Article
Syntactic Complexity of EFL Chinese Students’ Writing
English Language and Literature Studies
Document Type
Article
Publication Version
Published Version
Publication Date
1-1-2016
DOI
10.5539/ells.v6n1p81
Abstract
Syntactic complexity as an indicator in the study of English learners’ language proficiency has been frequently employed in language development assessment. Using the Syntactic Complexity Analyzer, developed by Lu (2010), this article collected data representing the syntactic complexity indexes from the writing of Chinese non-English major students and from the writing of proficient users of English on a similar task. The results indicate that there is a significant difference in the use of complex nominals, the mean length of sentences, and the mean length of clauses between the writings of EFL Chinese students and more proficient users. This study provides suggestions for EFL writing teaching, particularly writing at the sentence level.
Copyright Owner
Canadian Center of Science and Education
Copyright Date
2016
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Citation Information
sue Wang and Tammy Slater. "Syntactic Complexity of EFL Chinese Students’ Writing" English Language and Literature Studies Vol. 6 Iss. 1 (2016) p. 81 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/tammy_slater/21/
This article is published as Wang, Sue, and Tammy Slater. "Syntactic Complexity of EFL Chinese Students’ Writing." English Language and Literature Studies 6, no. 1 (2016): 81. doi: 10.5539/ells.v6n1p81. Posted with permission.