Earticle

This study tests whether sentence-level source text syntactic complexity predicts time-normalised disfluency in English–Korean simultaneous interpreting. Complexity is indexed by mean dependency distance (MDD); disfluency comprises silent pauses (≥1.0 s), filled pauses, repetitions, self-repairs, and other events, reported as rates (events·min⁻¹). Six graduate student interpreters produced sentence-aligned outputs, with sentence × interpreter as the observation unit. Analyses used a negative-binomial GLMM with a duration offset, complemented by Kruskal–Wallis tests across MDD tertiles. Results showed that higher MDD predicted higher total disfluency rates (IRR = 1.20, 95% CI [1.09, 1.32], p < .001), with only silent pauses and repetitions exhibiting reliable increases across complexity groups. These findings support treating disfluency as a rate-sensitive indicator of structural load rather than a categorical defect. Methodologically, the study demonstrates a tractable workflow for sentence-level alignment and incidence-rate modelling. Pedagogically, it motivates difficulty calibration by MDD and targeted practice to manage pausing and repetition in student interpreter training.

While previous studies have documented the internal structures of English lexical bundles (LBs) in a range of academic genres, how such fragmentary phrases are used in context has been given little attention. The current study addresses this gap by investigating to what extent three different writer groups, i.e., L1-English freshman students, L1-Korean freshman students, and published research article authors, integrate LBs into their English academic writing. The study first categorizes the LBs by their three main structures: VP-, NP-, and PP-based. It then focuses on the syntactic roles of the bundles in context, and plots these roles onto the developmental stages of grammatical complexity proposed by Biber, Gray, and Poonpon (2011). The results show a progressive sequence of native and nonnative apprentice writers’ use of LBs toward being proficient academic writers, while also demonstrating that some features are unique to each group. The study extends the structural analysis of LBs in the literature by providing new information on the grammatical status of LBs in context and in relation to their uses by different groups of writers.

This study aims to examine the degree of syntactic complexity in Korean L2 college students’ writing of four different genres. Using 14 syntactic complexity measures as indices of L2 language development of writing, this study investigates how syntactic patterns are different among four different genres and English proficiency levels. Sixty-one participants in A university in South Korea participated in this study, and their writings were scored by two raters. All 244 essays including four different genres were collected, and these data were analyzed by using the computer program of syntactic complexity analyzer. The results have shown that genre difference has an impact on syntactic complexity in Korean students’ English written products. Details of results showed strong evidence of genre-specific features among narrative, expository (comparison and cause-effect essays), and argumentative genres. Based on the overall findings of the study, syntactic complexity showed significant genre differences, but there were not significant group differences of syntactic complexity among L2 proficiency levels.

This paper introduces Analytic Grammar as a tool to quantitatively analyze syntactic features of English-to-Korean interpreted sentences. More specifically, Analytic Grammar is employed to investigate whether students’ overseas experience and original text complexity have statistically significant impact on the syntactic complexity and diversity of English-to-Korean interpreted sentences. Our analysis demonstrates with statistical significance that the syntactic diversity of matrix clauses is higher with students that have less than one year of overseas experience than with those that have more than five years of overseas experience. When the complexity of the original text increases, the two groups of students display contrasting characteristics: students with less than one year of overseas experience maintain a similar level of syntactic complexity of their matrix clauses, while increasing the complexity of their embedded clauses; students with more than five years of overseas experience increase with statistical significance the syntactic diversity of both their matrix and embedded clauses.

