Ineke Vedder

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Papers by Ineke Vedder

La valutazione della complessità sintattica nella classe di lingua

8 | 3 | 2019

This paper aims to investigate how language teachers perceive syntactic complexity in L2 writing ... more This paper aims to investigate how language teachers perceive syntactic complexity in L2 writing and to what extent teachers’ judgments are related to current theoretical views in the research literature on Second Language Acquisition (SLA). Sixteen L2 teachers were asked to evaluate the syntactic complexity of a sample of argumentative texts written by L2 university students of Italian. In the panel discussion that followed, teachers discussed the motivations behind their assigned scores and the feedback they had proposed. The results revealed that teachers tended to focus primarily on accuracy and comprehensibility, and much less on syntactic complexity. Teachers’ reflections appeared to be only partly aligned with existing theoretical views on syntactic complexity in the SLA literature.

Linguistic complexity and instruction in second language acquisition

Instructed Second Language Acquisition

format_quoteResearch shows task type affects morphosyntactic complexity in L2 writing across proficiency levels, suggesting specific instructional strategies.format_quote

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Methodological Advances in Investigating L2 Writing Processes

Studies in Second Language Acquisition

This special issue is devoted to describing and evaluating new methods for analyzing online writi... more This special issue is devoted to describing and evaluating new methods for analyzing online writing processes in a second language (L2). As all the contributors have stated, the aim is to identify the cognitive processes underlying writing. The ultimate aim is to employ observations and experimental manipulations of these processes to build theories that can be used to help writers write more effectively in their second language and, as López-Serrano, Roca de Larios, and Manchón (2019) argue, to facilitate learning of the second language. This project has two sides: (i) developing methods for recording and analyzing behavior as it unfolds during writing and (ii) relating this behavior to underlying cognitive processes. Furthermore, these two sides to the question are interdependent: what behavior is recorded and how it is analyzed depends on the researcher's theory of the cognitive processes involved, and, to a certain extent, theories of these cognitive processes depend on what it is possible to observe. In this commentary on the articles in the special issue, we will first consider the theoretical models within which the research has been framed. We will then consider the contribution of the articles to developing methods for observing the writing process, and how these have been related to underlying cognitive processes. Finally, we will consider directions for future research and some of the possible implications for second language writing instruction.

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Acquisizione e didattica dell'italiano L2: introduzione

Incontri. Rivista europea di studi italiani

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Syntactic complexity across proficiency and languages: L2 and L1 writing in Dutch, Italian and Spanish

International Journal of Applied Linguistics

This study explores to what extent syntactic complexity as assessed by four types of complexity m... more This study explores to what extent syntactic complexity as assessed by four types of complexity measures may vary in written, argumentative texts of L2 learners (A2-B1) and native writers of Dutch, Italian and Spanish. All texts were assessed by calculating both overall complexity measures and more fine-grained measures that focus on the type and number of coordinate and subordinate structures, and the use of post-modifiers within the NP. The results of the study indicate that there is variation in the process of gradual complexification in written L2 production across proficiency levels, across languages, and between L2 and L1. In line with findings from earlier research, this study shows the importance of employing both general and more specific complexity measures for assessing syntactic growth in L2.

format_quoteSignificant correlations between proficiency and syntactic measures were found for Italian L2 learners; no significant results for Dutch and Spanish.format_quote

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Rating written performance: What do raters do and why?

Language Testing

Communicatieve adequaatheid en lingu�stische complexiteit bij het schrijven in een tweede taal

Lexical richness and collocational competence in second-language writing

International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 2016

In this article we report on an experiment set up to investigate lexical richness and collocation... more