A Study On Relationship Between Lexical Richness And Writing Quality Of English Major Juniors

Lexical richness, as one predictor of learners’language proficiency, has been got great attention by researchers in recent decades. A large number of empirical studies have been conducted to investigate whether correlation exists between lexical richness and writing quality in written texts. However, the results of these empirical studies are not always same.Based on the theories of the former researchers, such as Laufer (1991), Engber (1995) and Read (2000), the present study proposed the definition of lexical richness which includes three dimensions, namely, lexical variation, lexical sophistication and lexical density. The features of lexical variation, lexical sophistication and lexical density and the correlations between the three dimensions of lexical richness and writing quality were explored in the present study.In the present study,58 juniors of English majors from one comprehensive university were regarded as subjects. The data was the timed essays by these 58 subjects. This study intends to answer the three questions with the help of such softwares as RANGE and SPSS.1) What are the correlations among the three dimensions of lexical richness? 2) What are the differences between the high-score group and the low-score group in terms of the three dimensions of lexical richness? 3) What are the correlations between the three dimensions of lexical richness and writing quality?Through the analysis of the data, the results of this study are listed as follows:(1) For the interrelations among lexical variation, lexical sophistication and lexical density, the results find that only lexical variation significantly correlates with lexical sophistication.(2) The results of the three dimensions of lexical richness show that the distribution of lexical variation and lexical density is comparatively even and no significant differences have been detected in the results of independent samples tests between the high-score group and the low-score group. The distribution of lexical sophistication is not even, for the result of independent samples test between the high-score group and the low-score group discovers significant difference.(3) In terms of the correlations between lexical richness and writing quality, the result found that there exist significant positive correlations between lexical sophistication and writing quality, lexical density and writing quality respectively. While, no significant correlation between lexical variation and writing quality is discovered.The findings of the present study reveal students’ vocabulary use in writing and then provide great implications on second language teaching, especially the teaching of vocabulary and writing.