이 연구는 초급과 중급에 속하는 여성결혼이민자들의 쓰기 자료를 수집하여 통사 복잡성을 측정하고 그 후 대학기관학습자들을 대상으로 통사 복잡성을 측정한 선행 연구들과의 비교·분석을 통해서 초급과 중급에 속하는 여성결혼이민자들의 통사 복잡성은 어느 정도 발달되고 있는지를 논의하였다. 그 후 여성결혼이민자들의 통사 복잡성의 각각의 지표들을 학습자 변인과의 상관관계를 살펴보았다. 먼저 통사 복잡성을 문장 길이, 문장 확장, 문장 확장 유형으로 범주화하여 각각 범주에 맞는 통사 복잡성 측정의 지표를 설정하였다. 연구 결과, 당연히 숙달도가 향상되면서 문장 길이뿐만 아니라 문장 확장에서도 양적으 로 여성결혼이민자들의 중간언어는 발달하고 있었다. 그러나 문장 확 장에 관여하는 문법 항목에서 숙달도에 따른 차이가 존재했으나 중급에서 사용하고 있는 문법 항목은 국제통용에서 제시한 문법 항목과 비교했을 때 초급 단계에 머물러 있었다. 즉 여성결혼이민자들은 숙달도가 상승되면서 문장 길이는 분명히 길어지고 있으나 다양한 문법을 사용하는 것에는 한계가 있다. 한편 숙달도에 따라 대등접속지수(CI)가 낮아지는 일반적인 경향과 달리 여성결혼이민자들은 상반된 결과를 가져왔는데, 이는 언어 습득 환경의 차이로 인한 것으로 판단된다. 아울러 여성결혼이민자들의 학습자 변인(거주기간, 학습기간)은 통사 복잡성을 측정한 모든 지표들과 유의미하게 나타났지만 대등접속지수(CI)와는 유의미한 관계가 없었다. 이러한 본 연구의 결과는 그동안 여성결혼이민자들의 중간언어가 오류 분석에만 치우친 시각에서 벗어나 자연적 습득 환경에서 통사 복잡성의 발달이 어떻게 발달되고 있는지를 간략하게나마 살펴보았다는 데에 의의가 있다. 앞으로 자연적 습득 환경에서 통사 복잡성만이 아닌 다양한 역에서도 중간언어 연구가 시도되어야 할 것이다.

Journal of the International Network for Korean Language and Culture 14-3, 313-345. This study was conducted to measure the syntactic complexity and language proficiency of married immigrant women. This study also discusses the correlation between the index measuring syntactic complexity and learner variables. The main purpose of this research was to categorize the length of sentences, sentence extensions, and sentence extension types in order to measure syntactic complexity. Thus, this study was designed to establish a proper index for each category. As a result of this research, it was discovered that both sentence length and extension increased quantitatively according to improvements in proficiency. However, there was a limitation in utilizing various forms of grammar in sentence extensions. Differing from the general tendency of the equality index to decrease along with improvements in proficiency, married immigrant women showed the opposite result. This study determined that the difference was a result of the language acquisition environment. In addition, the proficiency of married immigrant women appeared to be significantly related to all indexes that measured syntactic complexity. However, the residence and learning periods for language did not display significant results on the equality index. Lastly, the significance of this research is that it critically reviewed biased viewpoints present in other research studies, which focused on the interlanguage error analysis of married immigrant women rather than investigating the development of interlanguage along with proficiency based on the concept of complexity. (Dongduk Women’s University)

This study aims to identify an AI classification model that is optimal for the classification of linguistic data. For this purpose, three commonly used classification models (XGBoost classifier, Random Forest Classifier, and SVM classifier) are compared in terms of their performance. Specifically, the three models are trained to classify the input data into essays and dialogues based on the syntactic complexity-related characteristics that distinguish between essays and dialogues. To determine if a model performing well on balanced data also performs well on imbalanced data, the three models’ performances are measured under two conditions: when the training dataset is balanced and when it is imbalanced. The performances of the trained models on the first test dataset are evaluated using accuracy, F1-score, normalized confusion matrix, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. The performances on the second test dataset are assessed in terms of accuracy, confusion matrix, precision, and recall. The results demonstrate that the Random Forest Classifier has the best performance among the three models regardless of the balance of training data.

While the importance of task sequencing in task-based research and syllabus design has been emphasized, there is a gap in the literature regarding whether the order in which tasks are presented actually has a significant impact on L2 performance. The aim of the study was to investigate whether task sequencing actually had an effect on L2 written performance. A writing task with three levels of task complexity was given to 88 EFL learners, with one group carrying the three task versions out in the order of increasing task complexity (Simple-to-complex), and the other group in the order of decreasing task complexity (Complex-to-simple). It was found that the cognitive load of the task, as well as learners’ syntactic complexity and lexical diversity shown in their L2 writing, were significantly affected by task sequencing and its interaction with task complexity. Pedagogical implications are noted with regard to the differential effects that task sequencing has on L2 writing, as presenting tasks in the order of increasing task complexity resulted in greater syntactic complexity, while presenting tasks in decreasing task complexity led to greater lexical diversity.

