Assessing Register Flexibility in EFL Writing Across Contexts

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Assessing Writing

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Beyond linguistic complexity: Assessing register ﬂexibility in EFL writing across contexts

Wenjuan Qina,b,*, Paola Uccellib a Fudan University, 220 Handan Road, Shanghai 200433, China b Harvard University, 14 Appian Way, Cambridge, MA 02138, United States

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: The present study examines adolescent and adult English-as-Foreign-Language (EFL) Learners’ Linguistic complexity linguistic complexity and register flexibility in writing across academic and colloquial contexts. A Register flexibility total of 263 EFL learners from three first language (L1) backgrounds (Chinese, French, and English as a foreign language (EFL) Spanish) participated in this study. Each participant produced two written texts on the same Cross-linguistic influence topic: a personal email to a close friend and an academic report to an educational authority. A Writing assessment total of 526 texts were analyzed for lexical, syntactic, and discourse organizational features. Multilevel modeling results revealed positive associations between participants’ English proficiency and their textual linguistic complexity. In contrast, the association between English proficiency and register flexibility was not consistent across the different linguistic levels analyzed and across the three L1 groups. Findings inform the design of pedagogical practices that an- ticipate the unique communicative challenges faced by EFL learners and teach communicative functions of complex linguistic forms.

1. Introduction

In second and foreign language teaching and research, linguistic complexity in writing has been used as an indicator of learners’ language proficiency. In general, more proficient learners are more skillful at using diverse vocabulary and complex grammatical structures in textual production than less proficient learners (Ortega, 2003; Pallotti, 2015). In language teaching practices, however, we observe many learners, especially those learning English as a foreign language (EFL), who could extensively use complex vocabulary and sentences in writing but encounter difficulty adjusting the register and stance to address the needs of different communicative contexts (Gennaro, 2013). For instance, they sometimes sound too formal in colloquial context or overly use colloquial language in academic writing. In the present study, we consider linguistic complexity in writing a necessary but not sufficient construct to measure English proficiency. Using a sample of texts written by adolescent and adult EFL learners, we explore learners’ writing ability to navigate different communicative contexts, defined as Register Flexibility. This construct is inspired by previous research on functional linguistics (Halliday, Matthiessen, & Matthiessen, 2014), developmental language studies (Berman, 2008; Ravid & Tolchinsky, 2002), and genre theories (Swales, 1990). Register refers to the co-occurrence of “a variety of linguistic features associated with a particular situation of use” (Biber & Conrad, 2009, p. 6). Accordingly, Register Flexibility is defined as the ability to flexibly use a variety of linguistic resources – at the lexical, syntactic and discourse levels, with the awareness of which are the most appropriate for the communicative contexts at hand. Register is a broad concept that could be analyzed at various levels of specificity (Biber & Conrad,

⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected] (W. Qin). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asw.2020.100465 Received 5 December 2019; Received in revised form 28 April 2020; Accepted 28 April 2020 W. Qin and P. Uccelli

2009). In the present study, for the clarity of communication, register is narrowly used to refer to the collection of EFL learners’texts written in response to an academic versus a colloquial register elicitation condition. We compare learners’ writing performances across these two elicited register conditions: a personal email written to a close friend (colloquial) and an academic report written to an educational authority (academic). Register flexibility is measured quantitatively as the degree of differentiation in linguistic features displayed in EFL participants’texts across communicative contexts. In view of the widely spread concerns for the reliability and subjectivity in holistic human scoring (East, 2009), this quantitative perspective might be complementary in assessing writing in a relatively transparent and objective way. The present study is driven by two goals: 1) to examine the association between English proficiency and the linguistic complexity displayed in EFL writing, at the lexical, syntactic and discourse levels; 2) to examine the association between English proficiency and register flexibility at the same levels. Whereas the first goal entails a replication of previous research, it is necessary as a first step to address the second, more innovative goal of the present study. This study is motivated by the need to document EFL learners’ strengths and weaknesses when writing across communicative contexts with the ultimate goal of informing the design of pedagogical approaches that enhance their ability to convert linguistic knowledge into real-world communicative competence.

2. Literature review

2.1. Linguistic complexity in writing

Linguistic complexity is defined as the capacity to use more advanced linguistic forms and functions, which are typically acquired later in second or foreign language development (Ellis, 2009). At the lexical level, several measures have yielded consistent results in capturing differences associated with English proficiency, such as lexical richness (Laufer & Nation, 1995), use of academic words (Nagy & Townsend, 2012) and lexical sophistication (Kyle & Crossley, 2016). Among these measures, lexical diversity – a measure of how many distinct words are used in an oral or written text – stands out as a measure consistently found to be a reliable indicator of proficiency in writing. Lexical diversity has been shown to increase throughout language development and to be associated with texts of higher quality in both first and second language (Crossley, Salsbury, McNamara, & Jarvis, 2011). At the syntactic level, a variety of measures have yielded mixed findings in relation to learners’ language proficiency and development (Bi & Jiang, 2020; Norris & Ortega, 2009). Syntactic complexity measures can be generally classified into three types: length-based, clausal subordination, and phrasal complexity measures. Length-based measures (e.g., number of words per utter- ance) have been widely adopted in studies on early first language acquisition assuming that longer utterances are, in general, more complex (Brown, 1973). However, sentence-level length measures are insufficient to measure later language development and L2 writing because longer sentences do not always signal more complex syntactic structure (Rimmer, 2008), as is the case of run-on sentences (Lu, 2011). In contrast, clausal subordination measures are used in the L2 research as a standard way of operationalizing syntactic complexity. This view prioritizes clausal structure over length, such that a short sentence with multiple clauses is considered more complex than a longer one with a single clause (Lambert & Kormos, 2014). Examination of the relation between clausal subordination and language proficiency, however, has yielded mixed findings (Norris & Ortega, 2009). More recently, Biber and his colleagues offered persuasive evidence to show that phrasal complexity, particularly noun phrase complexity, is a more valid indicator of proficiency in academic writing, whereas clausal subordination is associated with proficiency in the spoken register (Biber, Gray, & Poonpon, 2011; Biber, Gray, & Staples, 2016). Aligned with Biber and colleagues’ findings, studies with ESL/EFL students document that phrasal complexity, but not clausal subordination, is associated with language proficiency in academic writing (Bulté & Housen, 2014; Lu, 2011; Mazgutova & Kormos, 2015). These findings highlight the need to attend to communicative contexts when assessing syntactic complexity in writing. Compared to previous research on lexical and syntactic measures, fewer studies have examined EFL writers’ complexity at the discourse level. A variety of measures could certainly be selected to measure different aspects of discourse complexity. In the present study, we focus exclusively on one type of discourse skills - metadiscourse (Hyland, 2005). Metadiscourse refers to how writers’ language choices reflect their consideration for the audience, i.e., mechanisms to engage their reader through elaboration, clar- ification, guidance and/or interaction (Crismore, 1989; Hyland, 2005, 2017). Compared to first language (L1) English speakers, EFL learners often face considerable challenges in appropriately deploying metadiscourse resources in writing, and their writing is often assessed as “uncontextualized, incoherent and inappropriately reader-focused” (Hyland, 2005, p. 176). In writing, metadiscourse markers are indicative of two important skills: 1) the writer’s management of the information flow to guide readers through the discourse organization of a text, the interactive dimension; 2) the writer’s addition of markers to alert readers to the author’s stance towards certain propositions, the interactional dimension. Since the interactional dimension has been discussed extensively in a separate paper (Qin & Uccelli, 2019), the present study focuses on writers’complexity in using linguistic devices to explicitly signal the discourse organization of a text, referred to as discourse organizational markers. Studies that investigated the relation between use of discourse organizational markers and writing quality repetitively demonstrated that higher-rated writing tends to contain more frequent and diverse use of discourse organizational markers, in both second language writers (Crossley, Kyle, & McNamara, 2016) and first language English speakers (Dobbs, 2014). Linguistic complexity cannot be measured using a single linguistic index (Pallotti, 2015). Understanding linguistic complexity as a multidimensional construct, the present study focuses on examining complexity at various linguistic levels through a (certainly non- exhaustive) selection of measures extensively validated by prior research. Through the application of measures widely used in the field, our first goal is to test if complexity features such as lexical diversity, sophisticated syntactic structure, and explicit discourse organization are associated with English proficiency in EFL learners’ persuasive writing across communicative contexts.

