Phraseological complexity and low- and intermediate-level L2 learners’ writing quality

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingyang Jiang ◽  
Peng Bi ◽  
Nana Xie ◽  
Haitao Liu
Keyword(s):  
Factor Analysis ◽  
Predictive Power ◽  
Intermediate Level ◽  
Individual Factors ◽  
Writing Quality ◽  
Combined Model ◽  
Complexity Measures ◽  
Lexical Complexity ◽  
Writing Scores

Abstract This study explores the extent to which phraseological complexity measures can predict second-language (L2) writing quality of low- and intermediate-level learners, especially in comparison with the more traditional syntactic and lexical complexity measures. To measure phraseological complexity, we evaluated phraseological diversity and phraseological sophistication by focusing on two commonly-used phraseological units (adjective-noun and verb-direct-object combinations). Our findings show that phraseological, syntactic, and lexical complexity measures can respectively explain 36.0, 34.4, and 56.5% of variance in writing scores. Although lexical complexity measures are responsible for more variance in writing scores, all three complexity dimensions contribute to the predictive power of writing scores, as evinced by the combined model explaining 63.4% of variance. Most phraseological complexity measures were loaded onto individual factors by the factor analysis, suggesting that phraseological complexity is an independent dimension of L2 complexity.

scholarly journals A Systemic Functional Linguistic Analysis of Cohesion and The Writing Quality of Saudi Female EFL Undergraduate Students

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khawater Fahad Alshalan
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Writing Assessment ◽  
Writing Quality ◽  
Lexical Cohesion ◽  
Cohesive Devices ◽  
Systemic Functional Linguistic ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Qualitative Data Analysis Software ◽  
Writing Scores

This study aims to investigate how frequently Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) cohesive devices were used as well as their relationship with the writing quality of 100 Saudi EFL undergraduate students in Al Imam Muhammed Ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It uses a mixed method approach, where the students’ essays were analyzed using systemic functional linguistics (SFL) in terms of the textual meta-function of cohesive devices. The five types of the cohesive devices are the following: lexical cohesion, reference, conjunction, substitutions, and ellipses. Moreover, each of their subcategories were analyzed in the students’ texts. The NVivo qualitative data analysis software and the corpus analysis (conducted using AntConc) were used to calculate the frequencies of each cohesive device found in the data. The IELTS writing assessment scale was also used to evaluate the students’ writing scores. The results show that the most frequently used device was lexical cohesion, specifically repetition. Saudi EFL undergraduate students tended to repeatedly stay focused on the central idea of the topic. Furthermore, Pearson’s correlation coefficient found a relationship between the students’ writing scores and length of their essays, the use of cohesive ties and the scores, and cohesive ties and the length of the students’ essays. This study recommends that EFL teachers provide Saudi EFL students several cohesive tools in order to help them improve their writing skills and connect their ideas smoothly.

scholarly journals 「複雑さ・正確さ・流暢さ」指標の構成概念妥当性の検証：日本語学習者の発話分析の場合 – The Construct Validity of the Measures of Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency: Analyzing the Speaking Performance of Learners of Japanese

2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomomi Sakuragi
Keyword(s):  
Factor Analysis ◽  
Construct Validity ◽  
Complexity Measure ◽  
Japanese Language ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Complexity Measures ◽  
Single Measure ◽  
Length Measure ◽  
Speed Measure ◽  
Lexical Complexity

