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The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of scaffolded English writing instruction using mind mapping tools on English narrative writing proficiency among Chinese middle-school EFL students. Specifically, we examined its effects on four subcomponents of narrative writing compositions: lexical complexity, grammatical complexity, accuracy, and fluency. Non-equivalent group pre-test–post-test design was employed in this study. The participants were 55 eighth-grade students in an English class. The data were collected through two writing tests administered before and after a two-month intervention. The results showed that students' writing demonstrated significant improvements in lexical complexity, grammatical complexity, accuracy, and fluency. These findings suggest that scaffolded writing instruction with mind mapping can effectively enhance multiple dimensions of writing skills in adolescent EFL learners. This study provides insights into the application of using mind mapping to scaffold EFL learners' narrative writing proficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST), language development is an individually owned process. CDST studies should draw from both group-based and individual-based data since research results should not be generalized from the group to the individual and vice versa unless the group is an ergodic ensemble. This paper describes a part of a sequential mixed method (MM) study in which group-based data obtained in a panel study were further analysed with respect to all individual learners. The aim of the study was to examine the individual learners’ development of syntactic complexity, accuracy, lexical complexity, and fluency (CALF) in L2 English writing at secondary school in comparison to the whole group. The study was based on The Written English Developmental Corpus of Polish Learners (WEDCPL), which includes 1,923 essays written by one hundred learners during twenty-one data waves organized over the period of three years at secondary school. The results of the study indicated that the individual learners rarely differed from the group in terms of the average CALF results, but in terms of progress over time, most learners represented different learning profiles than the group. The main implication for practitioners is to empower moreindividual learners to succeed in L2.

Because of authentic exposure, study‐abroad sojourners are expected to become more proficient in terms of holistic formulaicity (defined as targetlike language use of intensifiers, fillers, multiword sequences, lexical features, verb–argument constructions, pragmatic and discourse features, and so on), use of formulaic sequences, and lexical measures. This study traces the development of these constructs over time in written diary texts of 26 Catalan/Spanish bilingual sojourners in an Anglophone country during study abroad. It adopts a dynamic usage‐based perspective, underlining the importance of frequency of exposure and individual variability in developmental trajectories. Generalized additive mixed model analyses, which take individual nonlinear behavior into account, showed significant gains toward holistic formulaicity, but not in use of formulaic sequences nor in lexical complexity measures. We argue that at advanced stages some measures may have reached ceiling, but that sojourners may still progress in becoming more finely attuned to the conventionalized ways of saying things in the speech community. A one‐page Accessible Summary of this article in nontechnical language is freely available in the Supporting Information online and at https://oasis‐database.org [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the context of Chinese university education, effective communication in the field of second language writing heavily relies on lexical complexity, yet the role of writing feedback perception in relation to lexical complexity remains elusive. This study introduces a comprehensive writing feedback perception model encompassing perceptions of teacher-, peer-, and automated written corrective (AWE) feedback, alongside two lexical complexity metrics—Uber and Lambda. By employing latent profile analysis, this research profiles Chinese university students based on their writing feedback perceptions and investigates the resultant lexical complexity variations. Analyzing data from 442 participants, three distinct profiles emerged: students demonstrating preference for feedback from all three agents (teachers, peers, and AWE); students with hold preferable perceptions of teacher and AWE feedback; and students exhibiting no preferable perceptions of feedback of any agents. The means of lexical complexity scores differed significantly across the three profiles. Retrodictive qualitative modeling further unveiled the interplay of feedback perceptions, positive AWE attitudes, and language proficiency in shaping lexical complexity. Remarkably, diverse directional influences emerged across the profiles. Our study underscores the intricate dynamics between writing feedback perception and lexical complexity, with implications for enhancing both teacher feedback literacy and students' feedback perceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is devoted to the development of language complexity in a relatively under-researched area of adolescent writing from the point of view of Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST). It describes the second part of a panel study which aimed to examine the relationships among the average semester growth rates (ASGRs) of specific measures of syntactic and lexical complexity within and between these two subsystems in writing in English as a foreign language at the secondary school level. The study involved the analysis of The Written English Developmental Corpus of Polish Learners (WEDCPL). The corpus, which comprises over 1900 essays, was created on the basis of 21 repeated measurements conducted in a group of 100 secondary school learners during a period of three years. With respect to the specific measures of syntactic and lexical complexity, the study indicated that nominalization developed faster than subordination and coordination, and that lexical variation developed faster than lexical density and sophistication per semester. Moreover, the relationships between the ASGRs of both syntactic and lexical measures were more supportive within than between the subsystems. The main pedagogical implication for English language teachers refers to fostering more coordinated development of language complexity at secondary school in the EFL context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lexical complexity has been a key consideration of teaching preparation in determining grade appropriateness of teaching materials. However, the lack of quantified and defined standards for benchmarking lexical complexity has made it difficult for teachers when adapting source texts to target learners. This study has assessed quantitative differences in lexical complexity of exemplar texts at different points of schooling using a range of lexical diversity and sophistication features. The data consists of 2,372 texts from popular curriculum packages adopted from 1 to 12 grades of the English curriculum in China. One-way ANOVAs revealed significant differences in 16 out of 17 lexical complexity indices among different grades. Subsequent post hoc tests identified three lexical diversity features and four sophistication features that helped to differentiate exemplar texts across these 12 grades. These findings on the nature and role of lexical complexity have yielded new insights into the establishment of grade-level benchmarks for material preparation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Procesamiento del Lenguaje Natural is the property of Sociedad Espanola para el Procesamiento del Lenguaje Natural and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract The pervasive use of information and computer technology in second or foreign language learning has led researchers to explore the ideal tasks for technological environments to facilitate second language (L2) learning. This study intended to contribute new knowledge to this area by examining the effects of the task complexity manipulated along the variable +-few elements in Robinson’s Cognition Hypothesis on L2 production of 42 lower intermediate Chinese EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners who completed two interactive tasks (simple versus complex) in dyads via audio chat of the video-conferencing platform WeMeet in a laboratory setting. Participants were also instructed to measure the difficulty of the tasks by responding to a self-rating questionnaire immediately after they completed each task. Their L2 output in the two tasks were recorded, transcribed and coded in three dimensions namely, syntactic complexity, lexical complexity and accuracy. SPSS 26 was used for statistical analyses. The results revealed that increasing task complexity induced significantly more lexically complex language. However, it did not result in significant changes in terms of syntactic complexity or accuracy of learners’ L2 output via audio chat. These results contradicted the predictions of the Cognition Hypothesis, suggesting the inapplicability of Cognition Hypothesis in audio chat.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of scaffolded English writing instruction using mind mapping tools on English narrative writing proficiency among Chinese middle-school EFL students. Specifically, we examined its effects on four subcomponents of narrative writing compositions: lexical complexity, grammatical complexity, accuracy, and fluency. Non-equivalent group pre-test–post-test design was employed in this study. The participants were 55 eighth-grade students in an English class. The data were collected through two writing tests administered before and after a two-month intervention. The results showed that students’ writing demonstrated significant improvements in lexical complexity, grammatical complexity, accuracy, and fluency. These findings suggest that scaffolded writing instruction with mind mapping can effectively enhance multiple dimensions of writing skills in adolescent EFL learners. This study provides insights into the application of using mind mapping to scaffold EFL learners’ narrative writing proficiency.

