Cargando…

Dynamic development of syntactic complexity in second language writing: A longitudinal case study of a young Chinese EFL learner

The present study analyzes the English diaries written by a young Chinese English as a foreign language (EFL) learner over a 1-year period in an attempt to determine the developmental process of Chinese EFL young learners’ written language in terms of syntactic complexity. This study aimed to use a...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Wang, Zhihong
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9396378/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36017446
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.974481
_version_ 1784771918800355328
author Wang, Zhihong
author_facet Wang, Zhihong
author_sort Wang, Zhihong
collection PubMed
description The present study analyzes the English diaries written by a young Chinese English as a foreign language (EFL) learner over a 1-year period in an attempt to determine the developmental process of Chinese EFL young learners’ written language in terms of syntactic complexity. This study aimed to use a wide range of metrics to explore densely collected data based on Dynamic Systems Theory. The longitudinal study data were analyzed through eight large-grained measures related to sentential, clausal, and phrasal features by using L2 Syntactic Complexity Analyzer, as well as fine-grained measures related to seven modifiers, an adjective placed before a noun, ordinal numerals are indicated (ADJA), cardinal numeral (CARD), predicative adjective, adverbial adjective (ADJP), adverbs (ADV), prepositional phrases (PREP), subordinate (SUB), and relative clause (REL), through manual annotations. The results show that, first, the developmental process was not linear but spiral in terms of large-grained measures. The sentential level varied, and the development process of the young learner is different from Chinese English learners studying in colleges. Second, the dynamic features of fine-grained measures are also prominent in the seven indicators. ADJA, PREP, and REL showed a steady increase, ADJP showed an obvious decline, while ADV and SUB first increased and then declined. Third, the correlation analysis revealed a competitive interaction within fine-grained measures and between large-grained and fine-grained measures.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9396378
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-93963782022-08-24 Dynamic development of syntactic complexity in second language writing: A longitudinal case study of a young Chinese EFL learner Wang, Zhihong Front Psychol Psychology The present study analyzes the English diaries written by a young Chinese English as a foreign language (EFL) learner over a 1-year period in an attempt to determine the developmental process of Chinese EFL young learners’ written language in terms of syntactic complexity. This study aimed to use a wide range of metrics to explore densely collected data based on Dynamic Systems Theory. The longitudinal study data were analyzed through eight large-grained measures related to sentential, clausal, and phrasal features by using L2 Syntactic Complexity Analyzer, as well as fine-grained measures related to seven modifiers, an adjective placed before a noun, ordinal numerals are indicated (ADJA), cardinal numeral (CARD), predicative adjective, adverbial adjective (ADJP), adverbs (ADV), prepositional phrases (PREP), subordinate (SUB), and relative clause (REL), through manual annotations. The results show that, first, the developmental process was not linear but spiral in terms of large-grained measures. The sentential level varied, and the development process of the young learner is different from Chinese English learners studying in colleges. Second, the dynamic features of fine-grained measures are also prominent in the seven indicators. ADJA, PREP, and REL showed a steady increase, ADJP showed an obvious decline, while ADV and SUB first increased and then declined. Third, the correlation analysis revealed a competitive interaction within fine-grained measures and between large-grained and fine-grained measures. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-08-09 /pmc/articles/PMC9396378/ /pubmed/36017446 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.974481 Text en Copyright © 2022 Wang. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Wang, Zhihong
Dynamic development of syntactic complexity in second language writing: A longitudinal case study of a young Chinese EFL learner
title Dynamic development of syntactic complexity in second language writing: A longitudinal case study of a young Chinese EFL learner
title_full Dynamic development of syntactic complexity in second language writing: A longitudinal case study of a young Chinese EFL learner
title_fullStr Dynamic development of syntactic complexity in second language writing: A longitudinal case study of a young Chinese EFL learner
title_full_unstemmed Dynamic development of syntactic complexity in second language writing: A longitudinal case study of a young Chinese EFL learner
title_short Dynamic development of syntactic complexity in second language writing: A longitudinal case study of a young Chinese EFL learner
title_sort dynamic development of syntactic complexity in second language writing: a longitudinal case study of a young chinese efl learner
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9396378/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36017446
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.974481
work_keys_str_mv AT wangzhihong dynamicdevelopmentofsyntacticcomplexityinsecondlanguagewritingalongitudinalcasestudyofayoungchineseefllearner