It is important for teachers and researchers to be able to assess L2 learners’ proficiency through their performance. The measures of complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) have been used for over 30 years in L2 research to analyze language performance (Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005; Housen & Kuiken, 2009; Wolfe-Quintero, Inagaki, & Kim, 1998). However, there remain unanswered questions about CAF measures. For example, the length measure (number of words per syntactic unit) needs to be investigated because it has been used inconsistently: Some researchers have used it as a syntactic complexity measure, while others have used it as a fluency measure. Koizumi (2005) pointed out this discrepancy as a serious problem because the interpretation of a single measure varies depending on researchers’ orientations. In addition, the results of factor analysis across some studies (e.g., Sheppard, 2004; Tavakoli & Skehan, 2005) showed that the measures of fluency could be divided into two types: speed and disfluency. These discrepancies in the construct are key issues pertaining to the measures and need to be investigated. Moreover, although CAF measures have often been investigated in Indo-European languages, they have not been sufficiently investigated in other languages; thus, it is important to determine whether CAF measures can be applied to the Japanese language in the same way. Accordingly, this study examined the construct validity of CAF measures in Japanese as a second language (JSL) from the following three perspectives. As expected, do the measures represent distinct factors of the three CAF dimensions? Does the length measure (the number of words per syntactic unit) have the same construct as the syntactic complexity measure does, rather than having that of the fluency measure? Can the speed measure (the number of words per minute) and the disfluency measure (the number of disfluency markers per minute) be explained as one construct? To investigate these research questions, 10 general measures were calculated from the narrative production of 113 university-level students learning JSL. Their Japanese language proficiency level ranged from intermediate to advanced on the ACTFL–OPI (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages–Oral Proficiency Interview). Subsequently, a factor analysis was conducted to investigate the construct validity of CAF measures. The initial solution was extracted using the principal factor method, followed by Promax rotation. A three-factor solution was adopted using the Kaiser criterion of eigenvalues greater than one. The results of this factor analysis indicated the following. The validity of CAF measures was partially demonstrated in terms of syntactic complexity measures (number of clauses per Analysis of Speech unit [AS-unit], and number of subordinate clauses per AS-unit) and accuracy measures (percentage of error-free AS-units, number of errors per AS-unit, and number of errors per clause) but was not demonstrated in terms of lexical complexity measures (number of word types per 100 words, and the Guiraud index) or fluency measures (number of words per minute, and number of disfluency markers per minute). The length measure indicates syntactic complexity because of the high loading (.83) on the same factor with the general syntactic complexity measures. The speed measure and the disfluency measure did not have the same factor as one construct of the fluency, which in turn supports the findings of previous studies (Sheppard, 2004; Tavakoli & Skehan, 2005). The results of this study suggest that further research must be conducted to establish the validity of the fluency measure and the validity of the lexical complexity measure, especially for the Japanese language, which has an agglutinating morphology. 近年、複雑さ（complexity）、正確さ（accuracy）、流暢さ（fluency）の側面から言語運用を分析する指標（以下、CAF指標）が多くの研究で用いられているが、研究者によって独自の測定方法が用いられており、その妥当性は明らかではない。そこで、本研究では10種類の測定方法について、CAF指標の構成概念妥当性を検証するため、日本語学習者113名の発話データを用いて探索的因子分析を行った。 その結果、構文的複雑さ、正確さについては共通因子による妥当性が示されたが、流暢さは測定方法のタイプ（速さと非流暢さ）によって同じ構成概念を示すとは言えないことが分かった。さらに、構文的な単位に含まれる語数（長さ）については先行研究で解釈が割れていたが、分析結果では流暢さではなく構文的複雑さを示した。本研究の結果から、流暢さの指標と、日本語の語彙指標に対する検証が今後の課題として得られた。

Development and validation of the questionnaire on EFL students’ perceptions of authorial stance in academic writing

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lu Zhang ◽  
Lawrence Jun Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Factor Analysis ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Student Writers ◽  
Confirmatory Factor ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
English Academic Writing ◽  
Development And Validation ◽  
Writing Scores

