A Comparative Study On The Syntactic Complexity Of English Writing For English Majors And Non-English Majors

Writing has always been regarded as an important way to reflect students’ English proficiency.In English writing tests,syntactic complexity is regarded as an important criterion for evaluating the proficiency of students’ writing.Syntactic complexity is commonly defined as the diversity and complexity of syntactic structures in a text(Bultéand Housen,2014;Lu,2011;Ortega,2003),and is one of the important indicators of text complexity.In recent years,previous studies have focused on the definition of syntactic complexity,indicators of syntactic complexity,analysis tools for syntactic complexity,indicators of syntactic complexity and learners’ language proficiency,factors affecting learners’ writing,different native language backgrounds,and dynamic development of different learners.This study focuses on English writing for English majors and non-English majors.This paper attempts to explore the following questions:(1)What are the differences in various indicators of syntactic complexity between English majors and non-English majors in their writing?(2)What is the relationship between syntactic complexity and writing proficiency for English majors and non-English majors?The corpus for this study is selected from English writing texts collected by a local undergraduate normal university for English majors and non-English majors.The total number of words in the texts selected for English majors is 30667,while the total number of words in the texts selected for non-English majors is 33526.An independent sample T-test has been conducted for the total number of words in the two types of samples,and there is no significant difference.The indicators used in this study are based on the 14 syntactic complexity indicators mentioned in the review by Wolfe-Quintero et al.(1998)and Ortega(2003).Quantitative research methods are used to analyze the syntactic complexity of text using a second language syntactic complexity analyzer(Neo SCA),and independent sample T-test,Pearson correlation analysis,univariate linear regression and multiple stepwise linear regression explore the differences and characteristics of syntactic complexity between English majors and non-English majors.The research finds that:(1)English majors are significantly higher than non-English majors in four syntactic complexity indicators: the coordinate phrases per clause(CP/C),the coordinate phrases per T-unit(CP/T),the complex nominals per clause(CN/C),and the complex nominals per T-unit(CN/T).(2)There is a significant positive correlation between English majors’ writing proficiency and the mean length of clause(MLC),the mean length of sentence(MLS),the mean length of T-unit(MLT),the complex nominals per clause(CN/C),the complex nominals per T-unit(CN/T),and the verb phrases per T-unit(VP/T)(p<0.01).The most predictive indicator of English major writing proficiency is the mean length of sentence(MLS),and there is a 21.5% probability of predicting English major writing proficiency;The writing proficiency of non-English majors is significantly positively correlated with the mean length of clause(MLC),the mean length of sentence(MLS),the mean length of T-unit(MLT),the coordinate phrases per clause(CP/C),the coordinate phrases per T-unit(CP/T),the complex nominals per clause(CN/C),and the Complex nominals per T-unit(CN/T)(p<0.01).The most predictive indicator of non-English major writing proficiency is the coordinate phrases per T-unit(CP/T),and there is a 27.5% probability of predicting non-English major writing scores.This study will expand on previous studies related to comparative writing.In addition to comparing the differences between English majors and non-English majors,it aims to verify the rationality and effectiveness of 14 syntactic complexities in detecting English writing by English majors and non-English majors,and has certain reference significance for the teaching of English writing for college students.