W. Qin and P. Uccelli

2.2. Pragmatic skills in writing

Does higher linguistic complexity always indicate higher mastery of a foreign language? Perhaps not always. Linguistic complexity, defined as “the capacity to use more advanced language” is often interpreted as the ability to use more diverse vocabulary, more complex syntax, and more organized discourse; yet, a writer skilled in these domains may still not be capable of “differentiating when and how to use” the particular words or structures she has mastered across pragmatic contexts (Ellis, 2009, p. 475). Besides internalizing increasingly sophisticated linguistic resources, foreign language learning requires learners to expand their communicative competence, which includes learning to flexibly and successfully adapt their language to particular communicative contexts. A variety of theoretical frameworks have been developed to study the critical issue of communicative competence in language development. In this study, we draw from two main theoretical frameworks. An influential framework theorized that communicative competence includes four main competencies: grammatical, sociolinguistic, strategic, and discourse competences (Canale & Swain, 1980). Sociolinguistic competence, in particular, “addresses the extent to which the second language can be used or understood appropriately in various contexts to convey specific communicative functions” (Hadley, 2001, p. 6). Relately, the field of interlanguage pragmatics (ILP) studies how non-L1 speakers use and acquire the knowledge and skills to learn which linguistic forms accomplish which communicative intents in particular language varieties and cultural communities (Kasper & Blum-Kulka, 1993). Another framework relevant to our work adds a developmental lens. The sociocultural-based theory of language development views language learning “as the result of individuals’ socialization and enculturation histories” (Uccelli et al., 2015, p. 1081) and under- stands proficiency, in large part, as the result of the specific opportunities L1 or L2 learners have had throughout life to learn and practice particular language uses across different communicative contexts (Cazden, 2001; Heath, 2012). Informed by these theories, an insightful and productive line of research has used the Discourse Completion Task (DCT) to study communicative competence, mostly in oral discourse. Researchers have compared how language learners use different linguistic moves and pragmatic strategies in making refusals (Al-Gahtani & Roever, 2018; Allami & Naeimi, 2011), requests (Félix-Brasdefer, 2007; Ren, 2019), or apologies (Barron, 2019; Chang, 2010) to orally address different audiences, ranging from close peers to authoritative figures. Compared to the fruitful research in oral discourse, the understanding of communicative competence in writing is still underexplored (Carson, 2001). The few studies that compare L2 learners’writing performance across contexts have examined the effects of mode and genre. A productive line of research has compared L2 learners’ language output during oral and written testing modes, and reveals that written output tended to display higher-level syntactic and lexical complexity (Tolchinsky & Jisa, 2017; Vasylets, Gilabert, & Manchon, 2017; Vasylets, Gilabert, & Manchón, 2019). On the other hand, genre effects on linguistic complexity revealed consistently across studies that L2 writers tend to show higher lexical and syntactic complexity in non-narrative writing (e.g., expository, argumentative) than in narrative writing (Lu, 2011; Qin & Uccelli, 2016). However, writing is a dynamic social activity involving multiple situational factors besides genre. Even within the argumentative genre, writers are expected to adjust the language features to address different audiences and communicative purposes. To our knowledge, no study so far has been conducted to explore pragmatic skills in writing across registers while controlling for the effects of mode and genre. This is the precise research gap that motivated the design of the present study.

