Analysis of syntactic complexity in secondary education EFL writers at different proficiency levels

The present study examines differences in syntactic complexity in English writing among lower intermediate and intermediate secondary education writers by means of quantitative measures of syntactic complexity, and compares the scores on the selected syntactic complexity measures with holistic ratings of learners’ overall writing quality. We examined the writing of 188 students at years 3 (lower intermediate) and 4 (intermediate) of secondary education including gender in the analysis. Essays were evaluated by holistic ratings of writing quality and quantitative measures gauging complexification at the sentential, the clausal, and the phrasal level of syntactic organisation. Data revealed significant strong correlations between the holistic ratings and all but one of the complexity metrics. The scores on the general quality of the writings and on all syntactic complexity measures increased from grade 3 to grade 4 and for all but one sentential complexity measure (compound-complex sentence ratio) the increase was statistically significant. Girls obtained a higher score in the general quality of the compositions and in all the measures examined, and for four measures the difference in score was significant.