Writing to Increase Complexity: Spanish L2 Learners' Complexity Gains in a College Composition Class

Autor/in	Restrepo-Ramos, Falcon
Titel	Writing to Increase Complexity: Spanish L2 Learners' Complexity Gains in a College Composition Class
Quelle	In: Hispania, 104 (2021) 4, S.671-690 (20 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0018-2133
Schlagwörter	Spanish; Writing Instruction; Second Language Learning; Second Language Instruction; Undergraduate Students; Natural Language Processing; Programming Languages; Essays; Language Proficiency; Syntax; Language Usage; Computational Linguistics; Word Frequency; Educational Benefits; Teaching Methods; Writing Evaluation + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Spanisch; Schreibunterricht; Zweitsprachenerwerb; Fremdsprachenunterricht; Natürliche Sprache; Essay; Aufsatzunterricht; Language skill; Language skills; Sprachkompetenz; Sprachgebrauch; Linguistics; Computerlinguistik; Word analysis; Frequency; Wortanalyse; Häufigkeit; Bildungsertrag; Teaching method; Lehrmethode; Unterrichtsmethode
Abstract	This study examines the linguistic complexity of Spanish as a second language (L2) in learners' essays across proficiency levels at two timelines of a composition class during a college semester. Data comes from 22 L2 learners of Spanish enrolled in two sections of a third-year composition class at the college level, who were assigned nine compositions (150-250 words each) at different times throughout one semester. Data was prepared using a natural language processing (NLP) pipeline, including UDPipe, an NLP tool that allows annotation, part-of-speech (POS) tagging, lemmatization, and dependency parsing based on Universal Dependencies (UD) treebanks. In addition, the NLTK package and several Python scripts were used on the annotated model to process and extract syntactic and lexical information from the datasets. Results showed that selected predictors of syntactic complexity increased at different stages in the semester and the effect seems more robust in beginner learners. Moreover, the use of lower frequency lexicon appears to be integrated thorough out the semester in both groups of learners. These findings indicate the pedagogical benefits of Spanish composition courses and the specific indices of L2 writing development obtained during a semester of classes across two groups of language proficiency. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, Inc. 900 Ladd Road, Walled Lake, MI 48390. Tel: 248-960-2180; Fax: 248-960-9570; e-mail: AATSPoffice@aatsp.org; Web site: http://www.aatsp.org
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01