Concgrams and Writing Quality in Test Compositions
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/cj.21319Keywords:
phraseology, concgram, corpora, meaning-shift unitsAbstract
Phraseology has been flourishing in the field of English writing studies in recent years. However, the focus has primarily been on items with less variability, such as ngrams or lexical bundles. To address this gap, this study investigates concgrams (Cheng et al., 2006), which encompass both constituency and positional variations, in advanced General English Proficiency Test (GEPT) writings. One hundred compositions from the GEPT were divided into two proficiency groups based on their scores and analyzed using the corpus tool ConcGram 1.0. The phraseological characteristics of concgrams are explored from four perspectives: frequency, type-token ratios (TTRs), word associations, and configuration. The goal is to determine the relevance of the use of concgrams to writing evaluation. The results indicate that TTRs and configuration play minor roles, while frequency and word associations appear to be more relevant to excellent writing. This study highlights the importance of including more variable phraseological units and provides a new approach to investigating the presence of phraseological units in greater depth.
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