Abstract Studies on academic writing of EFL students have found that they have been less successful in presenting an effective stance. It has been assumed that how they perceive authorial stance may influence their stance deployment. Yet few studies have been conducted to assess student writers’ perceptions of stance. To fill the gap, this research intends to develop and validate an instrument, the Perceptions of Authorial Stance Questionnaire (PASQ), for assessing EFL students’ perceptions of authorial stance and further exploring their relationships with stance deployment and the overall quality of English academic writing. Taking a dialogic perspective, we designed the research with two studies in it. In Study 1, exploratory factor analysis with 197 respondents and subsequent confirmatory factor analysis with another sample of 191 respondents produced results of a 17 item scale with two-factors: dialogic contraction and dialogic expansion. In Study 2, scores for the two subscales of the PASQ were examined in relation to the frequencies of various stance types and writing scores. Results show that scores for the two subscales of perceptions were positively correlated with the frequencies of different stance types. However, no significant relationship was detected between students’ perceptions and their writing scores. Possible reasons of the findings and their pedagogical implications are discussed.

scholarly journals Cohesive Devices and Academic Writing Quality of Thai Undergraduate Students

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 994 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natthapong Chanyoo
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Writing Assessment ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Writing Quality ◽  
Cohesive Devices ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Writing Scores ◽  
Junior Students

The current study aims to investigate (1) common cohesive devices used in the writing development of Thai undergraduate students majoring in English, (2) the frequency of cohesive devices used in the writing of Thai undergraduate students majoring in English, and (3) the relationship between the number and types of cohesive devices and the quality of the writing as rated by writing experts. Thirty junior students majoring in English contributed thirty academic essays as sample texts in the study, with a total number of 16,856 words. Halliday & Hasan’s (1976) taxonomy of cohesion was used as an analytical framework of cohesive devices, while a writing assessment rubric developed by Hogue & Oshima (2007) was used to determine students’ writing quality. His findings revealed four types of cohesive devices frequently used by Thai undergraduate students including reiteration, reference, conjunction, and ellipsis. A one-way ANOVA revealed significant difference numbers of cohesive devices used in the students’ writing. In addition, students’ writing scores positively correlated with the total number of words used in the writing task, the total number of cohesive devices used, and the number of references.

scholarly journals L2 Writing: A Comparison of Upper Intermediate and Advanced EFL Learners

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 17
Author(s):  
Ana Cristina Lahuerta
Keyword(s):  
Intermediate Level ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Writing Proficiency ◽  
Complexity Measures ◽  
Advanced Level ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
English Writing ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
General Quality

The present study examines differences in syntactic complexity in English writing among advanced and upper intermediate undergraduates by means of quantitative measures of syntactic complexity. Participants were 250 Spanish undergraduates enrolled in a Degree in Modern Languages. A total of 121 students had an upper intermediate level (B2 level according to the CEFR) and 129 had an advanced level (C1 level according to the CEFR). Essays were evaluated by quantitative measures gauging different aspects of L2 complexity. Results indicate that the complexity measures chosen can capture significant differences in writing proficiency when comparing different proficiency levels. The scores on the general quality of the writings and on all syntactic complexity measures increased from B2 to C12 and for all complexity measures the increase was statistically significant.

Genre Effect on L2 Syntactic Complexity and Holistic Rating for Writing Quality of Intermediate EFL Learners

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 451-469
Author(s):  
Lili zhang ◽  
Haitao liu
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Argumentative Writing ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Writing Quality ◽  
Efl Writing ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
English Writing ◽  
Writing Scores

Abstract This exploratory study examines whether genre has an impact on syntactic complexity and holistic rating in EFL writing. Over 300 sample texts produced by intermediate learners were collected from a test and some regular after-class assignments for English writing courses. Each participant completed two writing tasks, one argumentative and the other narrative. Results show that genre type has a significant impact on L2 syntactic complexity. Genre effect is found stronger with timed writing tasks. L2 holistic ratings show correlation with syntactic complexity on the different measure(s) depending on genre type and planning conditions. Regression analyses reveal that for timed writing tasks, clausal density (clauses per sentence) is a reliable predictor for holistic assessment on intermediate EFL learners’ writing quality. It is found to account for 6% of the score variance for timed writing and 10% for timed argumentative writing. Genre is evidenced to be related to EFL writing holistic ratings. Closer examination indicates that while syntactic complexity is predictive of holistic writing scores for argumentative writing, it does not correlate with holistic scores for narrative writing. Other linguistic features rather than syntactic complexity may be accountable. Overall, the study lends support to genre effect in the relationship between syntactic complexity and L2 writing quality holistic rating.

