Predicting L2 Speaking Proficiency Using Syntactic Complexity Measures: A Corpus-Based Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 101-113
Author(s):  
Shinjae Park
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Complexity Measures ◽  
Speaking Proficiency ◽  
L2 Speaking

COGNITIVE APTITUDES AND L2 SPEAKING PROFICIENCY

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 313-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gisela Granena
Keyword(s):  
Implicit Memory ◽  
Implicit Learning ◽  
The United States ◽  
Learning Ability ◽  
Underlying Structure ◽  
College Level ◽  
Memory Ability ◽  
Speaking Proficiency ◽  
L2 Speaking ◽  
Lexical Complexity

AbstractThis study investigated the underlying structure of a set of eight cognitive tests from the two most recent language aptitude test batteries: the LLAMA (Meara, 2005) and the Hi-LAB (Linck et al., 2013) to see whether they had any underlying constructs in common. The study also examined whether any of the observed constructs could predict L2 speaking proficiency in terms of complexity, accuracy, or fluency. Participants were 135 college-level students learning Spanish as an L2 in the United States. Results showed that the LLAMA and the Hi-LAB include tests that tap the same constructs. Specifically, the tests from the two batteries loaded onto three different factors, interpreted as “Explicit Aptitude,” “Implicit Memory Ability,” and “Implicit Learning Ability.” The results further showed that Implicit Memory Ability was a significant predictor of L2 speed fluency and interacted with Implicit Learning Ability as a predictor of lexical complexity. This finding suggested that L2 learners with greater Implicit Memory Ability may be better at accessing and retrieving previously learned or known information effortlessly. In the case of lexical complexity, the effect of Implicit Memory Ability depended on the level of Implicit Learning Ability.

scholarly journals Syntactic complexity in translated and non-translated texts: A corpus-based study of simplification

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. e0253454
Author(s):  
Kanglong Liu ◽  
Muhammad Afzaal
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Pairwise Comparison ◽  
Important Variable ◽  
Sentence Length ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Complexity Measures ◽  
British English ◽  
Sentence Complexity ◽  
Comparable Corpora ◽  
Main Effect

This study approaches the investigation of the simplification hypotheses in corpus-based translation studies from a syntactic complexity perspective. The research is based on two comparable corpora, the English monolingual part of COCE (Corpus of Chinese-English) and the native English corpus of FLOB (Freiburg-LOB Corpus of British English). Using the 13 syntactic complexity measures falling into five subconstructs (i.e. length of production unit, amount of subordination, amount of coordination, phrasal complexity and overall sentence complexity), our results show that translation as a whole is less complex compared to non-translation, reflected most prominently in the amount of subordination and overall sentence complexity. Further pairwise comparison of the four subgenres of the corpora shows mixed results. Specifically, the translated news is homogenous to native news as evidenced by the complexity measures; the translated genres of general prose and academic writing are less complex compared to their native counterparts while translated fiction is more complex than non-translated fiction. It was found that mean sentence length always produced a significant effect on syntactic complexity, with higher syntactic complexity for longer sentence lengths in both corpora. ANOVA test shows a highly significant main effect of translation status, with higher syntactic complexity in the non-translated texts (FLOB) than the translated texts (COCE), which provides support for the simplification hypothesis in translation. It is also found that, apart from translation status, genre is an important variable in affecting the complexity level of translated texts. Our study offers new insights into the investigation of simplification hypothesis from the perspective of translation from English into Chinese.

scholarly journals Effects of a Story Grammar Intervention With Repeated Retells for English Learners With Language Impairments

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rhonda D. Miller ◽  
Vivian I. Correa ◽  
Antonis Katsiyannis
Keyword(s):  
English Learners ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Language Impairments ◽  
Oral Narrative ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Story Grammar ◽  
Complexity Measures ◽  
Narrative Skills ◽  
Multiple Probe

This study investigated the effects of a narrative intervention that employed repeated story retells and a Story Grammar Marker on the oral narrative skills of Spanish-speaking English learners with language impairments. Four third- and fourth-grade students participated in the study. Using a single-case multiple probe across participants design, the authors measured three dependent variables: narrative organization skills, narrative productivity, and syntactic complexity. As a result of the intervention, stories became more cohesive and scores for narrative organization increased by approximately 7 points from baseline to intervention across participants. Smaller effects for narrative complexity and syntactic complexity measures were noted. Implications for future research and for practice are provided.

