EFL students' syntactic complexity development in argumentative writing：A latent class growth analysis (LCGA) approach

IF 4.2 1区文学 Q1 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

Assessing Writing Pub Date : 2024-07-01 DOI:10.1016/j.asw.2024.100877

Lawrence Jun Zhang , Jianhua Zhang

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The study explored EFL students' development of syntactic complexity by employing the Latent Class Growth Analysis (LCGA) approach. A total of 214 tertiary EFL students from Southwest China were invited to write four argumentative essays over an academic semester. The unconditional models of LCGA were utilized to explore the optimal latent classes of students' development trajectories of syntactic complexity. The conditional models of LCGA were employed to investigate the predictive effect of English proficiency on the optimal latent classes. Results of the unconditional models revealed different latent classes of development trajectories for six indices of syntactic complexity rather than the remaining ones, which offers tentative evidence for the heterogeneity of L2 development trajectories. Results of the conditional models showed that English proficiency did not predict the membership in these latent classes. These results are discussed and implications for L2 instruction are attempted.

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EFL 学生在议论文写作中的句法复杂性发展：潜类增长分析（LCGA）方法

本研究采用潜类增长分析法（LCGA）探讨了 EFL 学生句法复杂性的发展。研究共邀请了 214 名来自中国西南地区的 EFL 大专学生在一学期内撰写四篇议论文。利用 LCGA 的无条件模型来探索学生句法复杂性发展轨迹的最佳潜类。LCGA 的条件模型用于研究英语水平对最佳潜类的预测作用。无条件模型的结果显示，句法复杂性的六个指标的发展轨迹的潜类不同于其余指标，这为 L2 发展轨迹的异质性提供了初步证据。条件模型的结果表明，英语水平并不能预测这些潜在类别中的成员。本文对这些结果进行了讨论，并尝试对 L2 教学产生影响。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Assessing Writing Multiple-

CiteScore

6.00

自引率

17.90%

发文量

期刊介绍： Assessing Writing is a refereed international journal providing a forum for ideas, research and practice on the assessment of written language. Assessing Writing publishes articles, book reviews, conference reports, and academic exchanges concerning writing assessments of all kinds, including traditional (direct and standardised forms of) testing of writing, alternative performance assessments (such as portfolios), workplace sampling and classroom assessment. The journal focuses on all stages of the writing assessment process, including needs evaluation, assessment creation, implementation, and validation, and test development.