Do EFL Learners Use Different Grammatical Complexity Features in Writing across Registers?

Autor/inn/en	Qin, Wenjuan; Zhang, Xizi
Titel	Do EFL Learners Use Different Grammatical Complexity Features in Writing across Registers?
Quelle	In: Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 36 (2023) 8, S.1939-1967 (29 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0922-4777
DOI	10.1007/s11145-022-10367-2
Schlagwörter	Second Language Learning; English (Second Language); Writing (Composition); Grammar; Difficulty Level; Academic Language; Standard Spoken Usage; Adolescents; Adults; Writing Tests; Syntax; Form Classes (Languages); Language Proficiency; Writing Instruction + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Zweitsprachenerwerb; English as second language; English; Second Language; Englisch als Zweitsprache; Schreibübung; Grammatik; Schwierigkeitsgrad; Academic; Language; Languages; Akademiker; Sprache; Wissenschaftssprache; Gesprochene Sprache; Umgangssprache; Adolescent; Adolescence; Adoleszenz; Jugend; Jugendalter; Jugendlicher; Writing test; Schreibtest; Analytischer Sprachbau; Language skill; Language skills; Sprachkompetenz; Schreibunterricht
Abstract	In successful writing development, English as a foreign language (EFL) learners not only need to acquire grammatical complexity (GC) features but also know when and how to use them flexibly across communicative contexts, known as register flexibility. The present study, guided by the sociocultural theory of language learning, examines descriptive features and developmental patterns of register flexibility, operationalized as cross-register variations in GC features in academic and colloquial writing. The sample contains 205 late adolescent and adult EFL learners, each completing two writing tasks designed to address distinct audiences, purposes, and channels of communication. Using corpus-based descriptive measures (i.e., Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English), the study analyzes a variety of structural forms and syntactic functions relevant to differentiating academic and colloquial registers. Results reveal that EFL learners show clear cross-register variations in GC features prevalent in the academic register (e.g., finite noun-complement clauses and phrasal noun modifiers) but a lack of cross-register variation in GC features prevalent in the colloquial register (e.g., non-finite adverbial and verb-complement clauses). English proficiency is found to be associated with register flexibility in only one GC feature: phrasal noun modifiers. The study adds to the growing body of research that emphasizes combining grammatical forms and communicative functions in EFL writing instruction and measurement. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01