词汇丰富性与句法复杂性发展的动态模式(英文版).docx

1. IntroductionLanguage development, which refers to characteristics of a learner’s output that reveal some point or stage along a developmental continuum (Wolfe-Quintero, Inagaki & Kim, 1998), moves along three dimensions: fluency, accuracy and complexity. As opposed to the other two dimensions, linguistic complexity, consisting of lexical complexity (also called lexical richness) and syntactic complexity, is most relevant to change and the opportunities for development and growth in the interlanguage system and thus will be the research focus of the current study. 1.1 Need for the studyThough a great number of studies have been carried out to investigate lexical richness or syntactic complexity separately at home and abroad (Hunt, 1970; Crowhurst, 1980,1983; Laufer, 1991, 1994, 1995, 1998; Bardovi-Harlig, 1992; Vermeer, 2000; Wu Xudong & Chen Xiaoqing, 2000; Ortega, 2003; Liu Donghong, 2003; Yu Hua, 2004; Wen Qiufang, 2006a, b; Qin Xiaoqing, 2007), studies on the developmental tendency of the lexical richness and syntactic complexity from a longitudinal perspective as well as the interaction between lexical richness and complexity (Morris & Crump, 1982) are scanty and far from conclusive. What’s more, as Wen (2006a) claims, lexical characteristics and syntactic characteristics have been heavily explored in EFL writing (Engber, 1995; James, 2002; Laufer, 1991,1998; Shaw & Liu,1998; Li Jingquan & Cai Jingting, 2001; Ni Lan，2000; Wen Qiufang, etc., 2003, 2004 ) while similar researches on the spoken data of EFL learners are much rarer (Vermeer, 2000; Wen Qiufang, 2006a, b ). Accordingly, a longitudinal study on the changes in Chinese L2 learners’ vocabulary and syntax is necessary.This line of study should be undertaken in the Chinese context also because the corollary of it will have significant practical implications for L2 lexis and syntax instruction. It is known that Chinese L2 teachers lay more emphasis on grammatical accuracy than on complexity both in instructing and assessing writing, which leads to L2 learners’ more frequent use of simple vocabulary and syntactic structures, a detriment to their language development. At present, we still lack a clear picture of the developmental patterns of lexical richness and syntactic complexity for Chinese L2 learners, which will undoubtedly shed light on Chinese L2 teaching. 1.2 Research purposeThis study is undertaken with the aim of exploring the developmental patterns of L2 learners’ lexical richness and syntactic complexity. Specifically, the purpose of the present study is three-fold: firstly, to reveal the developmental patterns of L2 learners’ lexical richness and syntactic complexity across three years; secondly, to compare the growth rates of lexical richness and syntactic complexity in their oral output at the two intervals; thirdly, to examine the relationship between the L2 learners’ lexical richness and their syntactic complexity in three years respectively.2. Literature reviewIn the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research, language competence can be studied from different aspects. As for productivity, language competence can move along two dimensions: lexical complexity (also called lexical richness) and syntactic complexity. Additionally, according to Wolfe-Quintero et al. (1998), complexity means that a wide variety or a wide range of both basic and sophisticated structures and words are available and can be accessed quickly. In Wolfe-Quintero’s definition, the first half refers to syntactic complexity while the latter refers to lexical richness. This chapter consists of three parts. The first part focuses on lexical richness, the second part on syntactic complexity and the third part on problems in the previous studies.2.1 Lexical richnessMany scholars (Linnarud, 1986; Nihanani, 1981; Hyltenstam, 1988; Engber, 1995) have done some researches on lexical richness. Laufer (1994) defined lexical richness as consisting of lexical variance, lexical density, lexical sophistication and lexical originality. Several types of ratio measures have been utilized in research on second language lexical development in writing. Lexical variance was measured by a type/token ratio (Laufer, 1991). Lexical density was calculated by dividing the number of types by the number of lexical tokens (Engber, 1995). Lexical sophistication was measured by the ratio of the advanced lexemes to the total number of words, as done in Engber (1995). Lexical originality was calculated by dividing the number of tokens unique to a writer by the total number of tokens (Linnarud, 1986).Among these measures, lexical variation measure and lexical sophistication measure are most frequently used. Wolfe-Quintero et al. (1998) noted that lexical complexity was manifest in writing primarily in terms of the range (lexical variation) and size (lexical sophistication) of a second language writer’s productive vocabulary. They。