The Lexical Profile of Diverse and Sophisticated Academic Essays

TheLexicalProfileofDiverseandSophisticatedAcademicEssays

MelanieC.Gonzalez,

Ph.D.

#AAAL2016

Orlando

11April2016

Theintersectionofwriting&vocabulary

� Writingdrawsheavilyonauthors’lexicalfaculties

�  Evenadvancedmultilingual(ML)writersexhibitlargedifferencesinwordknowledgefromtheirmonolingualEnglish-speaking(MES)peers

� Writingproficiencyrubricsoftenfeatureadistinctcategorythatmeasureseffectivevocabularydeployment:sophisticatedvocabulary,rangeofvocabulary

Whatdothesetermsmeanempiricallyandpedagogically?Doweteachmorewords?

AAAL2016|[email protected]

Precedentresearch

�  Lexicaldiversitytendstobeastrongindicatorofwritingproficiencyandsophisticatedworduse(Crossley&McNamara,2009;Friginal,Li,&Weigle,2014;Johnson,Acevedo,&Mercado,2013;Yu,2009)

�  Lexicaldiversity-varieduseofdifferentwordsinwriting(Laufer&Nation,1995)

�  Interestinreexamininglexicalfrequencybands/wordlists(Gardner&Davies,2013;Schmitt&Schmitt,2012)

�  Lexicalfrequency–“counts”ofhowoftenawordoccursinlanguage(Cobb,n.d.)

�  Computationaltoolsallowforcurrentresurgenceinprofilinglexicalaspectsoftexts(Lextutor,WordandPhrase,Coh-Metrix)


Presentstudy:Afirststep

HowcanwehelpouradvancedMLwriterstoachievelexicaldiversityintheirtexts?Isitaquestionofteachingmorewords?Ifso,whichwordsdoweteach?

RESEARCHQUESTION1:

�  HowdothelexicalfrequencyprofilesofadvancedMLwriters’academiccompositionscomparetothoseoftheirMESpeers?

RESEARCHQUESTION2:

� Whatfrequencylevel(s)isasignificantcontributortolexicaldiversityinacademiccompositions?


Methods:Corpus

�  172essays(ratedforEnglishwritingfluencybythreeindependentraters)àYielded43viableessaysforanalysis:20MESand23MLwritingsamples

� Wordcountlimitof500words(within8words+/-target)

�  Analyticalessayscomposedforgrade;Earnedascoreof5usingtheTOEFLrubric

� MLwriters’L1s:Arabic(n=14),Spanish(n=3),Mandarin(n=5),Korean(n=1)


Methods:Variables

�  UsedSchmittandSchmitt’s(2012)lexicalfrequencycategories:

�  1K-3K=high-frequencyterms�  4K-8K=mid-frequencyterms�  9K+=low-frequencyterms

�  Lexicalfrequency:BNC-COCA25(inLextutor;Cobb,n.d.)

�  Lexicaldiversity:MTLD(inCohMetrix;Graesseretal.,2004)


Table1:Descriptives

Desig. M SD Min Max

High-freq.

MES 468.55 8.26 452.00 483.00

ML 487.17 8.29 452.00 502.00

Mid-freq.

MES 14.45 6.01 3 24

ML 7.09 6.34 0 22

Low-freq.

MES 3.20 2.14 0 7

ML 2.40 3.76 0 18

MTLD MES 79.95 17.35 46.85 120.86

ML 69.54 12.90 44.74 99.70


Researchquestion1

ANOVAANALYSIS

� MLwritersusedmorehigh-frequencyterms(F1,41=54.13,p<.00)thanMESwriters

� MESwritersusedmoremid-frequencywords(F1,41=15.12,p<.00)thanMLwriters.

�  Nostatisticaldifferencefoundintermsofeithergroups’useoflow-frequencyterms

� MESwriterstextsexhibitedgreaterlexicaldiversity(F1,41=5.06,p<.05)thantheirMLpeers


Researchquestion2

MULTIPLEREGRESSIONANALYSIS

�  Thetotalvarianceexplainedbythemodelasawholewas26.8%(F3,39=4.75,p<.05)

� Mid-frequencyvocabularywastheonlysignificantpredictoroflexicaldiversity

�  Aslexicaldiversityincreases,therealsoanincreaseintheuseofmid-frequencyterms(beta=.93,p<.05)


Table2:Examplesoftwoessaysfromthepilotsample

1

1

4

5

5

32

447

1

3

4

9

2

28

43

396

K-8

K-7

K-6

K-5

K-4

K-3

K-2

K-1

Comparisonoffrequencyprofiles

MES ML


Examplesoftwoessaysfromthepilotsample

SAMPLE1 SAMPLE2


Oneresultofeatingfastfoodmanytimesduringthedayisgainingweight.Thisisbecausethesemealsarefulloffat,cholesterol,andcarbohydrates.So,peoplegainweightmoreeasilythanotherswhoeathealthyfood.Thismeansthateatingfastfoodforlongtimewillleadtoobesity.

Asaresultofgainingweight,peoplecannotexercise.Infact,overweightpeoplethinkthatexerciseactivitiesaredifficultforthembecausetheycannotevenwalkandmoveeasily.So,theyprefertostayawayfromexercise,Therefore,thosepeoplegainmoreandmoreweight.