Copyright of Language Education is the property of Language Education Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Most learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) consider writing a challenging task, and they experience difficulties such as organizing thoughts, selecting relevant words to represent their views, and producing rhetorical patterns specific to the target culture. Research into L2 writing suggests that collaboration in the classroom can assist students to set goals, generate ideas, write and edit, and reflect on the task. The effects of collaboration in online classes, however, remain unknown. This quasi-experimental study aims to examine the effect of online collaborative writing (OCW) in an online EFL writing class on students' writing performance in terms of syntactic complexity, lexical complexity, and fluency. A four-week OCW intervention was carried out with 26 university students enrolled in an online English writing course at A2 level in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Data were collected using writing tasks administered as pre- and post-tests. Fluency, syntactic and lexical complexity were measured and analyzed across tasks. The results showed that OCW in an online EFL writing course improved the lexical complexity and fluency of the writings of students with an A2 level of English proficiency but had no effect on their syntactic complexity. Based on the findings, it is possible to conclude that OCW can be employed to promote students' writing performance in online EFL classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Forma y Funcion is the property of Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Facultad de Ciencias Humanas, Departamento de Linguistica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The pervasive use of information and computer technology in second or foreign language learning has led researchers to explore the ideal tasks for technological environments to facilitate second language (L2) learning. This study intended to contribute new knowledge to this area by examining the effects of the task complexity manipulated along the variable +-few elements in Robinson's Cognition Hypothesis on L2 production of 42 lower intermediate Chinese EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners who completed two interactive tasks (simple versus complex) in dyads via audio chat of the video-conferencing platform WeMeet in a laboratory setting. Participants were also instructed to measure the difficulty of the tasks by responding to a self-rating questionnaire immediately after they completed each task. Their L2 output in the two tasks were recorded, transcribed and coded in three dimensions namely, syntactic complexity, lexical complexity and accuracy. SPSS 26 was used for statistical analyses. The results revealed that increasing task complexity induced significantly more lexically complex language. However, it did not result in significant changes in terms of syntactic complexity or accuracy of learners' L2 output via audio chat. These results contradicted the predictions of the Cognition Hypothesis, suggesting the inapplicability of Cognition Hypothesis in audio chat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

First-year composition courses must balance a range of writing instruction priorities including genre and audience awareness with language instruction, particularly for second-language writers. Despite the attested efficacy of dynamic written corrective feedback for language gains in intensive English programs, little research has investigated dynamic written corrective feedback in supporting language and discourse development among L2 first-year composition students. In the present study, pre- and post-test writing from 63 second-language first-year composition writers was analyzed for grammatical accuracy as well as lexical and syntactic complexity. Writers with dynamic written corrective feedback intervention (n = 30) failed to outperform a control group on nearly all measures, and in fact made significantly more verb errors and demonstrated significantly less syntactic complexity over time compared to the control group. Results suggest that while dynamic written corrective feedback is efficacious in some settings, it may be at cross purposes with other first-year composition discourse-based goals such as genre and audience awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores syntactic and lexical complexity in argumentative essays written by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Humans (HS). First year Tswana second language (L2) learners of English in a South African University wrote the HS argumentative essays. The AI essays have been generated by ChatGPT-3.5 on the same topics. Using a multidimensional perspective to genre analysis, this study examines differences in the essays using linguistic measures of syntactic and lexical complexity. Even though not all researchers agree on the nature of linguistic differences, the extant literature links features such as syntactic and lexical complexity to writing style and quality. However, little is known about this variation in content generated by ChatGPT when compared to writing by university students studying English as a second language (L2). Findings from this study show differences in the use of complexity features between AI-generated-generated content (AIGC) and human-generated content (HGC). AIGC was found to be using more sophisticated and varied vocabulary. HGC was found to use more function words and less diverse vocabulary. The use of content words was comparable with HGC using a lot more content words than AIGC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This replication study examined the effects of writing prompt type on second language (L2) learners’ writing performance. Fifty undergraduate academic and professional writing course pupils wrote narrative essays about a past event (recalling group/high formulation demand condition) or a future event (imagining group/high conceptualization demand condition). Writers completed a freewriting draft and were then given unlimited opportunities to revise. The writing was subjected to syntactic complexity, fluency, accuracy, and lexical complexity analyses. Writer engagement was computed as the time spent revising drafts. The previous study’s results were confirmed in that the recalling group exhibited more complexity and less accuracy in their writing than the imagining group. The recalling group also exhibited a higher level of writing fluency and possessed a higher level of engagement. Furthermore, the results of our study showed that the imagining group produced writing that was slightly more lexically complex than the recalling group. The pedagogical importance of writing prompts and their potential for affecting writing performance and writing engagement was discussed.

