Lexical complexity measures as indicators of essay quality

WILLIAMS, Christopher. Lexical complexity measures as indicators of essay quality. Online. Hradec Králové: Department of English Language and Literature Faculty of Education University of Hradec Králové, 2023, p. 91 - 99.

Basic information

Original name

Lexical complexity measures as indicators of essay quality

Authors

WILLIAMS, Christopher

Edition

Hradec Králové, p. 91 - 99, 2023

Publisher

Department of English Language and Literature Faculty of Education University of Hradec Králové

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Other information

Type of outcome

Stať ve sborníku

Confidentiality degree

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

Publication form

electronic version available online

References:

URL

Keywords in English

lexical complexity; writing proficiency

Tags

Reviewed

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Abstract

V originále

This study explores how the results of lexical complexity measures can be used to indicate quality in argumentative essays written by L1-Czech L2-English high school students. Final-year students (n=104) from three local high schools participated in this study. The essays were manually graded to give a vocabulary score and automatically analysed for lexical features of density, sophistication, and variation using the Lexical Complexity Analyser developed by Haiyang and Lu (2010) and Lu (2012). The results indicated a strong correlation between the indices used and essay quality, verb-based measurements in particular. The study contributes towards understanding the connection between lexical complexity and quality in L2 argumentative essays.