Linguistic Complexity as a Dimension of Foreign Language Proficiency: English Written Performance of Czech Secondary Technical School Students
Abstrakt
The paper focuses on complexity (rather than accuracy) of written production as a measure of L2 proficiency in English. The theoretical part explores how complexity may be assessed while the practical part aims to investigate how complexity in L2 writing may be improved.
The practical part employs the methodology of learner corpus research based on contrastive interlanguage analysis (Granger, 1998a) of works written by students at a Czech secondary technical school and A-level essays included in the Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays 'LOCNESS' (Granger, 1998b). This analysis is further supported by application of the New General Service List produced by Lancaster University (Brezina and Gablasova, 2015).
The preliminary results show a low level of structural complexity, limited vocabulary range and overuse of frequent words. The results of the analysis are further used as a basis for systematic pedagogical interventions in a longitudinal experimental action research.