Copyright of Procesamiento del Lenguaje Natural is the property of Sociedad Espanola para el Procesamiento del Lenguaje Natural and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study examined the differences in the pausing behavior between native and non-native English speakers. Specifically, it examined the location and duration of pauses in relation to the syntactic and lexical complexity of the clauses in which these pauses occur and the nature of the prosodic phrasing of the utterances containing pauses. Speech samples from 10 native (L1) English and 10 Mandarin non-native English speakers from the Archive of L1 and L2 Scripted and Spontaneous Transcripts and Recordings (ALLSSTAR) were included in the analysis. The results showed that lower-level prosodic boundaries and syntactically complex phrases were associated with significantly longer pause duration in the L2 speech. Additionally, phrases with less frequent words tended to induce longer pauses. These findings suggest that insufficient knowledge of the L2 syntax, lexicon, and prosody might determine the location and duration of pauses and ultimately affect the speech fluency of L2 speakers.

Copyright of Revista Signos is the property of Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper explores the relationship between lexical and syntactic complexity measures and proficiency in L2 English argumentative essays written by L1 Czech high school students. Syntactic complexity is generally understood as referring to the "range and sophistication" (Ortega 2015) of grammatical constructions, whereas lexical complexity can refer to the range and frequency of the words used. The research used 100 essays written by final year high school students. Lexical complexity was analysed using the Lexical Complexity Analyzer (Ai & Lu 2010, Lu 2012), syntactic complexity using the L2 Syntactic Complexity Analyzer (Lu 2010, 2014) and Biber et al.'s (2011) hypothesised developmental stages for complexity framework. Despite a large number of measurements failing to produce any significant patterns, positive correlations were found between lexical diversity measures and vocabulary scores. Similarly, Mean Length of Clause (MLC) and Complex nominals per clause (CN/C) showed weak positive associations with grammar scores, as did Stage 5 of the developmental stages. The findings provide an insight into the kinds of complexity features that can be given more focus during instruction and underscore the potential of these measures as determinants of proficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1990s linguistic complexity has become an important issue in second language acquisition (SLA) research and teaching: second language (L2) learners want to know how well they are progressing, while teachers and researchers are interested to find out which grade of complexity can be associated with a particular proficiency level. After a short sketch of the background to the construct of complexity, the paper presents an overview of how complexity is measured in SLA, how it is related to other constructs of language proficiency (in particular accuracy and fluency), and by which factors complexity may be affected: these concern both internal linguistic factors and external factors, like task-related features and type of instruction. The paper concludes with directions for future research, focusing on the need for non-redundant, valid and reliable measures, more developmental measures, a broader scope of complexity, combined cross-linguistic and longitudinal research, and more research in instructional practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few empirical studies have investigated the relationship between textbooks and high-stakes exams despite the significance of both in language teaching and learning. The mismatch between EFL textbooks and high-stakes exams in linguistic foci may lead to further washback effects and additional mental as well as financial burdens to teachers and learners. This study aims to examine whether the high-school textbooks distributed by the Ministry of Education align with the highstakes university entrance exams for the past decade in Turkey. Corpus-based analyses were conducted to compare the lexical and syntactic complexity of the texts from high-school level EFL textbooks and university entrance English exams. The results suggested that the exam corpus presented significantly higher levels of lexical sophistication and diversity than the textbook corpus; regarding the syntactic complexity, for all 14 traditional measures and the majority of the fine-grained indices of syntactic complexity, the exam corpus presented either higher or equal levels compared to the textbook corpus. The results indicate a significant discrepancy between the textbook and exam corpus. This mismatch may create potential negative washback effects on students’ language learning. Suggestions are given for further textbook and exam designing and revising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines differences in lexical and phraseological complexity features between second language (L2) written and spoken opinion responses via classification analysis. The study further examines the characteristics of L2 written and spoken responses that were misclassified in terms of lexical and phraseological differences, L2 learners’ vocabulary knowledge, and raters’ judgments of L2 use. The goal is to more thoroughly explore potential differences in lexical and phraseological production based on modality. The results indicated that L2 written responses tended to elicit greater lexical and phraseological complexity. The results also indicated that crossing the boundaries from L2 spoken to written (i.e., the use of less lexical and phraseological complexity) was