A Corpus-based Comparative Study On Syntactic Complexity In Middle School Students’ English Writing

Syntactic complexity, also called syntactic maturity or linguistic complexity (Ortega,2003:492; Bao,2009:291) refers to “the range of forms that surface in language productionand the degree of sophistication of such forms”. In China, Qin Xiaoqing and Wen Qiufang(2007:3) defined syntactic complexity as varied and complex structures, or the embedding ofcertain structures in the production unit. Therefore,“length of production unit, amount ofembedding, range of structural types, and sophistication of the particular structures deployedin production have all been the target of quantifications when characterizing syntacticcomplexity”(Ortega,2003:492). Domestic studies on syntactic complexity mainly focus onthe development of college-level ESL learners, neglecting the fact that middle schoo is a keyelementary stage for English learning. Therefore, this study, quantitative and qualitative innature, gives a longitudinal investigation in features and developmental patterns of syntacticcomplexity in writings written by Chinese ESL learners from middle schools across threedifferent grades.All the writing data used in this study were drawn from a sub-corpus named WritingCorpus of English Learners (WCEL). In present study, one hundred and fifty writing textswere randomly chosen from the WCEL to examine the syntactic complexity of writings doneby Chinese ESL learners in middle schools. Fifty texts were chosen randomly from eachgroup of middle school students, that is Grade7, Grade8, and Grade10. There are altogether11syntactic complexity indexes that were employed in the present study, covering3aspectsof unit length, clause density as well as sentence structure. Through the quantitative andqualitative analysis, this study has found:(1) In general, all measures demonstrate unbalanced growth. Specifically speaking, in theperiod from junior middle school to senior high school, syntactic complexity of writings byChinese ESL learners shows an increase in unit production, clausal density and sentencestructures. It is assumed that ESL students tend to produce more and more complex and variedsyntactic structures when approaching higher grades. However, the results show that there isno linear increase for almost all the syntactic complexity measures. Except certain measuresabout independent sentences, the rest indexes present a decline from Grade7to Grade8andthen a growth from Grade8to Grade10. Moreover, the decline does not vary significantly.Therefore, there may have been “fossilization” and “plateau period” in the primarydeveloping process, which means Chinese ESL learners may temporarily cease advancing orsometimes even slipping back. To sum up, the syntactic complexity of writings by ESLlearners from middle schools improves when moving to higher grades, but it is in an infantstage and develops slowly. (2) With respects to length of unit production, all of the indexes, including compositionlength, T-unit length, clause length, and error-free T-units, exhibit a “decrease and thenincrease” tendency. There is no significant difference between Grade7and Grade8, whileunit length between Grade7and Grade10as well as between Grade8and Grade10varyconsiderably. Therefore, from junior middle school to senior high school, ESL student’sability to produce longer sentences or their writing fluency improves greatly.(3) In terms of clausal density and detailed sentence structures, Chinese ESL studentsfrom Grade10used more subordinate and coordinate clauses than the other two grades, butthe variations are not remarkable. In order to guarantee the correct uses, most of thesentences used in the writings of junior middle schools to senior high schools are stillsimple sentences rather than complex ones.(4) As for dependent clauses, the variety used by Chinese ESL students from Grade7and Grade8to Grade10is limited. As for the detailed frequency of using dependent clauses,Chinese ESL learners from middle schools in question did embed adverbial clauses, objectiveclauses, and attributive clauses more than subjective clauses, predicative clauses andattributive clauses. Besides, in terms of particular structures, the use of non-finite verbs andpassives seems to be a valid and effective measure to gauge syntactic complexity in middleschool English learners’ writings.Based upon the above findings, this study has several implications for ESL pedagogicalpractices in middle schools: First, in terms of English teaching, additional writing practicesand detailed instructions should be given by Chinese English teachers. Teachers couldencourage students to use more varied and complex syntactic structures, constantly remedytheir teaching aims and focuses, and adopt more proper and effective approaches, likesentence-combing exercises. Second, English teachers in China could use contrastive analysisin their grammatical teaching. Last but not least, as for testing on English writing, Englishteachers should hold a tolerant attitude towards Chinese ESL students’ errors in terms ofcomplex sentence use. In other words, English teachers could neglect some minorgrammatical errors and speak highly of compositions with more varied and complex syntacticstructures.