2.3. Register ﬂexibility

The existence of registers – or patterned ways of using language in particular contexts (e.g., language of informal conversations, language of school texts) – has been widely documented in the literature (Biber & Conrad, 2009; Halliday et al., 2014). Proficient language users thoughtfully change their oral and written language to address situational characteristics and communicative purposes at hand (Goulart et al., 2020). The language typically used in academic contexts (e.g., research articles, academic essays) and the language used in casual social interactions (e.g., face-to-face informal conversations, personal emails) offer illustrative examples of registers, which despite obvious linguistic overlap, present distinct subsets of co-occurring prevalent linguistic features that re- spond to the pragmatic needs of each context. Extensive textual analysis research has revealed consistent constellations of co- occurring lexical, syntactic, and discourse features that vary by context, documenting overall that more academic texts are more lexically diverse, more complex syntactically, and logically organized in more explicit ways than more colloquial texts (Hyland, 2006). Developmental linguists also theorized that as L1 language speakers grew from home-/socially-based language users (e.g., talking to parents and peers) to academic language users (e.g., school reading and writing), their discourse structure tended to follow a continuum from “loosely connected/dialogic structure” to “stepwise logical argumentation with explicit markers of discourse structure” (Schleppegrell, 2004; Snow & Uccelli, 2009, p. 117). In light of the widely documented register variation in natural language, it is uncontroversial to claim that EFL learners need to develop register flexibility as part of their communicative competence. We argue in this paper that examining EFL writers’register flexibility at various levels of English proficiency constitutes an important, yet underexplored, research area. Our interest in communicative context in EFL learning is influenced by prior L1 findings. Textual analysis from a developmental linguistics lens reveals that lexical, syntactic, and discourse skills vary not only by age/grade, but also by context in L1 learners (Berman & Verhoeven, 2002; Berman, 2008). Berman’s program of study has been particularly insightful. Studying cross-sectional samples of L1 users that span from the primary school years to adulthood, these researchers analyze four language tasks within individuals: narrative texts (oral and written) and expository texts (oral and written). Berman and colleagues document a continuum from oral narratives, as the earliest acquired discourse form, to written expository texts, as the latest acquired discourse form, in their corpus. These two extremes of the continuum also represented the least versus the most lexically diverse, syntactically complex, and hierarchically organized texts, linguistic features that, in turn, exhibited clear developmental trends (Berman, 2008). Even though

W. Qin and P. Uccelli this line of research does not focus on register per se (in fact, it conflates register and genre) and does not address EFL learning, Berman and colleagues’ findings highlight the relevance of paying attention to communicative context in studying language development. Inspired by this L1 research, but taking instead a register approach, in this study we seek to examine linguistic complexity at different levels of English proficiency and across different communicative contexts in developing EFL writers. Whereas L1 research suggests that L1 speakers tend to master colloquial discourse forms before mastering academic registers, we cannot necessarily assume the same developmental pattern for EFL learners. Beyond a developmental sequence, extensive research documents that large proportions of first language English-speaking adolescents struggle with academic language, or the language of schooling, even when they are skilled conversationalists in colloquial contexts (Bailey, 2007; Uccelli et al., 2015; Uccelli, Galloway, & Qin, 2018). In contrast, though, EFL learners might struggle more with colloquial registers or might even show difficulties distin- guishing which forms are more adequate for different contexts, perhaps even at high levels of English proficiency (as measured by currently available standardized tests). In fact, socio-cultural theories of language development (Ninio & Snow, 1996) would lead us to hypothesize that for EFL learners who have studied English mostly in formal settings, academic English might be more accessible than colloquial English, to which they may have been minimally exposed (Chang, 2012). To date, however, scarce research illu- minates our understanding of these realms of EFL learning. In the EFL context, as discussed above, studies have examined genre differences, but minimal research has focused on register. One highly relevant EFL study, conducted by Chen (2006), qualitatively examined one learner’s e-mail literacy practices across contexts over time. Using a critical discourse analysis approach, Chen studied a Taiwanese graduate student’s e-mail practices addressed to peers and authority figures over two and a half years. Findings revealed the learner’s struggles in adjusting her writing across contexts. To our knowledge, no study on EFL writing has investigated whether linguistic skill differs by register within the same genre, in larger samples of EFL learners, comparing, for instance, formal and informal persuasive writing as we do in this study. Furthermore, this study combines linguistic analysis with inferential statistics in an attempt to measure the register flexibility construct and to quantitatively analyze its relation with overall language proficiency in a diverse sample of learners. The present study seeks to answer the following research questions:

1 Do EFL learners with higher English proficiency produce persuasive writings that display higher linguistic complexity at the lexical, syntactic, or discourse levels in two communicative contexts? 2 Do EFL learners produce different lexical, syntactic, and discourse organizational features in persuasive writings across two communicative contexts, referred to as Register Flexibility? Does the degree of differentiation vary by English proficiency and first language?

Register flexibility is measured quantitatively as the degree of differentiation in linguistic features displayed in EFL participants’ texts across communicative contexts. We hypothesize that EFL learners with higher English proficiency (as measured by a standardized test of English proficiency) would demonstrate more complex use of linguistic resources in writing – i.e. more diverse vocabulary, more complex sentence structures and higher frequencies of discourse organizational markers – across both communicative contexts. Yet, on the basis of observations of the lack of flexibility in the use of English across social settings even for EFL learners with high English proficiency test scores, we hypothesize that a similar positive association may not exist between English proficiency and register flexibility for writing across communicative contexts.

3. Methods

3.1. Sample

A total of 263EFL learners, aged between 16 and 27 years, participated in this study. The sample included a slightly larger proportion of females than males. Participants represented three L1 language groups and a variety of geographic regions, with 63 Chinese speakers from mainland China, 60 French speakers from two European countries (France and Switzerland), and 140 Spanish speakers from three South American countries (see Table 1), recruited from the same private language education institute, which

Table 1 Demographic Characteristics of the Sample.

Chinese French Spanish Total M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) [Min - Max] [Min - Max] [Min - Max] [Min - Max]

Sample size (N) 63 60 140 263 Age (Years) 24.7 (5.0) 20.9 (4.0) 21.3 (5.3) 20.5 (5.2) [16–47] [17–47] [16–42] [16–47] Countries of Origin China France (55) Chile (30) Switzerland (5) Colombia (48) Mexico (62) English proﬁciency 43.6 (12.7) 50.5 (10.9) 53.3 (12.1) 50.5 (12.5) (EFSET) [17–70] [29–76] [17–88] [17–88]

W. Qin and P. Uccelli used a standard curriculum and instructional approach across all its sites. Based on their performance in a standardized English proficiency test (EFSET), their EFL proficiency exhibited a wide range that included basic (21.18 %), intermediate (56.43 %) and advanced levels (22.39 %), as defined by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).

3.2. Research instruments and procedure

Trained administrators administered the following instruments in a computer lab under standard conditions as part of participants’regular school day.

3.2.1. Communicative writing instrument (CW-I) CW-I is a 50-minute digital instrument that was previously piloted by the ﬁrst author and consisted of a series of communicative writing tasks designed to measure EFL learners’ writing performance across communicative contexts. The current study analyzes participants’written response to two speciﬁc scenarios:

A writing to persuade a friend in a personal email (colloquial register condition); B writing to persuade an educational authority in an academic report (academic register condition).

