Should We Use Characteristics of Conversation to Measure Grammatical Complexity in L2 Writing Development?

Abstract

Studies of L2 writing development usually measure T‐units and clausal subordination to assess grammatical complexity, assuming that increased subordination is typical of advanced writing. In this article we challenge this practice by showing that these measures are much more characteristic of conversation than academic writing. The article begins with a critical evaluation of T‐units and clausal subordination as measures of writing development, arguing that they have not proven to be effective discriminators of language proficiency differences. These shortcomings lead to the question of whether these measures actually capture the complexities of professional academic writing, and if not, what alternative measures are better suited? Corpus‐based analyses are undertaken to answer these questions, investigating 28 grammatical features in research articles contrasted with conversation. The results are surprising, showing that most clausal subordination measures are actually more common in conversation than academic writing. In contrast, fundamentally different kinds of grammatical complexity are common in academic writing: complex noun phrase constituents (rather than clause constituents) and complex phrases (rather than clauses). Based on these findings, we hypothesize a sequence of developmental stages for student writing, proposing a radically new approach for the study of complexity in student writing development.

Noun Phrase Complexity in EFL Academic Writing: A Corpus-based Study of Postgraduate Academic Writing

“…But this inadequacy has been increasingly heeded by L2 writing researchers, calling for additional measures more capable of gauging noun phrase based complexity features (e.g. Biber et al, 2011;Norris & Ortega, 2009). …”

“…By contrast, grammatical devices significantly more frequent in conversation are mostly finite clausal structures: finite adverbial clauses, verb + that-complement clauses, and verb + wh-complement clauses. In the 5-stage development index hypothesized by Biber et al (2011), extensive phrasal embedding in the noun phrase with multiple prepositional phrases as postmodifiers has been proposed as the most sophisticated feature in stage 5. These findings empirically corroborate SFL's theoretical claim that a highly nominalized and integrated grammar is the defining feature of academic writing.…”

“…Apart from providing a general picture of noun phrase complexity of student writing, the study focuses on students' use of complex noun phrases with multiple postmodification-a device for highly elaborated complexification of the noun phrase (Biber et al, 2011)-and its distinctive role in constructing overall textual features.…”

“…Particularly revealing about the syntactic complexity of academic discourse is corpus-based analysis of linguistic variation between academic writing and other registers, notably informal conversation (e.g. Biber, 2006;Biber, Gray, & Poonpon, 2011). By examining the distribution of 28 grammatical features in academic research articles and conversation, Biber, Gray, and Poonpon reveal that syntactic structures significantly preferred in academic texts are "nonclausal features embedded in noun phrases" (p. 29), including postmodifying prepositional phrases in NPs (noun phrases), premodifying nouns in NPs, attributive adjectives in NPs, nonfinite relative clauses, and wh-relatives.…”

“…The commonly employed subordination-based complexity measures cannot adequately capture the development of syntactic complexity of noun phrases expected of advanced student academic writing (Biber, Gray, & Poonpon, 2011). Following the call for more research in this area (e.g.…”