related to lower levels of L2 vocabulary knowledge and tended to be penalized by raters in terms of L2 use. In contrast, crossing the boundaries from L2 written output to spoken (i.e., the use of greater lexical and phraseological complexity) was acceptable in terms of L2 use. Overall, this study highlights lexical and phraseological differences and the importance of the use of greater lexical and phraseological complexity in a modality-insensitive manner in L2 opinion-giving responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is to measure the three lexical complexity factors, i.e., lexical density, lexical diversity, and lexical sophistication using spoken and written data in a large-scale learner corpus, so that the lexical complexity can be observed in multidimensional terms. The study goes beyond most previous work on lexical complexity in SLA by examining the effects of all three measures of lexical complexity on predicting speaking proficiency of Korean EFL learners. Logistic regression analysis reveals that the verbal element of the lexical density factor was the most appropriate predictor of English proficiency (odds ratio: 2.259). In other words, the more frequently English learners use verbal elements, the higher their English-speaking ability is likely to improve 2.259 times. The results of this study will help to understand the correlation and difference compared to the results of other literatures in this field. Also, it will help educators to understand that the relationship between lexical complexity factors and proficiency is different in English speaking and writing, and to select more useful indicators when evaluating L2 learners. In addition, it is expected that it will serve as an evaluation method that can be used as an alternative in the field of pedagogy because it provides L2 discriminant function to evaluate learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimating word complexity with binary or continuous scores is a challenging task that has been studied for several domains and natural languages. Commonly this task is referred to as Complex Word Identification (CWI) or Lexical Complexity Prediction (LCP). Correct evaluation of word complexity can be an important step in many Lexical Simplification pipelines. Earlier works have usually presented methodologies of lexical complexity estimation with several restrictions: hand-crafted features correlated with word complexity, performed feature engineering to describe target words with features such as number of hypernyms, count of consonants, Named Entity tag, and evaluations with carefully selected target audiences. Modern works investigated the use of transforner-based models that afford extracting features from surrounding context as well. However, the majority of papers have been devoted to pipelines for the English language and few translated them to other languages such as German, French, and Spanish. In this paper we present a dataset of lexical complexity in context based on the Russian Synodal Bible collected using a crowdsourcing platform. We describe a methodology for collecting the data using a 5-point Likert scale for annotation, present descriptive statistics and compare results with analogous work for the English language. We evaluate a linear regression model as a baseline for predicting word complexity on handcrafted features, fastText and ELMo embeddings of target words. The result is a corpus consisting of 931 distinct words that used in 3,364 different contexts.

This study examines the language difficulty of the original version and rewritten version of The Time Machine from the perspective of lexical complexity, syntactic complexity, and semantic complexity. We aim to answer the following two research questions: (1) Is there a significant difference between the language difficulty of the original version and rewritten version of The Time Machine? If yes, in what ways? (2) Is the rewritten version well-targeted at its intended readers? The data consisted of three corpora, the original version of The Time Machine, the rewritten version, and passages from English subjects in the National College Entrance Examination (NCEE) of China. The results demonstrate a significant difference between the original and rewritten versions on most measures of language difficulty, but in many respects, the rewritten version still leaves much to work on before becoming suitable reading material for its target readers. With such analysis carried out, we seek to offer some pedagogical implications to better facilitate English learning in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Text consultants often encounter the fear that simple language comes across as childish, especially for higher educated readers. We sought to empirically test this assumption by presenting participants with two letters from organizations (a bank and a residential care facility) to their customers. Both lexical and syntactic complexity were varied in the two texts. In the first text, simple words both improve actual comprehension and perceived comprehensibility. The author who uses simple words is also seen as more friendly, an effect mediated by the comprehensibility judgment. In the second text, simple words again improve actual comprehension, but only in the syntactically complex text versions. Most strikingly, only the higher educated readers preferred the simpler text versions over the more complex ones. Overall, there is no reason to fear that simple language offends readers in any way. It is less clear why the results differ for our two texts; different language expectations regarding banks and care facilities may play a role. A more fundamental question is how exactly simple language succeeds in generating positive attitudes towards the author; we