The topic remained the same across both scenarios: the advantages/disadvantages of studying abroad. It is worth acknowledging that these writing tasks could by no means fully represent characteristics of academic and colloquial writing. However, as register ﬂexibility, in this study, is phrased and measured as a relative measure of writing proﬁciency, the two writing tasks were also characterized as two relative register elicitation conditions. In other words, Scenario A wasconsidered more colloquial than Scenario B as 1) it addresses a less distanced audience; 2) communicates through a less formal channel.

3.2.2. Standard english proficiency test (EFSET) Developed and validated by Education First (EF, 2014), EFSET is a 50-minute standardized test that measures general English proficiency. This computerized multi-stage adaptive test allows the difficulty level of the test content to be adjusted according to the test taker’s performance. The scale of EFSET scores ranges from 1 to 100. It has an overall reliability coefficient of 0.94, which has a high correlation with TOEFL iBT (r 0.85), the widely-used assessment of English proficiency. = 3.3. Linguistic measures of the CW-I Corpus

The corpus generated from CW-I consists of 526 texts, two from each of the 263 participants. Texts were originally typed by participants in a digital platform and exported into plain text ﬁles. In order to facilitate accurate computer tagging of linguistic features and reduce bias in human coding/scoring, we removed all mechanical mistakes (e.g. unconventional spelling, capitalizations and punctuation mistakes) and coded them in separate ﬁles. A variety of lexical, syntactic and discourse measures were generated to analyze the CW-I corpus data:

3.3.1. Lexico-syntactic measures

- Word token: Using the Computerized Language Analysis Program (CLAN) (MacWhinney, 2000), we first counted the token of words written by students during the designated amount of time. This measure of text length was used as an important control variable in subsequent statistical analysis. - Lexical diversity: The Voc-D index, which offers an estimate of vocabulary diversity in a text, was also generated using CLAN (MacWhinney, 2000). In comparison to the traditional TTR measure, Voc-D captures lexical diversity more precisely by reducing the effect of textual length in its algorism (Malvern, Richards, Chipere, & Durán, 2004). - Noun-phrase complexity: We used the Second Language Syntactic Complexity Analyzer (L2SCA) (Lu, 2010) to generate the frequency of complex noun phrases per clause. Complex noun phrases comprise: 1) nouns, adjective, possessive, prepositional phrase, relative clause, participle, and appositive; 2) nominal clauses; and 3) gerunds and infinitives as subjects. - Clausal subordination: Also utilizing L2SCA, we calculated the number of clauses per T-unit as a measure of subordination. The index was computed by counting all clauses and dividing them by the total number of T-unit, defined as a main clause plus all associated dependent clauses (Bardovi-Harlig & Bofman, 1989).

3.3.2. Discourse organizational markers Discourse organizational markers are linguistic devices used to explicitly signal the global structure of information presented in the text. They include: a) frame markers which introduce new arguments and shift topics (e.g. first of all, on the other hand); b) code glosses which signal examples, definitions or paraphrases (e.g., for example, in other words); c) evidential markers which acknowledge the source of a claim (e.g. according to); d) goal markers which express the goal of writing (e.g., this essay aims to…); and e) conclusion markers which explicitly summarize the text (e.g., to summarize). These markers typically organize the information in a way that the anticipated audience will find coherent and convincing in the global structure. Transition markers that build sentence-level coherence (e.g. because, although) were not included in the analysis because their use could also be prevalent in

W. Qin and P. Uccelli

Table 2 Summary of independent and dependent variables.

Independent variables Dependent variables Model Type Between-individual (Level 1) Within-individual (Level 2)

English proficiency Register Lexical diversity (Voc-D) Linear First language Noun-phrase complexity (Complex noun-phrases per clause) Linear Age Clausal subordination (Clauses per T-unit) Linear Frequency of discourse organizational markers Poisson colloqual communication. We coded discourse organizational markers using a pre-defined list compiled in Hyland’s (2005) appendix as a reference corpus. Then, two human coders verified the use of each linguistic marker in texts to double check its semantic accuracy and functional appropriateness following a coding scheme. Formative reliability was established between the two coders. Summative reliability scoring was used to establish interrater reliability using 20 % of the texts. High levels of reliability were established, yielding a Cohen’s kappa of 0.89.

3.4. Analytic plan

To answer the first research question about the relation between English proficiency and linguistic complexity at each linguistic level, data were analyzed using multi-level models. In the present study, each participant wrote two texts in response to two different prompts; thus, the collected texts were nested within students. Writing measures are expected to be more correlated within an individual (e.g., two different texts written by the same student) than across individuals (e.g., two different texts written by two different students); thus, multi-level models were required to take into account both within-individual and between-individual variation (Cunnings, 2012). Models were fit using the mixed-effect modeling package in Stata, MP15. As explained in Table 2, we built three sets of multi-level linear models using lexical diversity, noun-phrase complexity, and clausal subordination as the dependent variable; a series of multi-level Poisson models using frequency of discourse organizational markers as the dependent variable, due to the special count-based distribution of these discourse markers (Hall, 2000). For the fixed-effects, the independent variables were specified at two levels: 1) the within-individual (level 2) variable was register (academic vs. colloquial); 2) the between-individual (level 1) variables included English proficiency, first language, and age. Register and English proficiency were two key predictors in the models, first language was hypothesized to be a moderator, and age was not of prime theoretical interest but was controlled for to account for maturational effects. For the random-effects, we specified random intercepts for individuals, which allowed the mean values of linguistic measures for each participant to randomly vary. As we only had two observations per individual, it was not necessary to specify random slopes in this study. To identify the best-fitted models, we formally tested whether a particular model provided a significantly improved fit to the data over another using likelihood ratio tests. Building on the models above, to answer the second research question, we specifically tested the interaction between register and English proficiency to test whether the cross-register differences in each linguistic measure varied by English proficiency level. A significant interaction would indicate a positive/negative association between English proficiency and register flexibility, the construct of primary interest in the study. First language was also tested as an additional moderator given the significant influence of first language on second language performance documented in previous studies.