This study aims to investigate the comparative effects between simple and complex tasks on lexical diversity, lexical complexity, and syntactic complexity in learners’ English writing performance. Two task complexity dimensions are focused on: the amount of information (+/-Few element) and the use of tense (+/-Here-and-Now) in the task. For the data collection, thirty-one Korean college students were asked to perform four different narrative tasks based on a wordless cartoon. The results revealed that the complex task (-Few element & -Here-and-Now) showed a higher level of lexical diversity and lexical complexity than the simple task (+Few element & +Here-and-Now). In the case of syntactic complexity, the dimension of +/-Here-and-Now caused significantly different uses of the gerund and passive voice. The findings suggest that English language teachers need to control the complexity of narrative tasks when assigning English writing to university-level learners.

Research on the relationship between syntactic complexity and linguistic proficiency in writing, rather than speaking, has been conducted mainly until recently. The main concern of the current research includes: first, are the five factors presented by Lu (2010; 2011) consistent with the results obtained from a factorial analysis of the spoken corpus used in this study? Second, which measures are significantly related to English speaking proficiency?, Third, how much is the explanatory power of the selected factors for the regression model developed based on the proficiency in this study? To this end, the 14 syntax complexity indices from the corpus were measured as independent variables, and as dependent variables, holistic ratings of learners' overall L2 speech were used. As a result, the factorial analysis categorized the indices into four factors, which was virtually consistent with factors by Lu (2010; 2011) (i.e., with one exception in that two factors, Sentence complexity and Subordination, were integrated into one factor). Stepwise multiple-regression analysis shows that the factors affecting a learner‘s speaking ability were Subordination and Length of Production Unit, which explain 9.8% of the model. The results suggest that educators should design curriculum to better encourage students to use a larger variety of clauses and to try to create more complex sentences. Educators should also be aware that it will eventually affect L2 proficiency in an EFL context.

This study explored the effects of outlining on the summaries of thirty six L2 college students across three text genres and their opinions on the use of outlining in writing the summaries. Over the eight weeks, the students were divided into an outlining group (experimental group) and a keyword group (controlled group) wrote three summaries after reading articles across three genres (e.g. argumentative, expository, and narrative) at two weeks intervals. Additionally, a follow-up questionnaire on the use of outlining in writing summaries was conducted. Data were analyzed by the Syntactic Complexity Analyzer (Lu, 2010) under 14 indices, and the responses to the questionnaire were analyzed by percentages. The results found a statistically significant difference appearing only in the aspect of CT (i.e. clause per T-unit). In addition, a majority of students utilizing outlining for summary writing believed that they were helped not only to understand the contents and the structure of the articles, but to write summaries with their own words. These results have a pedagogical meaning in that outlining can be more efficient for specific reading genres when teaching summarization in L2 classes.

Although extensive task-based research has focused on how the manipulation of task complexity affects L2 performance, less attention has been paid to its combined effects with those of L2 proficiency. In this study, 41 Korean learners of English carried out a written task with two levels of task complexity, operationalized as number of elements. Participants were divided into three groups, based on their level of L2 proficiency. Performance was assessed by syntactic complexity, lexical diversity, and accuracy measures. Significant interaction effects between L2 proficiency and task complexity were found on lexical diversity and accuracy measures, especially in the high-proficiency group. Findings are discussed in relation to Robinson’s Cognition Hypothesis and attentional resources available for task performance.

This study aims to examine the language anxiety levels of 27 university students, and investigates the effects of drama activities on their levels of speaking anxiety as well as possible factors contributing to their anxiety during the drama activities. The data were gathered by means of a questionnaire, and a reflective journal. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the level of anxiety. The results revealed that a majority of students felt anxiety when speaking English in class. Most students’ anxiety has been reduced to a low level through the use of drama activities. In addition, students expressed positive opinions about using drama activities in speaking English. Based on these findings, some useful classroom implications for using drama based activities for decreasing EFL learners’ speaking anxiety. However, due to small scale research it has limitations to be generalized. Thus, larger scale research could be suggested for future research.

