Journal
IRAL-INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF APPLIED LINGUISTICS IN LANGUAGE TEACHING
Volume -, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
WALTER DE GRUYTER GMBH
DOI: 10.1515/iral-2023-0010
Keywords
mean dependency distance; mean hierarchical distance; narrative writing; argumentative writing; Chinese JFL learners
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This study investigates the syntactic development and genre effects among Japanese as a foreign language (JFL) learners using the linguistic measures of mean dependency distance (MDD) and mean hierarchical distance (MHD). The results show that MDD and MHD effectively capture developmental and genre effects, with significantly higher values in argumentative writing than narrative writing. However, the extent of genre effects differs between MDD and MHD.
Mean dependency distance (MDD) and mean hierarchical distance (MHD) are two linguistic measures used in dependency syntax studies to investigate the syntactic features of compositions written by English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. However, their applicability and validity in differentiating proficiency levels and genre effects among Japanese as a foreign language (JFL) learners remain unknown. This study uses a longitudinal dataset that tracks 110 Chinese JFL learners over 12 months and examines their syntactic development as well as the effects of genres. The results indicate that both MDD and MHD effectively capture developmental and genre effects; moreover, both measures show significantly higher values in argumentative writing than narrative writing. However, the extent of genre effects over time is not the same in MDD and MHD. The findings provide new insights into the developmental characteristics of JFL learners' interlanguage and may contribute to evaluating syntactic complexity and developing automatic evaluation systems.
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