An Investigation Into The Relationship Between Linguistic Complexity And Linguistic Accuracy Across Three Written Genres

Based on the Trade-off Hypothesis and the Cognition Hypothesis,the present study;using both quantitative and qualitative methods,explored the relationship between linguistic complexity and accuracy across three genres of argumentation,narrative,and description written by 119 sophomores in a northeast university.Firstly,correlation analyses and stepwise regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between linguistic complexity and accuracy in three written genres.Then,the genre effect on the relationship between the two linguistic dimensions was also investigated by One-Way ANOVA analyses.The results are as follows.(1)Linguistic complexity and accuracy have significantly negative correlations in argumentative essays,namely,the two dimensions compete with each other.(2)In narrative essays,linguistic complexity and accuracy have significantly negative correlations,meaning the two have a trade-off.(3)Linguistic complexity and linguistic accuracy have a competitive relationship in descriptive essays,displaying significantly negative correlations.(4)Generally,argumentative essays have the most complex syntactic structures,but with the lowest accuracy;narrative essays are the most lexically diverse,but with relatively low accuracy;descriptive essays have the least linguistic errors,but with the lowest whole linguistic complexity;the linguistic complexity of the same written genre can predict the accuracy of the same genre to some extent.Theoretically,this study provides empirical support for the Trade-off Hypothesis,broadens the perspectives on relevant research,and enriches the diversity of second language writing.Pedagogically,the results of the current study can help teachers timely adjust teaching strategies to improve the quality of students' language output.Additionally,teachers can provide scaffolding for students to enable them to master cross-genre writing skills according to their features shown in different written genres.Methodologically,this study uses D to measure lexical complexity,which provides a new perspective for studies on lexical complexity.