end by outlining various possible explanations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying words which may cause difficulty for a reader is an essential step in most lexical text simplification systems prior to lexical substitution and can also be used for assessing the readability of a text. This task is commonly referred to as complex word identification (CWI) and is often modelled as a supervised classification problem. For training such systems, annotated datasets in which words and sometimes multi-word expressions are labelled regarding complexity are required. In this paper we analyze previous work carried out in this task and investigate the properties of CWI datasets for English. We develop a protocol for the annotation of lexical complexity and use this to annotate a new dataset, CompLex 2.0. We present experiments using both new and old datasets to investigate the nature of lexical complexity. We found that a Likert-scale annotation protocol provides an objective setting that is superior for identifying the complexity of words compared to a binary annotation protocol. We release a new dataset using our new protocol to promote the task of Lexical Complexity Prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linguistic complexity serves as an important measure of second language (L2) writing development. Complexity indices, however, rarely feature in the studies of learner languages other than English. Additionally, L2 writing studies have been criticized for the lack of consistency in defining proficiency. The current study addresses these gaps by exploring writing development in a less commonly studied language (i.e., Russian) while paying attention to the operationalization of proficiency. We analyzed lexical and syntactic complexity indices in a corpus of essays written by learners at different levels at the beginning and the end of an instructional program. Our analyses demonstrate that 9 complexity indices (i.e., mean word length, type–token ratio, percentage of high‐frequency words, mean sentence length, clauses per sentence, syntactic depth, proportion of subordinate clauses, and proportion of relative clauses) changed significantly over the course of the program; the same 9 indices showed significant correlation with the initial curricular placement, and all—with the exception of clauses per sentence—modestly or highly correlated with the final rating on the proficiency test. The findings confirm the usefulness of complexity measures in tracking writing development in L2 Russian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigates the effects of task difficulty on lexical and syntactic complexity in a narrative task written by Swedish university students of Spanish as a foreign language. Moreover, the relationship between these two features of linguistic complexity is analysed with the aim of finding possible changes in such relationship due to the different degree of task difficulty. The results point towards a positive relationship between lexis and syntax, when these are operationalised as lexical diversity and subordination indexes. Conversely, the correlation between lexical diversity and a coordination index showed a negative relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigates the effect of task repetition and individual differences on Vietnamese English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ lexical use and fluency in oral task performance. The study adopts a within-subjects design with forty students performing the same narrative task twice. Students also completed two prior vocabulary knowledge tests (i.e., a receptive size test and a productive level test) and two working memory tests(i.e., a backwardspan task and a Vietnamese-version operation-span task). Lexical complexity was measured in two aspects (i.e., lexical sophistication and lexical diversity). Fluency was assessed in terms of articulation rate. Unlike previous studies, our study surprisingly did not reveal an effect of task repetition on lexical complexity and fluency. Interestingly, prior vocabulary knowledge and working memory appeared to be good predictors of learners' lexical complexity and fluency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Bartin University Journal of Faculty of Education is the property of Bartin University Journal of Faculty of Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Procesamiento del Lenguaje Natural is the property of Sociedad Espanola para el Procesamiento del Lenguaje Natural and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

ESP classes are usually designed for college students after they finish EGP learning. Accordingly, ESP textbooks are used after they use the EGP ones. Logically, ESP textbooks should be lexically more sophisticated than EGP ones, because linguistic contents are also important concerns for ESP teaching, and ESP classes should also promote students' language development in addition to their professional advancement. This research aims to compare lexical complexity between EGP and ESP textbooks used among college students. With lexical sophistication as an index for lexical complexity, this study found some ESP textbooks were lexically easier than the EGP ones in this study, which contrasts with input hypothesis. This implicates that ESP textbook writers should consider the contents of EGP textbooks when writing textbooks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Task complexity has long been posited as an influential task feature inspiring much research. However, task complexity frameworks might be in need of adjustment, as they tend to emphasize the role of cognitive factors and neglect affective ones despite the fact that learner agency and potential for creativity have been linked to certain aspects of