausing, speech clarity and intonation.