Does hyphenation make reading hard for ESLers?

[David Ibbetson <ibbetson -at- IDIRECT -dot- COM>]

Glenda Jeffrey writes:

Someone here claims that when English words are hy-
phenated across lines (like that), people for whom English is a
second language have more difficulty reading and comprehending the
text. Does anybody know if this is true? It would be great if you
could cite a reference.
--------------------------end of quote---------------------------

English is my first language and irrationally placed
hyphens make English difficult for me to read. I think
 the only safe place to hyphenate hyphen-ated is where
I've placed the hyphen.

I've collected some examples of bad hyphenation from the Toronto Globe and
Mail, which bills itself as "Canada's National Newspaper". These include a
hyphenated number. If anybody's interested I'll post them -- around 10
lines, if that. I haven't been collecting hard.

David (the irrational idiot) Ibbetson
end

David Ibbetson                                  Phone:   (416) 363-6692
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