Syntactic complexity measures as linguistic correlates of proficiency level in learner Russian
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Olesya Kisselev
Abstract
The study reports on the results of a corpus-based evaluation of automatically extracted syntactic complexity measures as indices of Russian as a foreign language (FL) and Russian as a heritage language (HL) writing development. A list of 12 syntactic complexity measures was tested on a set of longitudinal, classroom-based data. The analyses demonstrated that the syntactic complexity measures help delineate four proficiency levels (Intermediate Mid, Intermediate High, Advanced Low and Advanced Mid as established through the ACTFL proficiency guidelines), and that the changes in syntactic complexity indices across levels pattern slightly differently in the FL vs. HL learner groups. Our research confirms that the overall trends in interlanguage development in Russian align with the “complexification” trends found for other second languages.
Abstract
The study reports on the results of a corpus-based evaluation of automatically extracted syntactic complexity measures as indices of Russian as a foreign language (FL) and Russian as a heritage language (HL) writing development. A list of 12 syntactic complexity measures was tested on a set of longitudinal, classroom-based data. The analyses demonstrated that the syntactic complexity measures help delineate four proficiency levels (Intermediate Mid, Intermediate High, Advanced Low and Advanced Mid as established through the ACTFL proficiency guidelines), and that the changes in syntactic complexity indices across levels pattern slightly differently in the FL vs. HL learner groups. Our research confirms that the overall trends in interlanguage development in Russian align with the “complexification” trends found for other second languages.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Complexity, accuracy and fluency in learner corpus research 1
- Investigating the scopes of textual metrics for learner level discrimination and learner analytics 21
- Syntactic complexity measures as linguistic correlates of proficiency level in learner Russian 51
- Development of L2 writing complexity 81
- Phraseological complexity in EFL learners’ spoken production across proficiency levels 115
- Persistent errors in spoken English among Taiwanese and Czech learners at CEFR B2 and C1 137
- Measuring lexical accuracy 159
- The effect of time and dimensions of collocational relationship on phraseological accuracy 181
- Interaction between grammatical accuracy and syntactic complexity at different proficiency levels 209
- Accuracy, syntactic complexity and task type at play in examination writing 241
- Contextualizing fluency in advanced spoken learner language 273
- Exploring the use of repeats in learners’ native and interlanguage production 299
- Index 325
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Complexity, accuracy and fluency in learner corpus research 1
- Investigating the scopes of textual metrics for learner level discrimination and learner analytics 21
- Syntactic complexity measures as linguistic correlates of proficiency level in learner Russian 51
- Development of L2 writing complexity 81
- Phraseological complexity in EFL learners’ spoken production across proficiency levels 115
- Persistent errors in spoken English among Taiwanese and Czech learners at CEFR B2 and C1 137
- Measuring lexical accuracy 159
- The effect of time and dimensions of collocational relationship on phraseological accuracy 181
- Interaction between grammatical accuracy and syntactic complexity at different proficiency levels 209
- Accuracy, syntactic complexity and task type at play in examination writing 241
- Contextualizing fluency in advanced spoken learner language 273
- Exploring the use of repeats in learners’ native and interlanguage production 299
- Index 325