An Organic Syntactic Complexity Measure for the Chinese Language: The TC-Unit

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiaona Yu
Keyword(s):  
High Efficiency ◽  
Group Membership ◽  
Complexity Measure ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Complexity Measures ◽  
Chinese Speakers ◽  
Online Test ◽  
Varied Range ◽  
L1 And L2

Abstract Language complexity reveals the ability to use a wide and varied range of sophisticated structures and vocabulary. Although different languages compose complexity differently, complexity measures such as the T-unit have typically been based on clause subordination, which may underrepresent complexity and threaten the validity of studies. This study argues that an organic complexity measure should avoid the assumption of clause subordination and instead consider the typological features of the target language. Therefore, this study proposes the TC-unit in recognition of the topic chain as the underlying unit of Chinese complexity. It further validates TC-unit-based measures by investigating how accurately they predict proficiency group membership. Discriminant analyses of L1 and L2 Chinese speakers’ spoken (N = 115) and written (N = 116) output elicited from a designed timed online test, revealed that TC-unit-based measures classified proficiency group membership with high efficiency (61.2–75.7 per cent). Mean length of terminable TC-unit proved the most effective indicator of spoken Chinese syntactic complexity, while mean length of terminable TC-unit and single TC-units per terminable TC-unit in combination proved the most effective for written Chinese syntactic complexity.

scholarly journals Effect of Age, Education, and Bilingualism on Confrontation Naming in Older Illiterate and Low-Educated Populations

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sameer Ashaie ◽  
Loraine Obler
Keyword(s):  
First Language ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Cognitively Normal ◽  
Speaking Proficiency ◽  
Confrontation Naming ◽  
L2 Speaking ◽  
Low Educated ◽  
Naming Performance ◽  
Naming Test ◽  
Better Than

We investigated the effects of age as well as the linked factors of education and bilingualism on confrontation naming in rural Kashmir by creating a culturally appropriate naming test with pictures of 60 objects. We recruited 48 cognitively normal participants whose ages ranged from 18 to 28 and from 60 to 85. Participants in our study were illiterate monolinguals(N=18)and educated Kashmiri-Urdu bilinguals(N=30). Hierarchical multiple regression revealed that younger adults performed better than older adults(P<0.01)and the age effect was quadratic (age2). It also showed Age X Education and Age X L2 Speaking interactions predicted naming performance. The Age X Education interaction indicated that the advantages of greater education increased with advancing age. Since education is in the second language (L2) in our population, this finding is no doubt linked to the Age X L2 Speaking interaction. This suggests that L2 speaking proficiency contributed more to first language (L1) naming with advancing age.

scholarly journals Effect of Speaker’s Fatigue on Features of Spoken Discourse

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 78-88
Author(s):  
Mariya Khudyakova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Language Impairments ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Complexity Measures ◽  
Spoken Discourse ◽  
Common Features ◽  
Multiple Characteristics ◽  
Fundamental Research ◽  
Crucial Part ◽  
Different Levels

In clinical linguistics, spoken discourse analysis is a crucial part of diagnostics as well as fundamental research of speech produced by people with various language impairments. The most common features for assessment are speech fluency, speech failures, errors, and syntactic complexity measures. However, several studies have shown that some of these parameters can be affected by fatigue or physical stress. Our study on narrative and procedural spoken discourse by healthy speakers with different levels of fatigue has shown a significant effect of fatigue level on speech tempo, and the elicitation task significantly affected multiple characteristics of spoken discourse

fsca

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan Vandeweerd
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
R Package ◽  
Manual Annotation ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Complexity Measures ◽  
French Texts

Abstract This article reports on an open-source R package for the extraction of syntactic units from dependency-parsed French texts. To evaluate the reliability of the package, syntactic units were extracted from a corpus of L2 French and were compared to units extracted manually from the same corpus. The f-score of the extracted units ranged from 0.53–0.97. Although units were not always identical between the two methods, manual and automatically-derived syntactic complexity measures were strongly and significantly correlated (ρ = 0.62–0.97, p < 0.001), suggesting that this package may be a suitable replacement for manual annotation in some cases where manual annotation is not possible but that care should be used in interpreting the measures based on these units.

scholarly journals The relationship between lexical complexity measures and language learning beliefs

Jezikoslovlje ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 555-582
Author(s):  
Ervin Kovačević
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Correlation Coefficients ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Learning Beliefs ◽  
Complexity Measures ◽  
Lexical Complexity ◽  
Language Learning Beliefs ◽  
The Relationship

Although the relationship between language proficiency and learner beliefs is generally viewed as weak, indirect, and distant, there are empirical findings which show that the relationship between syntactic complexity measures and language learning beliefs is statistically tangible. Since syntactic complexity is only one constituent of the linguistic complexity system, it seems plausible to question whether other constituents of the system are also in statistically measurable relationships with language learning beliefs. This research project explores the relationship between 25 lexical complexity measures (Lu 2012; 2014) and four subscales of language learning beliefs that are suggested for Horwitz’s (2013) Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory—BALLI 2.0 (Kovačević 2017). For three semesters (Fall 2014, Spring and Fall 2015), 152 freshman students at the International University of Sarajevo responded to BALLI 2.0 and wrote in-class exam essays which were converted into an electronic format. The results show 15 statistically significant correlation coefficients between 14 lexical complexity measures and three BALLI 2.0 subscales. Overall, it may be concluded that the relationship between lexical complexity measures and language learning beliefs is statistically detectable. The findings imply that the lexical complexity framework offers valuable opportunities for exploring how and to what extent particular individual differences manifest in foreign language production.

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