A corpus-based analysis of noun modifiers in L2 writing: The respective impact of L2 proficiency and L1 background

Abstract

Complex noun phrases, as a distinctive feature of academic writing, pose an important learning task for L2 learners. Noun modifiers are the primary means of constructing complex noun phrases. Due to the development of natural language processing (NLP) technologies in recent years, noun phrase complexity, which is a micro-syntactic complexity indicator reflecting the complexity and diversity of clausal and phrasal structures, has emerged as an important research topic. This study applies Bayesian regression with informative priors to analyze the use of English noun modifiers by L2 learners of different proficiency levels and L1 backgrounds through the exploration of the EF Cambridge Open Language Database (EFCAMDAT) corpus. It finds that L2 proficiency has a significant impact on the development of noun phrase complexity in non-academic writing, while the influence of L1 background is observable but limited. It thus concludes that as second language proficiency increases, learners tend to converge towards a common grammatical competence that transcends their native linguistic frameworks.