4. Results

4.1. Descriptive statistics and variation across contexts

Descriptive statistics revealed that the average length of colloquial texts was 198.25 words, whereas academic texts were slightly shorter, with 192.65 words per text (Table 3). A repeated-measure ANOVA test indicated no statistically significant difference across contexts in text length. All linguistic measures captured individual variability across the sample, and the means for some measures also differed by writing task (colloquial vs. academic). At the lexico-syntactic level, academic texts on average contained more diverse vocabulary (F = 48.29, p < .001) and more incidences of complex noun-phrases (F = 171.80, p < .001). The two contexts, however, did not differ by clausal subordination. At the discourse level, academic texts contained significantly more incidences of code glosses and evidential markers, whereas colloquial texts contained surprisingly more frame markers and goal markers. When added up, there was no statistically significant difference in the total frequency of discourse organizational markers across contexts.

4.2. Bivariate correlations between linguistic measures

We examined the pairwise correlation matrices for all linguistic measures independently for each communicative context (see Table 4). Within academic texts, word token was positively and signiﬁcantly associated with lexical diversity (r = 0.15) and the frequency of discourse organizational markers (r = 0.41). Meanwhile, there was a signiﬁcant and positive association between lexical diversity and phrasal complexity (r = 0.18), but the magnitude was not high enough to raise a concern for collinearity. Similar to previous research, we found a negative association between the two syntactic measures – complex noun-phrases per clause and

W. Qin and P. Uccelli

Table 3 Descriptive statistics & variation in linguistic features across communicative contexts (N = 263).

Measure Colloquial Academic Repeated-measure ANOVA

Mean (SD) Min - Max Mean (SD) Min - Max Fp

Lexico-syntactic Measures Word token 198.25 (75.4) 89 – 445 192.65 (80.3) 63−552 −1.80 0.18 Lexical diversity 63.53 (16.48) 28.04 – 128.49 70.3 (18.69) 25.97 – 157.1 48.29 < 0.001 Noun-phrase complexity 0.80 (0.26) 0.26 – 2.43 1.11 (0.37) 0.35 – 2.56 171.80 < 0.001 Clausal subordination 2.11 (0.76) 0.94 – 5.5 2.15 (0.77) 0.85 – 6.67 1.20 0.27 Discourse Organizational Markers Frame markers 0.85 (1.11) 0 – 5 0.67 (1.06) 0 – 6 −4.03 0.04 Goal markers 0.26 (0.47) 0 – 2 0.08 (0.28) 0 – 1 −21.33 < 0.001 Code glosses 0.63 (0.97) 0 – 6 0.76 (1.03) 0 – 5 5.91 0.02 Evidential markers 0.02 (0.12) 0 – 1 0.12 (0.53) 0 – 7 17.49 < 0.001 Conclusion markers 0.16 (0.37) 0 – 1 0.24 (0.43) 0 – 1 1.27 0.26 Total Frequency 1.92 (1.83) 0 – 9 1.89 (1.94) 0 - 10 0.06 0.81

*Note: Lexical diversity is measured by the voc-D index. Noun phrase complexity is measured by the number of complex nominals per clause. Clausal subordination is measured by the number of clauses per T-unit.

Table 4 Correlation matrix of all linguistic features and learners’English proﬁciency.

Word token Lexical diversity Noun-phrase complexity Clausal subordination Discourse org. Markers English proﬁciency

Word token – 0.03 −0.06 0.08 0.35** 0.39** Lexical diversity 0.15* – 0.22** −0.20** 0.13* 0.06 Noun-phrase complexity 0.00 0.18** – −0.03 0.14* 0.01 Clausal subordination −0.02 −0.23** −0.21** – 0.01 0.05 Discourse org. markers 0.41** 0.24** 0.12∼ −0.15* – 0.09 English proﬁciency 0.43** 0.12* 0.18** −0.07 0.20** –

∼ p < 0.10, * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01. Note: Coefficients below the diagonal indicates pair-wise correlations in academic writing; coefficients above the diagonal indicates pair-wise correlations in colloquial writing. clauses per T-unit (r = -0.21), suggesting that they capture distinct constructs of syntactic complexity, i.e., noun phrasal complexity and clausal subordination. For colloquial texts, pairwise correlations were fairly consistent, even though the magnitudes of significant bivariate associations were overall lower than those in academic texts. It is also worth noting that the correlations between English proficiency and linguistic measures were stronger in the academic context than in the colloquial context.

4.3. Associations between english proﬁciency and linguistic complexity

Using multilevel modeling, we found that EFL learners with higher English proficiency demonstrated more complex linguistic features, controlling for text length, age, first language, and also for text register. As seen in Table 5, the standardized coefficients of the key predictor English proficiency indicated that, on average, a one standard deviation (SD) difference in the English proficiency score was associated with 0.17 SD difference in lexical diversity (p = 0.002), as well as 0.16 SD increment in noun-phrase complexity (p = 0.001). On the other hand, higher English proficiency was negatively associated with clausal subordination (Beta = -0.13, p = 0.009). In other words, more proficient EFL learners were more skilled at producing texts that display more diverse vocabulary and more intricate noun-phrases, depending less on clausal subordination than less proficient EFL writers. English proficiency was also positively associated with the use of discourse organizational markers, with a one SD difference in English proficiency score associated with 7% more markers that explicitly signal discourse organization.

4.4. Associations between english proﬁciency and register ﬂexibility

4.4.1. Register flexibility at the lexical level While we found significant difference in lexical diversity across all academic and colloquial texts (F = 48.29, p < .001, Table 3), the degree of differentiation (Register flexibility) is not associated with English proficiency. This was indicated by the non-significant interaction between English proficiency and register (Beta = 0.06, p = 0.328) (Table 6: M2.1). However, when we looked at the association by language group, distinct patterns emerged in Model 2.2. Interestingly, a significant three-way interaction was found between register, English proficiency and L1 group, with the Spanish-speakers showing a different pattern than the Chinese and French speakers. This significant three-way interaction indicates that: as Spanish speakers’English proficiency scores increased, the model predicted more flexibility in their use of vocabulary, i.e., more diverse vocabulary in academic than colloquial writing (as depicted by the increasing distance between the red and blue lines in Fig. 1-Spanish). In the French speaker sample, learners clearly

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Table 5 Multilevel models of linguistic complexity at lexical, syntactic, and discourse levels, as predicted by standardized English proﬁciency score (N = 526).

