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Effects Of Complex Syntactic Structure Type And Task Type On EFL Learners’ Syntactic Complexity

Posted on:2013-11-05Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:L ZhangFull Text:PDF
GTID:2255330401982168Subject:Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
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Syntactic complexity is a very important component of language development.Most researchers have shown interest in whether syntactic complexity distinguisheswell between/among genres/proficiency levels, different ages/grades by analyzing EFLlearners’ oral/written output and their research has contributed a lot to ourunderstanding of how EFL learners’ development of syntactic complexity is affected bydifferent factors. Unfortunately, EFL learners’ comprehensive complex structureknowledge, little research has been conducted on, especially in the non-finite verb type,an important factor influencing their production. Moreover, a gap needs to be filled inunderstanding how EFL learners’ knowledge of syntactic complexity helps them toproduce syntactically complex sentences/utterances. This study aims to explore howcomplex syntactic structure type and task type influence EFL learners’ syntacticcomplexity. To be specific, this research answers the following two big questions:1. How do clause type and task type influence EFL learners’ syntactic complexity?1.1How does clause type influence EFL learners’ syntactic complexity?1.2How does task type influence EFL learners’ syntactic complexity?1.3Is there any interaction between clause type and task type for EFL learners’syntactic complexity?2. How do non-finite verb type and task type influence EFL learners’ syntacticcomplexity?2.1. How does non-finite verb type influence EFL learners’ syntacticcomplexity?2.2How does task type influence EFL learners’ syntactic complexity?2.3Is there any interaction between non-finite verb type and task type for EFLlearners’ syntactic complexity?In this study, complex syntactic structure type is composed of two categories:clause type and non-finite verb type. Clause type is categorized into3levels: relativeclause, adverbial clause and nominal clause. Non-finite verb type falls into3levels:infinitive, participle and gerund. Task type consists of two levels, sentence combining (productive knowledge of syntactic complexity) and grammaticality judgment(receptive knowledge of syntactic complexity). The design is two2×3repeatedmeasures factorial ANOVAs.This study chose five intact classes of147second-year English majors fromNanjing University of Technology, Yan Cheng Institute of Technology, and Yan ChengTeachers University as subjects. In the first week, all the students took the test ofsentence combining, which included75items and one week later, they were required totake the other test of grammaticality judgment and40items designed. The data from allthe subjects were valid.Two repeated measures ANOVAs were conducted, with the findings given below:1. Both clause type and task type have significant main effects on EFL learners’syntactic complexity. Specifically, they both have a large effect size (for clause type: η~2=0.35, F=77.04, p <.001; for task type: η~2=0.64, F=250.48, p <.001). And there isa significant interaction between clause type and task type (F=137.17, p <.001, with alarge effect size, η~2=0.48). In sentence combining, the use of adverbial clauses issignificantly better than that of relative clauses, whereas in grammaticality judgment,there is no significant difference between them. Besides, in sentence combining, there isno significant difference between the use of adverbial clauses and that of nominalclauses; while in grammaticality judgment, there is a significant difference betweenthem. Moreover, in sentence combining, there is a significant difference between theuse of nominal clauses and that of relative clauses, but in grammaticality judgment,there is no significant difference between them.2. Both non-finite verb type and task type have significant main effects on EFLlearners’ syntactic complexity. Specially, non-finite verb type has a large effect size (η~2=0.29, F=59.39, p <.05), while task type has a small effect size (η~2=0.03, F=4.94, p<.05). Moreover, there is a significant interaction between non-finite verb type and tasktype, with a large effect size (η~2=0.24, F=46.49, p <.05). In sentence combining,the use of infinitives is significantly better than that of participles, whereas there is nosignificant difference between them. And in sentence combining, the use of gerunds issignificantly better than that of participles, but the contrary is true of grammaticality judgment. Additionally, in both tests of sentence combining and grammaticalityjudgment, the use of infinitives is significantly better than that of gerunds.To sum up, EFL learners’ syntactic complexity is significantly affected by clausetype, non-finite verb type and task type. These results lend support to the VariableCompetence Model and dimensionality of language knowledge. EFL learners have thepartial knowledge of syntactic complexity, which can help them to producesyntactically complex sentences. There is a gap in dimensionality of languageknowledge (between productive and receptive knowledge of syntactic complexity) ofEFL learners. This study also has important pedagogical implications for furtherresearch. On one hand, more and systematic practice in syntactic complexity techniquesmight be in order in the second language classroom. On the other hand, althoughrelative clause as one of the difficult points for EFL learners to acquire in secondlanguage acquisition, intensive practice on all types of clauses and non-finite verbwould be invaluable in expediting the syntactic development for EFL learners.
Keywords/Search Tags:syntactic complexity, clause type, non-finite verb type, task type
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