An exploratory study into the dynamics of Chinese L2 writing development

Abstract

The present study is inspired by the often heard Chinese university level students’ complaint that they do not improve in English proficiency during their university courses. With a pre-post design, the study explores the potential gains in language development in free response data (writing samples) of three groups of L2 learners: a senior high school group and two university groups of different proficiency levels. Four writing samples, two collected at the beginning and two at the end of the students’ respective courses, were scored holistically on general proficiency and analytically on 47 complexity measures in a computerized tool (Synlex Analyzer). The holistic scores showed some improvement over time for the high school group, but not for the university groups. The analytical measures showed improvements in fairly different aspects of the written language for the three groups, suggesting that at different levels of proficiency different variables may develop. The highest level group actually regressed in almost all syntactic variables, but additional hand coded measures point to a subtle move toward a more academic style of writing with more non-finite constructions. The findings suggest that no single complexity measure is robust for all proficiency levels and that for the highest levels, other metrics tapping into inter-clausal complexity should be added.

Chunk use and development in advanced Chinese L2 learners of English

“…The current study will look at the development of chunks use in the texts written by highly advanced Chinese learners of English over the course of 18 months. In a previous study (Hou, Verspoor, & Loerts, 2016) the same texts were holistically rated on proficiency level and analysed on a great number of syntactic complexity measures, none of which showed much development in this group of advanced learners. However, rather than assuming that no development took place at this level, we based ourselves on Verspoor et al (2012) and hypothesized that syntactic complexity must have reached somewhat of a ceiling effect and the growth was to be found more in the lexicon, specifically in the use of chunks.…”

Learning an L2 and L3 at the same time: help or hinder?

“…A text meeting the required length received a score of 2.75, and for every 30 words above or below this required text length, an additional score of 0.25 was added or subtracted. As adequate and comprehensive as the CAF triad is, it fails to capture idiomaticity and coherence, which are also important indices to general writing proficiency, especially at higher levels of L2 writing (Hou et al, 2016). Idiomaticity in the present study is not to be equated with 'idioms'.…”

“…Idiomaticity in the present study is not to be equated with 'idioms'. While idioms are conventionalised combinations of words with figurative and often metaphorical meanings (Hou et al, 2016;Prodromou, 2003), in our use of the term idiomaticity, we include 'conventionalized ways of saying things (CWOSTs)' (Smiskova et al 2012, 125), which are combinations of words in authentic and native-like ways. According to Prodromou (2003), idiomaticity is a necessary criterion to gauge leaner language because idiomaticity 'makes language more real' (44), but it also is difficult even for the advanced students to acquire and therefore a useful criterion to assess language learners on.…”

“…Finally, the texts were rated holistically on coherence as well, as Crossley and McNamara (2011) argued that coherence is another important aspect of writing proficiency. Coherence refers to the logical bonding and thematic development of the text and is also difficult to acquire (Hou et al, 2016;Kuo Chih-Hua 1995).…”

“…Following the complexity, accuracy, fluency, idiomaticity and coherence (CAFIC) model by Hou et al (2016), the present study developed its holistic rating rubrics in two steps. The first step was to build the rating rubrics based on an on-site grading and discussion of nine randomly selected texts from the sample.…”