Syntactic complexity in Finnish-background EFL learners’ writing at CEFR levels A1–B2

IF 0.8 Q3 LINGUISTICS European Journal of Applied Linguistics Pub Date : 2022-01-04 DOI:10.1515/eujal-2021-0011
Ghulam Abbas Khushik, A. Huhta
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引用次数: 3

Abstract

Abstract The increasing importance of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) has led to research on the linguistic characteristics of its levels, as this would help the application of the CEFR in the design of teaching materials, courses, and assessments. This study investigated whether CEFR levels can be distinguished with reference to syntactic complexity (SC). 14- and 17-year-old Finnish learners of English (N=397) wrote three writing tasks which were rated against the CEFR levels. The ratings were analysed with multi-facet Rasch analysis and the texts were analysed with automated tools. Findings suggest that the clearest separators at lower CEFR levels (A1–A2) were the mean sentence and T-unit length, variation in sentence length, infinitive density, clauses per sentence or T-unit, and verb phrases per T-unit. For higher levels (B1–B2) they were modifiers per noun phrase, mean clause length, complex nominals per clause, and left embeddedness. The results support previous findings that the length of and variation in the longer production units (sentences, T-units) are the SC indices that most clearly separate the lower CEFR levels, whereas the higher levels are best distinguished in terms of complexity at the clausal and phrasal levels.
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CEFR A1-B2水平芬兰背景英语学习者写作的句法复杂性
摘要欧洲共同参考框架(CEFR)的重要性日益增加,导致了对其水平的语言特征的研究,因为这将有助于CEFR在教材、课程和评估设计中的应用。本研究调查了CEFR水平是否可以根据句法复杂性(SC)来区分。14岁和17岁的芬兰英语学习者(N=397)写了三项写作任务,根据CEFR水平进行评分。评分采用多方面Rasch分析法进行分析,文本采用自动化工具进行分析。研究结果表明,在较低的CEFR水平(A1-A2)上,最清晰的分隔符是平均句子和T单位长度、句子长度的变化、不定式密度、每个句子或T单位的从句以及每个T单位的动词短语。对于较高级别(B1–B2),它们是每个名词短语的修饰语、平均从句长度、每个从句的复数主词和左嵌入性。研究结果支持了先前的研究结果,即较长生产单位(句子、T单位)的长度和变化是最清楚地区分较低CEFR水平的SC指数,而较高水平在从句和短语水平的复杂性方面最为明显。
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CiteScore
2.00
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0.00%
发文量
24
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