Assessing L2 Portuguese writing: idea density and sentence complexity

Abstract

Abstract: Idea density and grammatical complexity were proposed as writing assessment parameters by Snowdon et al. (1996) and by Kemper et al. (2001) in the Nun Study (Snowdon 2001). The same parameters are used here to assess advanced Portuguese L2 writing in a learning context (C1/C2) in order to confirm them as valid assessment measures in a L2. Quality in writing is expected to translate into lexical precision and richness as well as sentence complexity. Results confirmed that reading has an influence on writing quality, insofar as the students who usually read are the ones who got the highest scores in both parameters. Results were nevertheless highly variable due to the heterogeneity of the group of participants. Both measures, idea density and grammatical complexity, were found to be correlated in two writing tasks, a synthesis and a writing prompt, which led to the conclusion that participants who write with lexical precision and richness also produce higher complexity sentences regardless of language and writing task variability. Keywords: idea density; grammatical complexity; assessing writing; Portuguese L2. Keywords: dyslexia; educational measurement; learning disabilities; validation study; psychometrics.