ERIC Number: EJ1426628
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024-Jul
Pages: 28
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0741-0883
EISSN: EISSN-1552-8472
Linguistic Features of Secondary School Writing: Can Natural Language Processing Shine a Light on Differences by Sex, English Language Status, or Higher Scoring Essays?
Written Communication, v41 n3 p485-512 2024
This article provides three major contributions to the literature: we provide granular information on the development of student argumentative writing across secondary school; we replicate the MacArthur et al. model of Natural Language Processing (NLP) writing features that predict quality with a younger group of students; and we are able to examine the differences for students across language status. In our study, we sought to find the average levels of text length, cohesion, connectives, syntactic complexity, and word-level complexity in this sample across Grades 7-12 by sex, by English learner status, and for essays scoring above and below the median holistic score. Mean levels of variables by grade suggest a developmental progression with respect to text length, with the text length increasing with grade level, but the other variables in the model were fairly stable. Sex did not seem to affect the model in meaningful ways beyond the increased fluency of women writers. We saw text length and word level differences between initially designated and redesignated bilingual students compared to their English-only peers. Finally, we see that the model works better with our higher scoring essays and is less effective explaining the lower scoring essays.
Descriptors: Gender Differences, Reading Comprehension, Reading Fluency, Essays, Writing Evaluation, Females, Syntax, English Language Learners, Persuasive Discourse, Natural Language Processing, Scoring, Connected Discourse, Instructional Program Divisions, Bilingualism, Monolingualism, Middle School Students, High School Students, National Competency Tests, Language Proficiency
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Secondary Education; Junior High Schools; Middle Schools; High Schools
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Institute of Education Sciences (ED)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: National Assessment of Educational Progress
IES Funded: Yes
Grant or Contract Numbers: R305C190007