scholarly journals Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analyses of L2 Linguistic Complexity Measures

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 192
Author(s):  
Hang Li ◽  
Shuting Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Factor Analysis ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Complexity Measures ◽  
Linguistic Complexity ◽  
Confirmatory Factor Analyses ◽  
Confirmatory Factor ◽  
Lexical Complexity ◽  
Argumentative Essays ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Different Sources

This study investigated the latent structure of L2 linguistic complexity as a multidimensional construct and analyzed the relationship between the sub-constructs of L2 linguistic complexity by employing exploratory and confirmatory analyses of a set of linguistic complexity measures indexing different sources of L2 linguistic complexity. Based on relevant theories and empirical studies, 11 automated measures indexing distinct sources of syntactic and lexical complexity were selected and used to assess the linguistics complexity of 930 EFL argumentative essays, which were then equally divided into two subsamples. Sample 1 was used for exploratory factor analysis while sample 2 was used for confirmatory factor analysis. The results show that L2 linguistic complexity is a multi-dimensional construct composed of clausal subordination, phrasal elaboration and lexical complexity. Furthermore, regarding the relationships among the three sub-constructs, it was found that lexical complexity and phrasal elaboration are moderately correlated; while clausal subordination employs rather different means of complexification than that employed by phrasal elaboration and lexical complexity. Findings of the study provide empirical evidence for the multidimensionality of L2 linguistic complexity in L2 argumentative writing and lend support to the hypothesis that lexical complexity and grammatical complexity constitute separate, independent dimensions of L2 performance and proficiency, and that there was a certain level of trade-off effect between them.

Students’ Understanding of Generic Structure of the Text and the Quality of Writing: A Correlational Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-45
Author(s):  
Atikah Wati
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Senior High School ◽  
Second Grade ◽  
Statistical Calculation ◽  
Writing Quality ◽  
Generic Structure ◽  
Writing Test ◽  
Correlational Research

Indriyani et al, (2013) stated that many students had dificulty in understanding the generic structure of analytical exposition text. Therefore, the present study tried to investigate the correlation between students understanding in writing generic structure of analytical exposition and the quality of students’ writing in second grade of senior hight school. Grounded in explanatory correlational research design by Creswell (2011), this study conducted over two weeks in one of senior high school in Indramayu. Close-ended questionnaire and writing test were instruments to collect the data and it was analyzed  by using SPSS 22. The statistical calculation from students understanding in writing generic stucture of the text and writing test indicated that the value of tcount was 3.23 and the value of ttable was 0.361. It can be concluded that the hypothesis was accepted because tcount 3.23 > ttable 0.361. The finding reveal that there was middle correlation or middle prediction in students understanding of generic structure of analytical exposition and students writing quality with the score 0,52.

The Effects of Exercise Commitment Facilitated by Service Quality of Smartphone Exercise Applications on Continued Exercise Intention

2019 ◽  
Vol 118 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-19
Author(s):  
Boo-Gil Seok ◽  
Hyun-Suk Park
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Factor Analysis ◽  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Correlation Analysis ◽  
Service Quality ◽  
Frequency Analysis ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Exercise Intention

Background/Objectives: The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of exercise commitment facilitated by service quality of smartphone exercise Apps on continued exercise intention and provide primary data for developing and/or improving smartphone exercise Apps. Methods/Statistical analysis: A questionnaire survey was conducted amongst college students who have experiences in using exercise App(s) and regularly exercise. The questionnaire is composed of four parts asking about service quality, exercise commitment, continued exercise intention, which were measured with a 5-point Likert Scale, and demographics. Frequency analysis, factor analysis, correlation analysis, and regression analysis were carried out to analyze the obtained data with PASW 18.0.

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