M1.1 M1.2 M1.3 M1.4 Lexical Diversity Noun-phrase Complexity Clausal Subordination Discourse Org. Markers Beta Beta Beta Rate

Fixed Parts Intercept −0.38 −0.59* 0.08 1.68* Text Register (1=Academic) 0.43*** 0.87*** 0.08 0.99 Word token 0.11* −0.04 0.06 1.38*** Age 0.03** 0.15 −0.02 1.01 L1 - French −0.56*** −0.28* −0.28* 0.80 L1 - Spanish −0.58*** −0.20 0.58*** 0.68* English Proﬁciency 0.17** 0.16*** −0.13* 1.07* Random Parts Level-2 ψ 0.58 0.44 0.47* 0.49 Level-1 θ 0.73 0.76 0.78 n.a. ICC 0.38 0.25 0.26 n.a.

∼p < .10 *p < .05 **p < .01 ***p < .001. *Notes: We conducted the multilevel Poisson modeling approach when examining the interactive metadiscourse outcomes due to the highly skewed ﬃ distribution of data. Total number of words in a text was used as the exposure (µi) element of the Poisson models, thus the coe cients are now interpreted as the overall rate of occurrence of metadiscourse markers out of the total number of words in a text.

Table 6 Multilevel models of at lexical, syntactic, and discourse levels, as predicted by standardized English proficiency score, moderated by first language (if significant) (N = 526).

M2.1 M2.2 M2.3 M2.4 M2.5 Lexical Diversity Noun-phrase Complexity Clausal Subordination Discourse Org. Markers

Beta Beta Beta Beta Rate

Fixed Parts Intercept −0.38 −0.41 −0.58* 0.08 1.70* Text Register (1=Academic) 0.44*** 0.37* 0.86*** 0.08 0.99 Word token 0.11* 0.11* −0.05 0.07 1.38*** Age 0.03** 0.03** 0.01 −0.02 1.01 L1 - French −0.56*** −0.53** −0.28* −0.27* 0.80 L1 - Spanish −0.58*** −0.50** −0.20 0.58*** 0.68** English Proﬁciency 0.14* 0.05 0.08 −0.07 1.03 Academic x Proﬁciency 0.06 −0.11 0.18** −0.15* 1.09 Aca x Fre 0.13 Aca x Spa −0.01 Prof x Fre 0.19 Prof x Spa 0.08 Prof x Aca x Fre 0.11 Prof x Aca x Spa 0.30* Random Parts Level-2 ψ 0.58 0.57 0.45 0.47 0.49 Level-1 θ 0.73 0.73 0.75 0.78 n.a. ICC 0.38 0.38 0.26 0.27 n.a.

∼p < .10 *p < .05 **p < .01 ***p < .001. *Notes: We conducted the multilevel Poisson modeling approach when examining the metadiscourse outcomes due to the highly skewed distribution ffi of the outcome variables. Total number of words in a text was used as the exposure (µi) element of the Poisson models, thus the coe cients are now interpreted as the overall rate of occurrence of metadiscourse markers out of the total number of words in a text. used different repertoires of vocabulary across registers, but the degree of flexibility did not vary by English proficiency (see Fig. 1- French). Finally, Chinese speakers demonstrated the most diverse vocabulary on average, but they were the least flexible group, with the smallest estimated variation in their vocabulary usage across registers (as visualized in the closer gap between red and blue lines in Fig. 1-Chinese).

4.4.2. Register flexibility at the syntactic level As shown in Table 3, academic and colloquial texts in the current corpus differed significantly in noun-phrase complexity, but not in clausal subordination. The cross-context differences in both measures were found to be significantly associated with learners’ English proficiency. First, there was a statistically significant interaction between register and English proficiency in predicting noun-

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Fig. 1. Register flexibility in lexical diversity as predicted by standardized English proficiency score, and variation by first language group. phrase complexity (Table 6: M2.3), such that more proficient learners were predicted to use higher frequency of complex noun phrases in academic than in colloquial writing (Beta = 0.18, p = 0.006). As illustrated in the widening gap between the red and blue lines in Fig. 2a, the predicted difference between noun-phrase complexity across registers increased as a function of English proficiency. In other words, more proficient learners were more likely to use complex noun phrases in academic writing than in colloquial writing, whereas less proficient learners demonstrated less variation across registers. We did not find a moderating effect by the L1 variable, indicating that such pattern was representative of all three language groups. The other syntactic measure, clausal subordination (Table 6: M2.4), however, displayed a different pattern. A significant interaction was also identified between register and English proficiency but the moderating effect was in the reverse direction (Beta = -0.15, p = 0.026). As shown in Fig. 2b, in texts produced by lower-proficiency EFL writers, we found a significantly higher clausal subordination index in academic writing than in colloquial writing. In contrast, in texts produced by higher-proficiency EFL writers, clausal subordination was higher in colloquial writing than in academic writing. Results from M2.3 and M2.4 suggested that more proficient EFL learners tend to rely more on complex noun-phrases, rather than on clausal subordination, as they pack information in the academic register.

4.4.3. Register flexibility at the discourse level Cross-context analysis of textual features did not reveal a significant difference in the total frequency of discourse organizational markers (F = 0.06, p = 0.18, Table 3). Multi-level Poisson analysis also did not yield significant interaction between register and

Fig. 2. Register ﬂexibility in syntactic measures as predicted by standardized English proﬁciency score.

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Fig. 3. Register ﬂexibility in the total frequency of discourse organizational markers as predicted by standardized English proﬁciency score.

English proficiency. That is, even for learners at higher-proficiency levels, we found no evidence for register flexibility at the metadiscourse level (Fig. 3). Two illustrative examples wereprovided in Appendix A to illustrate these quantitative findings.

5. Discussion

5.1. Summary of main ﬁndings

The present study examined the relationship between English proficiency and linguistic complexity/register flexibility in EFL learners’writing across colloquial and academic registers. Consistent with previous research, results showed that more proficient EFL learners produced written texts that were more lexically diverse, with a higher incidence of complex noun phrases, less clausal subordination, and higher frequencies of discourse organizational markers. However, higher proficiency was not consistently associated with register flexibility for all language groups, and not at all linguistic levels:

• At the lexical level: register exerted an overall significant impact at the lexical level, such that EFL learners’academic texts were more lexically diverse than their colloquial texts. Interestingly, though, differences on the impact of English proficiency by L1 were also detected. • At the syntactic level: register also had an overall significant impact on one syntactic measure, i.e., noun phrase complexity. Additionally, English proficiency was positively associated with register flexibility in noun-phrase complexity across all three language groups. • At the discourse level: register did not exert an overall effect on discourse organizational markers. Moreover, no significant association between English proficiency and register flexibility was detected.

