A Comparison Of Lexical,Syntactical Complexity Between College English Textbooks And Marine Engineering English Textbook

Recently,the curriculum at tertiary education in China provides all majors except some special majors with one or two years for one of the compulsory fundamental courses:the college English.And after that,the students acquire special English courses(ESP)for their own majors.This study takes one of the ESP textbooks for maritime students in Dalian Maritime University,Maritime Engineering and Technology,and four volumes of college textbooks titled New College English Integrated Course as the subjects.Data are analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively from two aspects:lexical complexity and syntactical complexity.This study aims to explore whether and how lexical and syntactical complexity features differ between the types of textbooks as well as across the four volumes of the college textbooks by means of three computational tools LCA,Text Inspector and L2SCA.Six lexical complexity measures from three dimensions and thirteen syntactical complexity measures from four dimensions are examined in this study.Data are then collected and analyzed in one-way ANOVA with post hoc multiple comparisons by SPSS statistical analysis software.It is found that the ESP textbook differed significantly from college English textbooks in two lexical complexity measures and seven syntactical complexity measures.However,they constitute a negative increase between the two types of textbooks.In addition,the lexical and syntactical complexity features have no gradient changes across four volumes of the college English textbooks.The results show that Volume Two and Volume Three is more difficult in vocabulary and syntax features.The significant differences in vocabulary are the mean number of syllables and the density of complex words,while in syntax are mainly reflected in the length of production units,the density of coordination structures and complex phrases.Results of the multi-dimensional comparative analysis of the lexical and syntactical complexity in the ESP textbook and college English textbooks provide with the following suggestions:(1)For the significant variables in the ESP textbook,the ESP textbook compliers should not copy the whole English language texts from the original textbooks without providing some necessary supplemental explanations for complex sentences and phrases;(2)For the ESP teachers,they should explain the specified vocabulary in the class and better make a word list of the ESP textbook to help the students better understand the courses;(3)For the college English textbook compliers,lexical and syntactical features should be highlighted in the reading texts and provide a gradient changes as the level is up to promote the improvement of learning and teaching.