Afterhavingthisexperience,manygainanewperspectiveonChristians.IhavelearnedthatalotpeopleviewChristiansasflawlesspeopleliketheNedFlandersexamplestatedearlier.However,mostChristiansconsideredthemselvesasflawed.Whenweheldasmallgroupdiscussion,wesharedpeople’sstereotypicalviewsaboutChristians.Manyofthestudentsdidnotlikethissensethattheywereregardedas“perfect”byoutsidersbecausetheybelievetheycametogodforhelpandtorepenttheirsins.

Examplesoftwoessaysfromthepilotsample

Oneresultofeatingfastfoodmanytimesduringthedayisgainingweight.Thisisbecausethesemealsarefulloffat,cholesterol,andcarbohydrates.So,peoplegainweightmoreeasilythanotherswhoeathealthyfood.Thismeansthateatingfastfoodforlongtimewillleadtoobesity.

Asaresultofgainingweight,peoplecannotexercise.Infact,overweightpeoplethinkthatexerciseactivitiesaredifficultforthembecausetheycannotevenwalkandmoveeasily.So,theyprefertostayawayfromexercise,Therefore,thosepeoplegainmoreandmoreweight.MTLD=77.55

Afterhavingthisexperience,manygainanewperspectiveonChristians.IhavelearnedthatalotpeopleviewChristiansasflawlesspeopleliketheNedFlandersexamplestatedearlier.However,mostChristiansconsideredthemselvesasflawed.Whenweheldasmallgroupdiscussion,wesharedpeople’sstereotypicalviewsaboutChristians.Manyofthestudentsdidnotlikethissensethattheywereregardedas“perfect”byoutsidersbecausetheybelievetheycametogodforhelpandtorepenttheirsins.MTLD=86.99


SAMPLE1 SAMPLE2

Discussion

�  ThefindingthatMLwritersusemorehigh-frequencytermsthantheirMESpeersandthatthereisnodifferencebetweentheiruseoflow-frequencyitemsisinlinewithprecedentresearch(seeCrossley&McNamara,2009;2012)

� MESwritersemployeddoublethenumberofmid-frequencytermsthanMLwriters

�  PointstoapossiblegapinMLwriters’lexicons

�  GuidestudentsonhowtousevocabularyprofilerslikeLextutor

�  Duringeditingandpeer-editingexercises,havestudentsidentifyoverlyrepeatedwordsandphrases

�  Targetmid-frequencyvocabularyterms(synonyms,hypernyms)andbundlesthataddvarietytothetext


Limitations

�  Small-scalestudy(43*essays;500wordcount)–needmore,longeressaysforexamination

�  Regressionanalysisdoesnotlikesmallsamplesizes

�  Longeressaysmaychangetheprofileofthetexts

�  Genrewaslimitedtoanalyticalpapers,butdidnotcontrolfortopic

�  BNC-COCAcorpus;first-yearwriting


Furtherresearch

�  Largerscaleversionofpilottocommence:�  Examinethelexicalfrequencyanddiversityprofilesofvariousgenres/topics

�  Addresslimitations

�  Furtherstudiesintheresearchline:�  Includemeasuresofsynonymy,hypernymy,polysemy

�  Includeameasureoflexicalrecycling,cohesion(Booth,2014)

�  Includeameasureoflexicalerror� Qualitativecomponent–humanraters’judgmentsoflexicaldiversity


References

Booth,P.(2014).Thevarianceoflexicaldiversityprofilesanditsrelationshiptolearningstyle.InternationalReviewofAppliedLinguisticsinLanguageTeaching,52(4),357-375.

Cobb,T.(n.d.).CompleatLexicalTutor[ComputerProgram].Retrievedfromhttp://www.lextutor.ca

Crossley,S.A.,&McNamara,D.S.(2009).ComputationalassessmentoflexicaldifferencesinL1andL2writing.JournalofSecondLanguageWriting,18(2),119-135.

Friginal,E.,Li,M.,Weigle,S.C.(2014).Revisitingmultipleprofilesoflearnercompositions:AcomparisonofhighlyratedNSandNNSessays.JournalofSecondLanguageWriting,23(1),1-16.

Gardner,D.,&Davies,M.(2014).Anewacademicvocabularylist.AppliedLinguistics,35(3),305-327.doi:10.1093/applin/amt015

Graesser,A.C.,McNamara,D.S.,Louwerse,M.M.,&Cai,Z.(2004).Coh-Metrix:Analysisoftextoncohesionandlanguage.BehavioralResearchMethods,Instruments,andComputers,36,193–202.

Johnson,M.,Acevedo,A.,&Mercado,L.(2013).Whatvocabularyshouldweteach?:Lexicalfrequencyprofilesandlexicaldiversityinsecondlanguagewriting.Writing&Pedagogy,5(1),82-103.doi:10.1558/wap.v4i5.1

Laufer,B.,&Nation,P.(1995).Vocabularysizeanduse:LexicalrichnessinL2writtenproduction.AppliedLinguistics,16(3),307-322.

Schmitt,N.,&Schmitt,D.(2012).AreassessmentoffrequencyandvocabularysizeinL2vocabularyteaching.LanguageTeaching,47(4),484-503.

Yu,G.(2009).Lexicaldiversityinwritingandspeakingtaskperformances.AppliedLinguistics,31(2),236-259.


Thankyou!MelanieGonzalezmgonzalez@salemstate.eduPleasevisitmyPadlettodownloadacopyofthispresentationandothers:http://padlet.com/ProfMelanie/lexicaldiversity

ThisresearchandpresentationwasfundedinpartbySalemStateUniversity'sSchoolofGraduateStudiesandtheEmilioandMaryDiFeliceEndowmentforResearchinEducation.

The Lexical Profile of Diverse and Sophisticated Academic Essays

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