task performance, possibly exerting their influence through learners' affects. Thus, to investigate the role of agency and creativity in task-based L2 writing, this study aimed to explore the relationship between task conditions conceptualized as the levels of learner agency and the potential for creativity in Chinese students' English written performances on the one hand, and the possible role that the study contexts might play in the written performances in each task condition on the other. Participants of the study were two groups of Chinese intermediate learners of English studying in Hungary and China (n = 40), producing 120 narratives altogether. In our study, different aspects of task performance, i.e., syntactic and lexical complexity and accuracy, were associated with learner agency and potential for creativity. Moreover, differences were found in fluency between Chinese students studying in the different contexts, indicating the possible role of study contexts in this regard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tänaseni puudub ülevaade eesti keele kui sihtkeele õppijate tekstiloomest eri keeleoskustasemetel, mis põhineks tekstide automaatanalüüsi andmete statistilisel töötlusel. Eesmärk on kindlaks teha, millised arvuliselt mõõdetavad tunnused iseloomustavad A2–C1-taseme eksamite loovkirjutiste leksikaalset keerukust ning sõnaliikide ja -vormide kasutust, olles seejuures keeleoskustasemete piiritlemisel nii statistiliselt kui ka sisuliselt olulised. Esile tulevad järjestikuseid tasemeid (A2–B1, B1–B2, B2–C1) läbivalt ja osaliselt eristavad tunnused. Ühed neist muutuvad lineaarselt kasvavas või kahanevas suunas, teiste tunnuste lõikes ei ole muutused aga samasuunalised ja seostuvad pigem kirjutamisülesande (teksti liik, teema) kui keelekasutuse kasvava keerukusega. Uurimuse tulemused pakuvad uudseid teadmisi keeleõppe seisukohalt ja aitavad edaspidi arendada keeleoskustaseme automaathindajat, tuues välja usaldusväärsemad tunnused tasemete prognoosimiseks. *** Written Estonian at the levels A2–C1: Comparative automated analysis To achieve the communicative purposes of the language proficiency levels defined in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), a learner needs to acquire lexical and grammatical tools specific to the target language (L2). Yet there is little empirical evidence on language-specific features that mark the development from one level to another. This study aims to determine which linguistic features distinguish A2–C1-level written use of Estonian as L2 and how, i.e., which levels differ significantly and what is the direction of change.

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This study investigated the role of prompt types in the emotion and lexical complexity level in L2 writing performance using fine-grained automatic textual analyzing tools and indices. Fifty-three ESL advanced-mid students wrote essays on pandemic (esp. COVID-19) and non-pandemic prompts. A textual Sentiment Analysis was carried out to detect both positive and negative emotions expressed in the students' writing. A set of six lexical complexity indices was calculated to examine further the rarity, fluency, sophistication, and diversity levels in writing. The results revealed that the prompt types affect the emotional and lexical complexity of L2 writing. These results also showed that emotionality and lexical complexity have intricate and significant interactions, providing evidence for an emotion-lexicon link in L2 writing. Our results indicated that emotion has a substantial role in L2 writing beyond the traditional cognition-centered perspective, echoing the call of an 'affective turn' in second language acquisition (SLA) research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the field of second/foreign language learning, Journal Writing (JW) has been used as a tool for self-expression, acknowledged for its multiple benefits with regard to various aspects of language learning. With the advancements of technology, however, few studies have addressed the potentials of internet-based platforms such as blogs in the practice of JW. The present study, therefore, has attempted to juxtapose the traditional paper-and-pencil mode of JW with Blog JW to explore the potential impacts on L2 learners’ writing skill. To this end, four elements of accuracy, fluency, lexical, as well as syntactic complexity were examined in the participants’ writing samples through relevant measures. To analyze the data, (M)ANCOVAs and (M)ANOVAs were conducted, the results of which are summarized and presented. The general conclusion of the study was that, JW, in particular, in the form of blogging has the potential of enhancing the quality of language learners’ writing.

Academic writing is both challenging and essential for university students studying in a second language. Linguistic complexity is a useful indicator of second language development, including academic writing. One area of interest is the relationship between lexical and syntactic complexity, which some studies have shown to be in competition in learner writing. However, given the dynamic nature of language development, identifying reliable complexity measures is not easy. This study aims to identify which measures of linguistic complexity best capture writing quality and what kind of interaction exists between lexical and syntactic complexity by analysing 42 L2 English essays of three Dutch undergraduates using 12 complexity measures. A correlation analysis using pairwise ratings revealed that the lexical frequency profile and complex nominals per sentence best predicted academic quality. Negative correlations between lexical diversity and phrasal complexity measures suggest a competitive relationship between lexical and syntactic complexity.

