Multidimensional Analysis of Continuation Writings by Chinese Learners of English Across Different Proficiency Levels

Abstract

This study used multidimensional analysis to investigate whether English learners writing features vary significantly across their proficiency levels in the continuation writing task. Writings were collected from 30 Chinese high-school English learners, who were divided into three proficiency groups based on their writing scores. Their writing texts were analyzed by using Multidimensional Analysis Tagger (MAT 1.3). The results showed that three groups varied significantly in the dimensions of formality and abstractness of their writings. These two dimensions are related to the proportion of nouns and conjunctions in writings. Writings by higher proficiency students were more formal and abstract because of higher proportions of nouns and conjunctions than those by intermediate and low proficiency students. The results indicate that teachers can improve students writing performance by introducing some formal words and conjunctions to students.