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A Study On The Effect Of Linguistic Performance On Communicative Adequacy In L2 Writing Task

Posted on:2021-03-14Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:P XinFull Text:PDF
GTID:2415330620969604Subject:Second Language Acquisition
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Communicative adequacy refers to the extent of success when completing the task,which is an important construct in second language acquisition.Many researchers focus their attention on the correlation between communicative adequacy and linguistic performance of complexity,accuracy and fluency(CAF)in oral task.However,in second language(L2)writing output,the studies about the relationship between communicative adequacy and CAF are rather scarce.In order to fill the gap,this study,taking L2 writing as research object,explores the correlation between communicative adequacy and CAF,and composition score.57 freshmen,majoring in English from Jiangxi Normal University,were selected to participate in narrative and argumentative writing task,resulting in 114 pieces of writing corpus in total.Then,five evaluators made subjective assessment on each composition according to the communicative adequacy scale provided,and obtained the score of communicative adequacy.At the same time,we adopted commonly used linguistic measures to analyze the complexity,accuracy and fluency of writing output.And then,Jacobs et al.’s scoring rubric was used to assess composition score.Finally,all data were input into SPSS for analysis.The results were demonstrated as follow:(1)The two genres,narration and argumentation,differ significantly in 7 measures of CAF(These measures are mean length of sentence(MLS),clauses per sentence(C/S),complex nominal per T-unit(CN/T),complex nominal per clause(CN/C),lexical variation(LV),words per T-unit(W/T)and total number of words(W)).According to genre theory,different genres have different communicative purposes.In order to achieve different communicative purposes,there exists difference in CAF measures between different genres.(2)With regard to the predictive relationship between communicative adequacy and CAF,the measure of lexical complexity "corrected type-token ratio(CTTR)",the measure of syntactic complexity "complex T-units Per T-unit(CT/T)""complex nominal per clause(CN/C)" and the measure of accuracy "error-free T-units ratio(EFT/T)" significantly predict communicative adequacy.Among these valid indices,"CTTR" emerges as the strongest predictor.(3)In terms of the correlation between communicative adequacy and composition score,the correlation between communicative adequacy and composition score is found to be weak yet significant in narrative writing(r=0.384).In argumentative writing,the correlation between communicative adequacy and composition score is found to be moderate and significant(r=0.401).The findings of this study can provide some suggestions for the teaching and testing of L2 writing.In terms of L2 writing teaching,teachers should put emphasis on the difference of different genres and introduce specific vocabulary,syntax and structure features as well as commonly used expressions according to different genres.Besides,lexical complexity emerges as the strongest predictor of communicative adequacy,so teachers should encourage students to attach importance to lexical complexity and enlarge their vocabulary.As for L2 writing test,raters should pay more attention to the communicative function of writing production,combining linguistic form and communicative aspects to comprehensively evaluate a composition.What’s more,valid measures demonstrated by the study can be added into the rating scales of communicative adequacy.
Keywords/Search Tags:Communicative Adequacy, Complexity, Accuracy, Fluency, L2 Writing, Genre Theory
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