A Study Of The Use Of Syntactic Patterns In Junior High Students’ English Writing

Writing is an indispensable part of junior high students’ English learning.It is a reliable resource to investigate the language proficiency of learners.Numerous studies focused on syntactic complexity to examine students’ writing development and performance.Different types of measures were applied to evaluate the complexity.However,given the importance of syntactic patterns in English learning and writing assessment,their roles in assessing low-proficiency learners’ syntactic complexity are not given enough attention.Besides,the relationship between the use of syntactic patterns and writing performance still need further exploration.Therefore,the study,based on usage-based theory,analyzed the use of syntactic patterns in 138 English compositions written by junior high students.The status quo of students’ use of syntactic patterns was first investigated to gain a general understanding.These compositions were then divided into a high-score group and a low-score group to explore the differences in the use of syntactic patterns.Finally,the compositions were analyzed to find the extent the use of different patterns contributes to the writing quality.The results show that subordination(P6),regarded as the most complex pattern,was most frequently used in students’ writings,followed by P3(V/V to have),and P5(coordination).For the relationship between the use of syntactic patterns and writing scores,it is discovered that the high-score group was inclined to use complex patterns more frequently,while the low-score one used more simple patterns.Moreover,syntactic patterns were found to be an important factor influencing the teacher’s rating,of which the number of subordinations contributed the most.In light of the findings,teachers are recommended to create a real context in English teaching for students to apply different syntactic patterns to fulfill communication needs.They should also provide ample language examples for students to abstract syntactic rules,and encourage students to apply more complex and various patterns in their compositions.