Quantitative measures of written language use

Background

The tables linked below summarise systematic reviews of the literature on quantitative features of English language in the writing of second language learners and school-aged first language learners.

The first language review was conducted by Mark Brenchley and me as part of the Growth in Grammar project. The second language review was conducted by Lee McCallum and me, building on work that Lee conducted for her doctoral thesis at the University of Exeter.

The tables listed below are of two types:

1. Summaries of the studies we reviewed, in terms of their contexts and features of their samples. There is one table for L1 studies and another for L2.
2. Summaries of findings for each of the measures featured in the studies reviewed. There are separate tables for different types of measurement.

A critical review based on these studies is published in:

Durrant, P., M.Brenchley, L.McCallum. (2021). Understanding development and proficiency in writing: quantitative corpus linguistics approaches. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Please cite this book if you use the tables in your research.

If you spot any errors in the tables, do let me know! You can find me at p.l.durrant@exeter.ac.uk.

Tables

Summaries of studies

• List of L1 Studies
• List of L2 studies

Summaries of findings

• L1 findings:
  • Syntax (excel sheet); Syntax (word doc)
  • Vocabulary
  • Cohesion
• L2 findings:
  • Syntax
  • Vocabulary
  • Formulaic language
  • Cohesion:
    • Halliday & Hasan
    • Coh-metrix