Syntactic Complexity in Secondary-level English WritingDifferences Among Writers Enrolled on Bilingual and Non-bilingual Programmes

  1. Ana Cristina Lahuerta Martínez 1
  1. 1 Universidad de Oviedo
    info

    Universidad de Oviedo

    Oviedo, España

    ROR https://ror.org/006gksa02

Revista:
Porta Linguarum: revista internacional de didáctica de las lenguas extranjeras

ISSN: 1697-7467

Ano de publicación: 2017

Número: 28

Páxinas: 67-80

Tipo: Artigo

DOI: 10.30827/DIGIBUG.54003 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openDialnet editor

Outras publicacións en: Porta Linguarum: revista internacional de didáctica de las lenguas extranjeras

Resumo

This study examines syntactic complexity in the writings of secondary education students from bilingual and non-bilingual contexts. The participants were 393 students in their third and fourth year of compulsory secondary education. Essays were evaluated by a selection of measures gauging complexification at the sentential, the clausal, and the phrasal level of syntactic organisation. Findings showed significant differences between the bilingual and the non-bilingual groups with the scores on all syntactic complexity measures being significantly higher in the bilingual programme group. The comparison between grades in both groups suggested a significant increase in clausal coordination and phrasal elaboration in both groups but no significant difference in subordination in the bilingual group pointing to a possible interplay of coordination and subordination according to the programme selected

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