Fluency and Syntactic Complexity in Korean EFL Learners’ Written English

• Published in: English Language Teaching Vol. 25; no. 4; pp. 87 - 105
• Main Author: 박수경
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 팬코리아영어교육학회 01.12.2013
• Subjects: 영어와문학
• ISSN: 1226-6566; 2671-9460
• DOI: 10.17936/pkelt.2013.25.4.005

The purposes of this study were to examine (1) the effect of two different modes of discourse,i.e., narrative and argument, on the level of writing performance, fluency, and syntactic complexity of compositions written by Korean EFL university students; (2) whether the level of writing proficiency affects fluency and syntactic complexity of compositions written in each mode. The writing samples were collected from seventy-eight Korean university students, rated using a holistic rubric, and then divided into three groups of writing proficiency. Four fluency variables (TW, total number of words; MLS, mean length of sentence; MLT, mean length of T-unit; MLC, mean length of clause) and three syntactic complexity variables (T/S, sentence coordination ratio; C/T, T-unit complexity ratio; DC/C, dependent clause ratio) were analyzed and compared across two discourse modes and three proficiency levels. The results indicated that mode of discourse has a significant influence on the ratings of writing performance, MLS,MLT, C/T, and DC/C. The analysis revealed statistically significant correlations in both discourse modes between the level of writing and the following six variables: TW, MLS, MLT,MLC, C/T, and DC/C. Implications for L2 writing instruction and assessment are discussed. KCI Citation Count: 3