This is the first bilingual
readability study reporting on different lan
guage versions of narrative disclosures within corporate annual
reports. Specifically, the study examines reading ease between the Eng
lish and Chinese versions of 65 corporate annual reports in HongKongand the English and
Malay versions of 53 annual reports in
Malaysia. The same
passages from the Chairman's Address in both
languages were scored using Flesch
and
Yang
formulas for Hong Kong and
Flesch and Yunus formulas for Malaysia. Results provide some
tentative impression that the indigenous language version is easier to
read than the English-written counterparts. In addition, evidence sug
gested that the English passages in Malaysian
annual reports are
easier to read than the English passages in Hong Kong
annual
reports. Taken overall, the results suggest that different language
ver
sions could produce different reading behaviour
and
may
have
resource allocation
decision-making
implications.
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