The effects of genre on the syntactic complexity of argumentative and expository writing by Chinese EFL learners

Abstract

Genre researchers have found that writing in different genres involves different cognitive task loads and requires different linguistic demands. Generally speaking, narratives involve the description of events with a focus on people and their actions within a specific time frame, whereas non-narrative genres focus on making an argument or discussing ideas or beliefs in a logical fashion, thus resulting in distinct language features. However, the vast majority of genre-based studies have either focused on one single genre or made comparisons between narrative and non-narrative writing (mostly argumentative) in academic contexts without examining how EFL writers perform across non-narrative genres. Moreover, the measures used in quantifying the syntactic complexity of writing are varied, leading to inconsistent findings. This study investigated the effects of genre on the syntactic complexity of writing through comparing argumentative and expository compositions written by Chinese English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners over one academic year. Fifty-two participants were asked to write eight compositions (with two genres alternated), four argumentative and four expository, which were parsed via the Syntactic Complexity Analyzer. The results with time as the within-subjects variable showed a significant development of syntactic complexity in both argumentative and expository compositions over one academic year. Meanwhile, the paired-sample t-test with genre as the within-subjects variable exhibited a higher syntactic complexity in argumentative compositions than in expository ones on most of the 14 measures examined at four time points over the year. Additionally, a two-way repeated measures analysis of variance with genre and time as independent variables ascertained an interactional effect of time and genre on some of the 14 measures. The present study tested and verified the impact genre exerts on the syntactic complexity of writing, providing implications for teachers to be more informed in teaching and assessing EFL writing and for students to be more conscious of genre difference in EFL writing.

The effects of genre on the lexical richness of argumentative and expository writing by Chinese EFL learners

“…Text genres are primarily divided into narratives and non-narratives in both academic and non-academic contexts (Bruner, 1986;Pu et al, 2022). Narratives focus on events and actions in settings performed by the characters, whereas non-narratives (e.g., argumentative, expository, and descriptive) focus on ideas and concepts and express the unfolding of claims and argumentation in a logical fashion (Berman and Slobin, 1994;Tian, 2014).…”

“…In general, different genres place different levels of cognitive demands on learners, with narrative being the least cognitively demanding, exposition being more cognitively demanding than narrative, and argumentation being the most cognitively complex ( Weigle, 2002 ). In light of varied cognitive demands, different genres may exhibit distinct language characteristics as a way to describe and clarify ideas and expressions in different types of writing ( Ravid, 2004 ; Pu et al, 2022 ). This is the basic motive for the present study, i.e., to compare and contrast the developmental features of lexical richness in argumentative and expository compositions by Chinese EFL learners over the course of one academic year.…”

“…Research has shown that writing across genres involves different cognitive task loads and requires different linguistic demands ( Berman and Nir-Sagiv, 2007 ; Beers and Nagy, 2011 ; Kormos, 2011 ; Pu et al, 2022 ). Moreover, differences among genres are not only restricted to macro-structural elements ( Beers and Nagy, 2009 ; Biber and Conrad, 2009 ; Beers and Nagy, 2011 ; Lu, 2011 ), but they can also occur at the word level ( Bar-Ilan and Berman, 2007 ).…”

“…In the past few decades, research has shown that the richness of lexis, or rather lexical richness, makes an important contribution to second language (L2) writing quality ( Jarvis et al, 2003 ; Olinghouse and Leaird, 2009 ; Ha, 2019 ), and the ability to produce a well-written text is thought to be important to individual success both at school and in the workplace ( Powell, 2009 ). However, it is arduous and challenging for both L1 (first language) and L2 learners to become an advanced writer, because students should, apart from having a good command of vocabulary, learn to compose different genres of writing which require them to employ varied skills and linguistic resources ( Pu et al, 2022 ). In recent years, there has been a growing increase in research that explores language development across writing genres ( Ravid, 2004 ; Beers and Nagy, 2011 ; Qin and Uccelli, 2016 ; Jeong, 2017 ; Yoon and Polio, 2017 ; Bi, 2020 ), and it has been found that in both L1 and L2 writing, argumentative compositions tend to be more linguistically complex than narrative compositions.…”

“…In recent years, there has been a growing increase in research that explores language development across writing genres ( Ravid, 2004 ; Beers and Nagy, 2011 ; Qin and Uccelli, 2016 ; Jeong, 2017 ; Yoon and Polio, 2017 ; Bi, 2020 ), and it has been found that in both L1 and L2 writing, argumentative compositions tend to be more linguistically complex than narrative compositions. However, previous studies mostly focused on a single text type or on comparisons between narrative and non-narrative writing (mostly argumentative writing) in academic contexts without examining the lexical features pertaining to varied non-narrative writing genres ( Pu et al, 2022 ).…”