The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology (문화기술의 융합)

The International Promotion Agency of Culture Technology (국제문화기술진흥원)
권호 표지
DOI QR코드

DOI QR Code

The Relationship between English Proficiency and Syntactic Complexity for Korean College Students

한국 대학생의 에세이에 나타난 영어 능력 수준과 통사적 복잡성 간의 관계 탐색

  • Lee, Young-Ju (Dept. of English Language and Literature, Hanbat National University)
  • 이영주 (한밭대학교 영어영문학과)
  • Received : 2021.07.31
  • Accepted : 2021.08.09
  • Published : 2021.08.31
Download PDF
⟨ Previous Next ⟩

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between syntactic complexity and English proficiency for Korean college students, using the recently developed TAASSC(the Tool for the Automatic Analysis of Syntactic Sophistication and Complexity) program. Essays on the ICNALE(International Corpus Network of Asian Learners of English) corpus were employed and phrasal complexity indices and clausal complexity indices, respectively were used to predict English proficiency level for Korean students. Results of stepwise regression analysis showed that indices of phrasal complexity explained 8% of variance in English proficiency, while indices of clausal complexity accounted for approximately 11%. That is, indices of clausal complexity were slightly better predictors of English proficiency than indices of phrasal complexity, which contradicts Biber et at.(2011)'s claim that phrasal complexity is the hallmark of writing development.

본 연구는 자동화된 통사 구문 분석 프로그램인 TAASSC를 활용하여 한국 대학생의 에세이에 나타난 영어능력 수준과 통사적 복잡성간의 관계를 살펴본다. 본 연구에서는 ICNALE 코퍼스에 포함된 한국인 대학생이 작성한 에세이를 분석하였고, 구 복잡성 지표와 절 복잡성 지표가 영어 수준을 얼마나 잘 예측할 수 있는지를 살펴보았다. 단계적 회귀분석 결과 구 복잡성 지표는 영어 능력 수준 변인의 8%, 절 복잡성 지표는 약 11%를 설명하는 것으로 나타났다. 따라서 절 복잡성 지표가 구 복잡성 지표보다 한국인 대학생의 영어 수준을 조금 더 잘 예측한다고 볼 수 있으며, 이는 구 복잡성 지표가 쓰기 능력 발전의 표준이 된다는 Biber 외(2011)의 연구 결과와는 상반된다.

Keywords

References

  1. Biber, D., Gray, B., & Poonpon, K.. Should we use characteristics of conversation to measure grammatical complexity in L2 writing development? TESOL Quarterly, 45, pp. 5-35. 2011 https://doi.org/10.5054/tq.2011.244483
  2. Biber, D., Gray, B., & Staples, S. Predicting patterns of grammatical complexity across language exam task types and proficiency levels. Applied Linguistics, 37, pp. 639-668. 2014. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amu059
  3. Bulte, B., & Housen, A. Defining and operationalising L2 complexity. In A. Housen, F. Kuiken, & F. Vedder (Eds.), Dimensions of L2 performance and proficiency: Complexity, accuracy and fluency in SLA (pp. 21-46). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 2012.
  4. Crossley, S., & McNamara, D. S. Predicting second language writing proficiency: The role of cohesion, readability, and lexical difficulty. Journal of Research in Reading, 35, pp. 115-135. 2012 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9817.2010.01449.x
  5. Guo, L., Crossley, S., McNamara, D. S. Predicting human judgments of essay quality in both integrated and independent second language writing samples: A comparison study. Assessing Writing, 18, pp. 218-238. 2013 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asw.2013.05.002
  6. Jung, Y., Crossley, S., & McNamara, D. S.. Linguistic Features in MELAB Writing Task Performances. CaMLA Working Papers, pp. 1-17. 2015.
  7. Kim, Sojung & Jeon, Moongee. An analysis study of English writing of elementary school 6th grade English language learners using Coh-Metrix. Modern English Education, 17(3), pp. 263-287. 2016
  8. Kyle, K. (2016). Measuring syntactic development in L2 writing: Fine grained indices of syntactic complexity and usage-based indices of syntactic sophistication. Doctoral dissertation, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA.
  9. Kyle, K., & Crossley, S.. Measuring syntactic complexity in L2 writing using fine-grained clausal and phrasal indices. The Modern Language Journal, 102(2), pp. 333-349. 2018. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12468
  10. Larsen-Freeman, D.. An ESL index of development, TESOL Quarterly, 12, pp. 439-448. 1978. https://doi.org/10.2307/3586142
  11. Lu, X.. A corpus-based evaluation of syntactic complexity measures as indices of college-level ESL writers' language development. TESOL Quarterly, 45, pp. 36-62. 2011. https://doi.org/10.5054/tq.2011.240859
  12. Norris, J. M., & Ortega, I. Towards an organic approach to investigating CAF in instructed SLA: The case of complexity. Applied Linguistics, 30, pp. 555-578. 2009. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amp044