Noun phrase (NP) centered structures are distinctive syntactic devices in academic discourse. 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. Lu, 2011, p. 57), the current study compared noun phrase complexity in two corpora: one is a corpus of MA dissertations written by Chinese EFL students and the other comprises published research articles in applied linguistics journals. The study examined overall noun phrase complexity using an automatic syntactic complexity analyzer and specifically identified features of one aspect of NP complexity: NP postmodification. The quantitative results were further contextualized in a textual analysis of excerpts from the two corpora for demonstrating the significance of NP complexity to the establishment of discourse coherence. Results of the analyses showed significant underdevelopment of NP postmodification complexity in student writing relative to published texts, meanwhile explicating the circumstances under which the difference is meaningful. Implications of the findings for the teaching of EFL academic writing were also discussed.

Many scholars have claimed that constituent ordering is dependent on either syntactic complexity or information status, but very few have made a comparison of the two factors. The purpose of this study is to show that both factors influence ordering. Specifically it shows that inversion in English can be regarded as being motivated by both relative syntactic weight and relative information status and that there is a correlation between them. The data used for this study are English inversion constructions found in ICE-GB. This study uses a word-counting metric to investigate syntactic weight, and a given-new pair to investigate information status. The results of this study confirm that, most tokens are post-heavy and post-new. The new elements tend to be complex, but the given ones tend to be simple. Inversion serves to maintain the relative information status, where the newer information is presented at the end of the sentence. Similarly, inversion serves to maintain the distribution of syntactic weight in which the heavier elements are delayed to the end of the sentence. This study concludes that both syntactic complexity and information status are equally influential in constituent ordering in English inversion constructions

Second language development is an important topic in second language acquisition research, but as different studies usually focus on different linguistic features, a more comprehensive picture of language development is called for. The present study examines the developmental features in Chinese English majors’ writing in the key linguistic features summarized by Wolfe-Quintero, Inagaski and Kim (1998) by comparing 100 learners’ compositions from 2003 TEM4 (Test for English Majors Band 4) with their compositions from 2005 TEM8 (Test for English Majors Band 8). The empirical tests indicate that learners make statistically significant improvement in fluency and lexical features. The minor improvement in syntactic complexity and overall rating of their writings fail to receive statistical support. On the other hand, significant decline is reported for the measure of accuracy. A comparison of learner performance from different universities shows a clear pattern of institutional differences. The results of the study suggest that progress in learners’ writing cannot be taken for granted. Of the 100 learners from the four institutions in question, only those from one university show improvement in every index, most of which are statistically significant.

Although recent studies of L2 writing development have called for the inclusion of metrics that measure phrasal embedding as well as clausal embedding as indicators of syntactic complexity, taskbased research on L2 written performance still shows a heavy dependence on length-based measures and clausal subordination. In this study, the written performance of 81 Korean learners of English was examined using traditional syntactic measures that most task-based studies rely on, clausal complexity measures, and noun phrasal complexity measures. Participants were randomly assigned to either a Closed group that carried out closed tasks (i.e., tasks with a predetermined answer), or an Open group that carried out open tasks (i.e., tasks without a predetermined answer). Task complexity was manipulated in terms of the number of elements. Generally in line with Kyle and Crossley’s findings (2018), the study revealed that including more encompassing measures of syntactic complexity helped in the understanding of learners’ interlanguage development, especially when considering their level of L2 proficiency.

