A Study On Noun Phrase Complexity In English Writing By Chinese And American College Students

In recent years,noun phrase complexity has attracted more and more attention in academic research.However,there are few studies on noun phrase complexity in English writings by Chinese and American college students,especially on the comparative analysis of noun phrase complexity by combining multiple variables.This study,based on the two corpora of LOCNESS and WECCL,investigates noun phrase complexity from three aspects: noun phrase structure,noun phrase modifier and head noun.This research not only compares American and Chinese college students’ use of noun phrases but also examines the use of them by Chinese college students at different proficiency levels.The findings of this study are as follows:(1)The frequencies of NP1(determiner + noun)and NP2(determiner + pre-modifier + noun)used by Chinese college students are significantly higher than those of American college students,while the frequencies of NP3(determiner +noun + post-modifier)and NP4(determiner + pre-modifier + noun + post-modifier)used by Chinese college students are lower than those of American college students.(2)From the perspective of noun phrase modifiers,Chinese college students tend to use more modifiers in the lower developmental stage than those in the higher developmental stage,while American college students are just the opposite;(3)From the point of view of head noun,the frequency of nominalization in writing is similar between Chinese and American college students’ writings.However,Chinese college students tend to use the head noun with a lower degree of abstraction,while American college students are the opposite.(4)There are some differences in the use of noun phrases among Chinese college students at different proficiency levels,but the differences are not significant.The results show that there are still some deficiencies in the use of complex noun phrase structures(e.g.,prepositional phrases and relative clauses as postmodifiers)by Chinese college students.To some extent,this study can help college teachers guide students to write,make students more clear about the structure of complex noun phrases and use them correctly;Meanwhile,it can also help Chinese college students to master complex noun phrase structures and improve their writing skills.This study would shed light on how L2 learners improve their English writing level fruitfully and where classroom teaching would be productive.