Linguistic Features Distinguishing Students’ Writing Ability Aligned with CEFR Levels (2025)

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Volume 45 Issue 4 August 2024

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Hong Ma

Institute of Applied Linguistics, Zhejiang University

866 Yuhangtang Road, Hangzhou, 310058

China

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6414-8870

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Jinglei Wang

School of International Studies, Zhejiang University

Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, 310058

China

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Lianzhen He

Institute of Applied Linguistics, Zhejiang University

866 Yuhangtang Road, Hangzhou, 310058

China

Lianzhen He is currently a full professor at the Department of Linguistics, School of International Studies, Zhejiang University, China. Her primary research interests are language testing and corpus linguistics. Address for correspondence: Institute of Applied Linguistics, Zhejiang University, 866 Yuhangtang Road, Hangzhou, 310058, China. E-mail: hlz@zju.edu.cn

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8480-7017

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Applied Linguistics, Volume 45, Issue 4, August 2024, Pages 637–657, https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amad054

Abstract

A substantive body of research has been revolving around the linguistic features that distinguish different levels of students’ writing samples (e.g. Crossley and McNamara 2012; McNamara et al. 2015; Lu 2017). Nevertheless, it is somewhat difficult to generalize the findings across various empirical studies, given that different criteria were adopted to measure language learners’ proficiency levels (Chen and Baker 2016). Some researchers suggested using the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) (Council of Europe 2001) as the common standard of evaluating and describing students’ proficiency levels. Therefore, the current research intends to identify the linguistic features that distinguish students’ writing samples across CEFR levels by adopting a machine-learning method, decision tree, which provides the direct visualization of decisions made in each step of the classification procedure. The linguistic features that emerged as predicative of CEFR levels could be employed to (i) inform L2 writing instruction, (ii) track long-term development of writing ability, and (iii) facilitate experts’ judgment in the practice of aligning writing tests/samples with CEFR.

© The Author(s) (2023). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site—for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.

This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/pages/standard-publication-reuse-rights)

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