The Role of Usage-Based Indices as Indicators of Syntactic Growth in Second Language Writing

• Published in: Language Research Vol. 59; no. 1; pp. 1 - 19
• Main Authors: Kim, Hyunwoo, Rah, Yangon
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Seoul 서울대학교 언어교육원 01.04.2023; Seoul National University
• Subjects: Language proficiency; Language usage; Learning outcomes; Second language learning; Second language writing; Syntactic complexity; Test validity and reliability; syntactic sophistication; multiple regression; usage-based approaches; syntactic complexity; L2 writing
• ISSN: 0254-4474; 2586-7113
• DOI: 10.30961/lr.2023.59.1.1

Although syntactic complexity features both length-based syntactic complexity and syntactic sophistication, previous research has predominantly focused on length-based complexity. Against this background, this study aimed to test the validity of syntactic sophistication including usage-based indices in explaining L2 writing proficiency, in comparison to the validity of length-based complexity indices. In a series of multiple regression analyses including various types of indices as predictors of the proficiency levels reflected in 3,201 sample essays, we found that the model including usage-based predictors produced explanatory power comparable to that of the model including length-based indices. However, when we incorporated both usage- and length-based indices in a single regression model, we found that the integrated model had a stronger explanatory power than the length-based and usage-based models, respectively. These results suggest that the proposed usage-based indices can serve as reliable measures of L2 syntactic complexity and may supplement length-based indices.