5.2. Higher proﬁciency indicates higher linguistic complexity

This study confirms that at higher levels of English proficiency, EFL writers would produce texts that display higher levels of lexical and syntactic complexity, as well as higher frequency of discourse organizational markers. In line with previous research, using a sample of EFL learners from three language groups, this study identifies a positive relation between English proficiency and lexical diversity in writing. These findings lend further support for using Voc-D as a valid measure of linguistic complexity in the context of EFL writing research (Malvern et al., 2004). The two syntactic measures, noun-phrase complexity and clausal subordination, display distinct relations to English proficiency. Higher-proficiency learners produced texts with higher number of complex noun-phrases but lower clausal subordination in writing, especially in academic writing. These results are aligned with Biber’s and colleagues’ argument that T-unit-based measures are not effective discriminators of writing development differences while skilled writers rely more on noun-phrase constituents, a fundamentally different kinds of syntactic complexity common in academic writing (Biber et al., 2011, 2016). Finally, the positive association between English proficiency and the overall frequency of discourse organizational markers suggests that this particular discourse feature could capture proficiency-related variability in the EFL writing context.

5.3. Higher proﬁciency does not always indicate more register ﬂexibility

A unique contribution of the present study is its comparative lens on the differential use of linguistic features in colloquial versus academic writing. Perhaps not surprisingly, the association between English proficiency and register flexibility was not consistent across the different linguistic levels analyzed. The most consistent association between proficiency and register flexibility occurred at the syntactic level, in noun-phrase complexity. Across all three language groups, we observed the expected differences in the use of more complex noun phrases across registers as a function of English proficiency. In other words, while lower-proficiency learners tended to use similar noun-phrasal

W. Qin and P. Uccelli structures in both academic and colloquial writing, higher proficiency learners not only showed a higher frequency of complex noun phrases, but they also made different and conventional choices in the syntactic structures used to convey meanings across different contexts. This finding illustrates the additional variability that a register flexibility approach at the syntactic level can capture across EFL learners’English proficiency levels. At the lexical level, even though on average, all three groups used more diverse vocabulary in academic than colloquial writing, the relation between register flexibility and English proficiency differed across language groups. Due to the nature of interlanguage development of L2 learners, it is evident that the learenrs’L1 and L1 culture could have an influence, positive or negative, on their L2 pragmatic knowledge and writing performance (Kasper & Blum-Kulka, 1993). The Spanish speakers demonstrated limited register flexibility at the lower proficiency levels, but their degree of register differentiation increased at higher levels of proficiency. Pre- sumably, one possible explanation for this pattern of results might be the large number of Spanish-English cognates in the English academic vocabulary repertoire (e.g., pronunciación-pronunciation; globalización-globalization). Spanish-speakers might be able to appropriately transfer their context-specific uses for these academic forms/functions from their L1, which is knowledge unavailable to Chinese speakers, who are speakers of a more distanced language (Bravo, Hiebert, & Pearson, 2007). French speakers, on the other hand, made clear distinctions in vocabulary usage between registers across all proficiency levels. This finding is somewhat surprising because much academic vocabulary in English was also directly borrowed from French (e.g., religion, attorney, justice) (Bravo et al., 2007). Compared to the other two language groups, the Chinese-speaking sample demonstrated the highest lexical complexity on average, but relatively less register flexibility. This pattern might reflect the negative impact of exam-oriented writing instruction that emphasizes rote learning and memorization of vocabulary in many EFL classrooms (Slomp, 2008) but with limited instruction on how to adapt vocabulary use to different contexts (Chen, 2006). In contrast to the lexico-syntactic levels, no statistically significant flexibility was shown in EFL learners’ use of discourse organizational markers across communicative contexts. A qualitative examination of sample texts revealed that EFL learners used a similar set of discourse organizational markers in both contexts, and the total frequency of frame markers (e.g., first, on the other hand) and goal markers (e.g., I’m writing to…) in colloquial writing even outnumbered those in academic writing, on average. Previously, in most circumstances, metadiscourse markers are employed to analyze specialist written texts, such as research articles, textbooks (Hyland, 2017), as academic register is presumably considered a “more difficult” context. However, without explicit guidance on the appropriate forms and functions of metadiscourse markers, EFL learners could easily misuse conventionally more academic metadiscourse markers in a colloquial context, which might lead to a "foreign" style of communication. Our finding highlights the needs to account for contextual factors in future metadiscourse research and instruction.

5.4. Limitations and implications

While promising, this work has several limitations. First, we must acknowledge that by operationalizing Register Flexibility as “the degree of differentiation in linguistic features displayed across contexts”, we have unavoidably equated presence of linguistic features with appropriacy of use. While the quantitative results are informative, they should be cautiously interpreted, and should be supplemented with in-depth qualitative analysis of textual data to understand both the frequency of forms and appropriacy of functions in actual usage. In future studies, it would also be helpful to add a corpus produced by expert L1 English writers as a comparison to display the optimal level of appropriacy in cross-context communication. Second, the single-time on-demand prompt- based writing activities cannot possibly reflect learners’ full range of writing knowledge and skills, especially compared to edited writing in authentic contexts. Though the writing prompts were phrased as authentically as possible, we had no control over learners’ perception of these writing activities. Findings thus reflect EFL learners’ writing performances, not writing profiles. Assessing learners’writing performance on multiple occasions and times could reduce measurement error and offer a closer approximation to EFL learners’writing profiles. Finally, EFL learners constitute a diverse population whose learning outcomes could be affected by many factors besides first language, such as instructional environment in the local country, opportunities to learn and practice in various social contexts, among others. Future research could more explicitly explore the sources of learning opportunities and challenges (e.g., curriculum, teaching practices) to inform effective strategies/interventions targeting the improvement of EFL communicative competence. Even though this study does not test a pedagogical intervention and thus cannot offer any conclusions about which practices are more effective in the classroom, our findings suggest that instruction that intentionally fosters register awareness is worthy of further exploration. Particularly, the inconclusive association between register flexibility and English proficiency raises a warning for practitioners and curriculum designers and suggests a direction for future intervention research. First, we have known that language learners are more likely to master the forms and functions of a new language when these are taught in meaningful contexts (Byrnes, 2019; Goldenberg, 2010). When instruction consists instead of lists of linguistic expressions to be memorized and used in drill exercises, internalizing which are appropriate contexts of use for different forms is, not surprisingly, challenging for students. The results of this study are aligned with instructional practices that present new linguistic forms in context and engage students, through contrastive textual analysis, in reflecting about particular linguistic choices made by various authors for different communicative purposes and situations. For instance, by comparing different texts, students may discuss how a discourse function can be expressed through different forms and to analyze the language choices different authors made across genres and registers (e.g., I’m writing to tell you… in a personal letter; this paper began with the goal of … in an academic paper). These metalinguistic activities have shown to be effective in supporting students’development of register awareness (Schleppegrell, 2013). Second, it is important for EFL instructors and learners to view writing as a social activity in which writers interact with a real or imagined audience through thoughtful choices of language. The Communicative Writing Instrument developed in this study could be used by writing instructors as an entry point to