Students experience different levels of autonomy based on the mediation of self-regulated learning (SRL), but little is known about the effects of different mediation technologies on students' perceived SRL strategies. This mixed explanatory study compared two technology mediation models, Icourse (a learning management system) and Icourse+Pigai (an automatic writing evaluation system), with a control group that did not use technology. A quasi-experimental design was used, which involved a pre and post-intervention academic writing test, an SRL questionnaire, and one-to-one semi-structured student interviews. The aim was to investigate 280 Chinese undergraduate English as a foreign language (EFL) students' academic writing performance, lexical complexity, and perceptions of self-regulated strategies in academic writing. One-way ANCOVA of writing performance, Kruskal-Wallis test of lexical complexity, ANOVA of the SRL questionnaire, and grounded thematic content analysis revealed that, first, both Icourse and Icourse+Pigai provided significant support for the development of SRL strategies vs. the control group, although there was no significant difference between the two groups. Second, Icourse+Pigai-supported SRL was more helpful for improving students' academic writing performance because it enabled increased writing practice and correction feedback. Third, Icourse+Pigai-supported SRL did not significantly improve students' lexical complexity. In conclusion, we argue that both learning management systems and automated writing evaluation (AWE) platforms may be used to assist students' SRL learning to enhance their writing performance. More effort should be directed toward developing technological tools that increase both lexical accuracy and lexical complexity. We conclude that the technical tools used in this study were positively connected to the use of SRL techniques. However, when creating technologically mediated SRL activities, students' psychological study preferences should be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although differentiating between fluency, accuracy and complexity, while assessing L2 task performance, is becoming a standard practice, lexical complexity as a distinctive area has received less attention in the task-based language teaching (TBLT) literature. This study re-examines previous frameworks of lexical complexity and investigates three lexical dimensions, lexical diversity, lexical sophistication and lexical density, using a structured 2 × 2 × 2 split-plot experimental design. The participants were divided into a non-planning group and a planning group and each group was further dichotomised into two proficiency levels. Each participant was assigned one familiar and one unfamiliar oral narrative task. The results show that one's prior knowledge about a subject is associated with higher lexical diversity and sophistication, while pre-task planning promotes lexical density. The effects of proficiency seem to be largely overridden by the effects of prior knowledge and pre-task planning and show little impact on overall lexical performance. Interestingly, lexical diversity and lexical sophistication are independent of each other, and lexical density is moderately correlated with both lexical diversity and lexical sophistication. The results are discussed with reference to the Levelt model of speech production with some pedagogical implications on content-based language instruction. The exploration of the relationships between the lexical measures reveals a need for deeper and subtler characterisation of L2 lexical complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students experience different levels of autonomy based on the mediation of self-regulated learning (SRL), but little is known about the effects of different mediation technologies on students' perceived SRL strategies. This mixed explanatory study compared two technology mediation models, Icourse (a learning management system) and Icourse+Pigai (an automatic writing evaluation system), with a control group that did not use technology. A quasi-experimental design was used, which involved a pre and post-intervention academic writing test, an SRL questionnaire, and one-to-one semi-structured student interviews. The aim was to investigate 280 Chinese undergraduate English as a foreign language (EFL) students' academic writing performance, lexical complexity, and perceptions of self-regulated strategies in academic writing. One-way ANCOVA of writing performance, Kruskal-Wallis test of lexical complexity, ANOVA of the SRL questionnaire, and grounded thematic content analysis revealed that, first, both Icourse and Icourse+Pigai provided significant support for the development of SRL strategies vs. the control group, although there was no significant difference between the two groups. Second, Icourse+Pigai-supported SRL was more helpful for improving students' academic writing performance because it enabled increased writing practice and correction feedback. Third, Icourse+Pigai-supported SRL did not significantly improve students' lexical complexity. In conclusion, we argue that both learning management systems and automated writing evaluation (AWE) platforms may be used to assist students' SRL learning to enhance their writing performance. More effort should be directed toward developing technological tools that increase both lexical accuracy and lexical complexity. We conclude that the technical tools used in this study were positively connected to the use of SRL techniques. However, when creating technologically mediated SRL activities, students' psychological study preferences should be considered.