This study examines large-grained, medium-grained, and fine-grained measures, as different dimensions of syntactic complexity, and their relationship with academic writing proficiency in the abstract sections of academic prose. We sampled 237 texts written by expert academic writers of research articles, PhD level L1 Persian writers, and MA level L1 Persian writers. Using one-way multiple analysis of variance (MANOVA) and ordinal logistic regression, we compared the abstracts in terms of their syntactic complexity and checked the predictability of large-grained, medium-grained, and fine-grained measures in academic writing proficiency. The findings revealed that the differences among the groups were not large enough for clausal and sentential measures of dependent clauses per T-unit, and clauses per sentence to show statistical significance. However, the differences among the groups on length-based measures of mean length of T-unit, and mean length of clause along with noun phrase measures of clauses per nominals, noun premodifiers, and prepositional phrases reached significance. Analysis of fine-grained measures of noun phrase complexity shows that four indices that measured the number and variation of dependents in the texts made unique statistically significant contribution to the prediction of academic writing proficiency. These findings suggest the importance of incorporating complementary measures of syntactic complexity (i.e., large-grained measures) as integral parts of L2 writing instruction practices. The implications of the findings in relation to L2 academic writing pedagogy are discussed.

This research explores the relationship between syntactic complexity and the quality of written work among English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners at Mekdela Amba University in Ethiopia. Employing a comprehensive analytical framework, the study examines 30 argumentative essays composed by first-year undergraduate students. The framework integrates conventional absolute metrics, detailed clausal and phrasal indicators, and verb argument constructions (VACs), which are evaluated using the TAASSC tool (Tool for the Automatic Analysis of Syntactic Sophistication and Complexity). The results indicate that detailed clausal complexities, especially the strategic deployment of modal auxiliaries (r = .459, p = .030), play a significant role in enhancing the depth of argumentation. Conversely, traditional metrics like complex nominals per T-unit show only a minimal correlation with writing quality (r = .342, p = .065). A stepwise regression analysis underscores strong predictive validity (r = .762, Adj. R² = .532), highlighting that varied adverbial modifiers (β = -0.529, p < .001) and the use of high-frequency verbs (r = .227, p < .05) are linked to superior writing scores. These findings underscore the necessity of incorporating advanced syntactic training into EFL teaching programs to enhance students' proficiency in producing high-standard academic texts. By concentrating on nuanced syntactic elements, instructors can more effectively equip students to meet the challenges of sophisticated academic communication.

ይህ ጥናት ኢትዮጵያ ውስጥ በመቅደላ አምባ ዩኒቨርሲቲ እንግሊዝኛን እንደ ውጪቋንቋ (EFL) የሚማሩ ተማሪዎች በሚጽፏቸው ድርሰቶች የአረፍተ ነገር ውስብስብነትና የጽሁፍ ጥራት ያላቸውን ዝምድና ፈትሻል፡፡ ሰላሳ የቅድመ ምረቃ ተማሪዎች የጻፏቸው ክርክራዊ ድርሰቶች ፈርጀ ብዙ የትንተና ፍሬም ወርክ ተለምዷዊ ፍፁም ልኬት፣ ዝርዝር የሃረጋት ቅርጽ አመልካቾች፣ እና ውስብስብ የግስ ነጋሪት ግንባታዎችን (በአውቶማቲክ የአረፍተ ነገር ውስብብብነት ልኬት መሰረት) ተለክተዋል፡፡ትንታኔው እንደሚያሳው ዝርዝር ሃረጋዊ ውስብስብነት በተለይም ውጤታማ የመንገደኛ ግሶች አጠቃቀም (r = .459, p = .030) የአከራካሪ ድርሰትን ጥልቀት በጉልህ አሻሽሏል፡፡ በተቃራኒውበተለምዶ ጥቅም ላይ የሚውሉ አመልካቾች (ለምሳሌ፣ complex nominals per T-unit፣ r = .342) ግን ደካማ ግንኙነት ብቻ አሳይተዋል። የተደራጁ የተለዋዋጭ ትንተና (stepwise regression) ከፍተኛ የግምት አስተማማኝነት (r = .762, Adj. R² = .532) አሳይቷል፤ ይህም የተለያዩ የሐረግ ማስተካከያዎች (β = -0.529) እና ከፍተኛ ድግግሞሽ ግሶች (r = .227) ጥራትን እንደሚያሻሽሉ ያመለክታል። ውጤቶቹ በEFL ትምህርት ውስጥ የቋንቋ አገባብ ውስብስብነትን በማስተዋወቅ ተማሪዎች የአካዳሚክ ጽሑፍ አቅምን ለማሳደግ አስፈላጊነት ያሳያሉ።