W. Qin and P. Uccelli design a variety of writing activities so as to provide ample opportunities for learners to practice the complex linguistic forms they acquire in different communicative contexts. Thirdly, our study reveals that challenges to pragmatically flexible uses of language vary at different linguistic levels and by first language background. While most EFL learners can flexibly use lexico-syntactic features across contexts, the majority of them (even the advanced learners) encounter difficulties at the discourse level. In addition, compared to the other two language groups, Chinese students in this sample displayed a significantly higher use of highly complex vocabulary, typically expected in academic communication, in a colloquial context. For EFL instructors, understanding the diverse linguistic and sociocultural backgrounds that EFL learners bring into their classroom, as well as their own predominant instructional patterns, is critical to anticipating some of their challenges and adjust their teaching to meet their students’ needs. Newer instructional approaches that incorporate contrastive textual analysis to foster register awareness seem promising and worth investigating. As a final note, it is important to emphasize that the proposed construct, register flexibility, is not grounded on a prescriptive conceptualization of language use as a set of rules, but instead on a descriptive conceptualization of language use as a set of pragmatic and dynamic options. Thus, instruction aligned with these findings would not foster a rigid matching of forms and contexts. Rather, it would guide EFL learners, while acquiring an increasing repertoire of complex linguistic features, to also critically reflect on the diverse pragmatic function these features could serve in real-world communication. The ultimate goal is to enhance EFL learners’ understanding of writing, not as an accumulation of complex linguistic features but as discourse flexibly constructed to serve specific communicative purposes.

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Humanities and Social Science Foundation of the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China [Grant number: 19YJC740058] and the Shanghai Pujiang Talent Program [Grant number: 2019PJC012] awarded to Dr. Wenjuan Qin at Fudan University; and the EF Education First Grant at the Harvard Graduate School of Education awarded to Dr. Paola Uccelli as Principal Investigator. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent the views of the funders. We express our gratitude to Dr. Catherine Snow and Dr. Luke Miratrix for their valuable insights and support to this work. Special thanks are given to the students, teachers, and research assistants who participated in the study.

Appendix A. Illustrating the lack of register ﬂexibility in metadiscourse: An example

To illustrate the quantitative results regarding the lack of register ﬂexibility in using discourse organizational markers, we selected the following excerpts to show some typical patterns of organizational marker usage observed in the corpus. Both texts were produced by the same writer, who is an 18-year old EFL learner speaking French as the native language; his English proﬁciency level is B2 (relatively high in the sample). The writer used a similar set of discourse organizational markers (e.g., furthermore, nevertheless, for example, in summary) in both academic and colloquial texts. While the intention is to provide explicit signals so the reader can follow the discourse structure, the heavy use of these markers in a personal email creates a formal tone that is not expected in this particular context.

Student #128: Colloquial Writing Hi my friend, I know you want to live in an academic year so I am writing to tell you the pros and cons of studying abroad. First, in my opinion studying in another country is very hopeful for you because if you want to learn a new language this is a best thing you can do. You learnt a lot of cultures around the world. Moreover, the activities in the city like visited a museum or something like that. When I was in class I really liked because this is not like a college... Furthermore, I think you should go on a family's house because you can speak with us and you will improve you English language fastest. Nevertheless, there are also the cons. Indeed, this is very diﬃcult to stay in a country without you family and you friends ... For example, you can't watch the TV with us or the host family are not really at home. In summary, I think you have to try this amazing experience because we have just one life but you should be careful about the school about you want because there are a lot of problems in several family's house. Bye.

Student #128: Academic Writing A lot of educators think that go in other country is an enrichment for the young people. Indeed, they can learn a new language. Furthermore, they can discover a new world because of the different culture and this is very good for the students, this is a chance because a lot of people can't discover a new place. Also, they can learn a new language and this is very important in the society actual. If you know another language it's can improve your CV because people think that you know another culture so that really good for the students. For example, when you go in the English city you can learn this very important language. Nevertheless, many educators think that this is a cause of potential problems because when you started to study in a new country during a long time the students can have an interruption with their studies and their normal life. In fact, maybe it's difficult for the students to re-adapt about their life and have school, homework or to find a job. So, for several students this is difficult to adapt about their life before the academic year. For example, this is difficult to enter in a university during a year or to continue you studies like you study at school... In summary, it can be an enrichment for the students thanks to the language but they can also be a problem after because the meaning of the academic year it's an interruption in your life.

*Markers that serve local transitional functions (e.g., because, but) were not coded in the excerpts.

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Dr. Wenjuan Qin is an assistant professor in applied linguistics at Fudan University. Her research focuses on writing development of EFL learners. Departing from the pragmatic-based view of language development, she is interested in how EFL writers learn to flexibly and effectively deploy a variety of lexical, syntactic and discourse features that are attuned to different communicative contexts, genres and registers.

Dr. Paola Uccelli is a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She studies socio-cultural and individual diﬀerences in language and literacy development throughout the school years. Her research focuses on how diﬀerent language skills interact with each other to either promote or hinder advances in language expression and comprehension in monolingual and bilingual students.