A Study On The Relationship Between Linguistic Complexity And Accuracy In Two-draft Argumentative Writing

Based on Skehan's Trade-off Hypothesis and Robinson's Cognition Hypothesis,the current study investigated the two-draft argumentative writing written by 60 sophomores majoring in law in Dalian Maritime University.The study is intended to explore the characteristics and changes of the relationship between linguistic complexity and accuracy in the two-draft writing as well as to analyze the influencing factors.The present study uses error-free T-units per T-unit to measure linguistic accuracy.As for the two aspects of linguistic complexity,the current research applies C/T to measure SC and the values of D analyzed by CLAN to measure LC.The findings of this study are as follows.(1)In the first-draft,SC and linguistic accuracy as well as LC and linguistic accuracy are all negatively correlated,compete with each other.SC and LC are positively correlated,and they develop together.(2)In the second-draft,there is a significantly positive correlation between SC and linguistic accuracy,and the two develop together.Although there is a positive correlation between LC and linguistic accuracy,as well as between SC and LC,they have no statistical significance.(3)Through the two-draft writing of task repetition,the relationship between SC and linguistic accuracy has changed from a negative correlation in the first-draft to a significantly positive correlation in the second-draft,and the relationship has changed from competition to common development.SC and linguistic accuracy in the second-draft are significantly higher than those in the first-draft.LC in the second-draft is lower than that in the first-draft,but there is no significant difference.Theoretically,the research offers more empirical data for Skehan's Trade-off Hypothesis as well as Robinson's Cognition Hypothesis and presents a new perspective for future research.Pedagogically,teachers can help students improve their writing proficiency by practicing task repetition,giving timely feedback to students'compositions,and providing appropriate scaffolding.