A Quantitative Analysis of Exemplary Journalistic and Academic Compositions: Tips for Enhancing EFL Learners Writing Skills

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26370653
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Foreign language education
• Research Institution: Gunma National College of Technology
• Principal Investigator: Fumihiko Ito 群馬工業高等専門学校, 一般教科(人文), 准教授 (50413745)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 英語教育 / 英語作文 / 統語的特徴 / 複文 / Journalistic English / Academic English / T-unit / Composition

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of this study is to identify tips for enhancing Japanese EFL learners’ writing skills, through a quantitative investigation of exemplary compositions. Specifically, newspaper editorials and 185 TOEFL essays with perfect scores of 5.0 were used in this study. The readability of the editorials and the essays was investigated using the Flesch Reading Ease and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level indexes, along with a simple analysis of the numbers of words, sentences, and words per sentence. A vocabulary analysis of the editorials and the essays was then conducted using the JACET 8000. All English sentences in the editorials and the essays were then classified by complexity. Finally, based on the statistical results, the paper discusses the pedagogical implications for enhancing EFL learners’ writing skills.

Free Research Field

英語教育