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Using grammatical and syntactic complexity features to predict grades in student writing
Luleå University of Technology, Department of Health, Learning and Technology, Education, Language, and Teaching.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-3369-178X
2023 (English)In: National Forum for English Studies, 26-28 April 2023: Abstracts, Västerås: Mälardalen University , 2023Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

In this paper, I include a wide range of grammatical and syntactic complexity features to test the extent to which different features can predict grades in upper-secondary student writing. The data consists of a selection of graded example texts (n=142) provided by the Swedish National Agency for Education (SNAE) to teachers as examples for how to assess the tests and texts graded by teachers (n=190) during the actual exams. Grammatical and syntactic features mentioned by the SNAE to positively influence grades include, for example, varied sentence structure and the use of conjunctions. The aim of the paper is thus to try to better understand how the SNAE and teachers assess grammatical and syntactic complexity and how this is reflected in the grades that different texts receive. It is important to note that I am interested in identifying features that show a stable distribution in sequential order across different grades (i.e. that they exhibit a cline from A to F, or from F to A). Preliminary results show that very few grammatical complexity features predict grade in any meaningful way, suggesting that grammatical and syntactic complexity is largely overlooked in the assessment of national tests in Sweden. Also, the SNAE and teachers appear to value different aspects of grammatical and syntactic complexity. In the paper, I will also discuss the general implications of the findings on assessment of national tests, and the ways in which teachers can be helped with assessment moving forward.  

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Västerås: Mälardalen University , 2023.
Keywords [en]
corpus linguistics, linguistic complexity, assessment, student writing
National Category
General Language Studies and Linguistics
Research subject
English and Education
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-96991OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ltu-96991DiVA, id: diva2:1754437
Conference
12th National Forum for English Studies, April 26-28, 2023, Västerås, Sweden
Available from: 2023-05-03 Created: 2023-05-03 Last updated: 2023-08-17Bibliographically approved

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Holmberg Sjöling, Christian

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CiteExportLink to record
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Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
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Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
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  • nn-NB
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More languages
Output format
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