An Investigation And Analysis Of The Complexity Change Of College Students’ English Writing

Writing is one of the most important language output forms, and English writing is an essential and important part of English examinations. In SLA(second language acquisition), language proficiency is always measured by accuracy, fluency and complexity. Complexity usually includes syntactic and lexical complexity. As to syntactic complexity, researchers put forward different definitions which share some common points in measurement indicators, such as length of T-unit, sentence embedded degree and structural type range. As to lexical complexity, its definitions mainly comprise lexical variation and sophistication. In recent years, researches on writing complexity are increasing gradually. Some researchers discuss the writing complexity development of learners at different grades or levels, while others study the writing complexity development from the perspective of topics, learners’ background, or teaching methods.Based on the Output Theory and Dynamic Systems Theory, the present research aims at investigating the change of learners’ writing complexity, specifically, the development path of syntactic complexity and lexical complexity, and attempts to answer the following two questions:(1) Through a semester’s writing practice, how does syntactic complexity of students’ writings change?(2) Through a semester’s writing practice, how does lexical complexity of students’ writings change? Research materials are collected from the Pigai website, on which thirty students have finished fifteen writings during one semester, while seven of them, that is, once every two weeks, are chosen. A questionnaire is administered to investigate students’ familiarity of writing topics and their attitudes and opinions toward writing practices during the semester. Six indicators are adopted to calculate syntactic complexity: Mean Length of T-unit(MLT), Mean Length of Clause(MLC), T-unit Complexity Ratio(C/T), Dependent Clause Ratio(DC/C), Verb Phrase per T-unit(VP/T) and Complex Nonimals per T-unit(CN/T). Two indicators are adopted to calculate lexical complexity: Type-Token Ratio(TTR) and Lexical Frequency Profile(LFP). With regard to statistics, SPSS 11.5 is used to make data analyses involved in each indicator; and office software Word and Excel are used to handle the data and draw the development curves. Results show that the developmental paths of syntactic and lexical complexity are almost non-linear and fluctuant. Moreover, the results prove the dynamic trend of language development, which presents complex, non-linear, self-organizing, and some other characteristics.Four major findings are obtained from this investigation. Firstly, for syntactic complexity, the finding is that all of the six indicators of complexity experience improvement within one semester. Specifically, two indicators of unit length(MLT, MLC) improve obviously, while the indicators of complexity ratio(C/T, DC/C) show a slight increase. About phrase indicators(VP/T, CN/T), both of them witness growth too. Secondly, lexical complexity shows significant increases within one semester, and the development paths are non-linear. The increase of Type Token Ratio(TTR) indicates learners could use more rich words, while the improvement of complex words means that learners are trying to produce more advanced words or phrases. Thirdly, the developmental path of MLT is almost linear, while other developmental paths of syntactic and lexical complexity indicators are non-linear. Last but not least, according to questionnaire results, it is obvious that model essay on the website exerts a big influence on students’ writing; especially it assists them a lot in expanding vocabulary and phrase. However, suggestions on sentences are not accepted widely among students. As student can not employ various sentences skillfully, teacher’s guidance is much more necessary.Based on the results and findings, the investigation also has practical significances and implications for English writing teaching. Teachers should guide students to formulate complex and various structures as well as rich and advanced vocabulary in writing. Teachers could work out corresponding learning plan for students at each learning stage, which help students improve more effectively. Writing template and framework should be avoided, but personality can be encouraged. Writing tasks of different types and different difficulties might be helpful in practicing writing. Teachers should combine the website correction with teacher modification, which is more valuable for students to solve their particular problems in writing. At the same time, other aspects of writing quality such as accuracy, fluency, and coherence also should be emphasized, and then reach the goal of improving learners’ writing proficiency.