Linguistic complexity in L2 writing revisited: Issues of topic, proficiency, and construct multidimensionality

This study aims to explore the validity of syntactic, lexical, and morphological complexity measures in capturing topic and proficiency differences in L2 writing. The additional purpose of this study is to examine how these measures gauge distinct dimensions of complexity. To these ends, this study examined a corpus of 1198 argumentative essays on two different topics written by college-level Chinese EFL learners. The essays were analyzed for...