| Since the 1980's, L2 writing has attracted attention from researchers. Lexical features, together with syntactic complexity, coherence and discourse features are among those features of L2 writing examined by researchers. There have been a number of studies focusing directly on the lexicon in writing, but only a few studies are available addressing lexical development, even fewer in the context of China. The present quantitative study was designed to examine the use of lexis in writing by undergraduate English majors in China from a quasi-developmental perspective. The research questions are the following: (1) are there any significant changes in the use of lexis among the four grade levels of undergraduate English majors in China? (2) what are such changes like, if any? (3)what is the relationship between lexical competence and writing quality?A cross-sectional study was conducted, in which 120 undergraduate English majors at four grade levels were randomly chosen with 30 students at each grade, from whom 240 compositions on two specific topics were collected towards the end of the second semester. Two categories of objective lexical measures, i.e., lexical variation measures and lexical sophistication measures, were adopted to describe the subjects' use of lexis in their writing. In addition, all the compositions were holistically rated based on TOFEL scoring criteria by three independent raters.One-way ANOVA analyses were performed to compare students at four grade levels in terms of their scores for each lexical variation measure and the lexical sophistication measure. Considering that grade levels may or may not represent actual proficiency level due to differences in initial proficiency, effort and teachers' influence etc., the author also examined the changes in the use of lexis among the low, intermediate and high proficiency groups based on holistic ratings,in an effort to verify or supplement the findings from grade level comparison. The results from One-way ANOVA analyses showed that, there was a significant sharp increase in lexical variation from freshmen to sophomores while there was no significant difference among sophomores, juniors and seniors. Comparison across three proficiency levels further confirmed that as proficiency grew, lexical variation increased. It also indicated continuous growth in lexical variation in writing by English majors during their four years of undergraduate study. In terms of lexical sophistication, freshmen were found to employ statistically significant more use of the most frequent 1,000 words, less use of the second most frequent 1,000 words and the words beyond the most frequent 2,000 words than sophomores, juniors and seniors. Comparison across three proficiency levels further confirmed that as proficiency grew, learners used more relatively sophisticated words and less high frequency words. It also suggested continuity in growth of relatively sophisticated words and decrease in basic words by English majors during their undergraduate study. Moreover, overuse of high frequency words and underuse of relatively sophisticated words was found with students at four grade levels. In conclusion, as their proficiency grew, learners' use of lexis in writing exhibited greater variety and sophistication with overuse of high frequency words.Correlation analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between lexical competence and writing quality. The best lexical variation measure WT/√2W captured positive, moderate correlation between lexical variation and writing quality. As for the lexical sophistication measure, a high, negative correlation was found for the use of the most frequent 1,000 words, a moderate, positive correlation for the use of the second most frequent 1,000 words and a moderately high, positive correlation for the use of the words beyond the most frequent 2,000 words. The results indicated that a better piece of writing was featured by greater diversity of lexical choices, more use of relatively sophisticated words and less use of basic word... |
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