That aspect is my concern. A 2020 Gallup study suggested that over half of United States residents lacked English proficiency. While I suppose a tool like this might encourage some to read who might not otherwise, I worry students will use it as a crutch, not pushing themselves to develop their vocabularies and comprehension skills.

Anecdotally, I work in a field that typically requires an advanced education. The proportion of my coworkers that consistently demonstrates basic reading comprehension issues likewise concerns me.

Edit: that this post was three down from this one gave me a good laugh: https://lemmy.world/post/17068182

Reading things written in old English probably isn't going to improve your literacy, because it's not really the same language. If anything you're going to make it worse when people try using older spellings, grammar conventions, or words that are no longer used. If you actually want to understand and use modern English, maybe start with modern English. If you really wanted to help people read and write, reform spellings and grammar to be more easily understood or pull a Korea and make a whole new much simpler writing system.

Yes, people reading books would be terrible