Measuring Progress in Second Language Proficiency A concise study on progress with lexical and grammatical complexity in written proficiency tests of students of English

Abstract

This study has researched on a small scale how improvement in second language proficiency can be measured. For example, the following two sentences are both written by the same student, but at different stages of university-level ESL instruction. Sentence A: “Our world has been a place for men for a very long time.” Sentence B: “On the contrary, the use of new technologies such as mobile phones and especially the Internet, [sic] has resulted in an extended social life which allows people to participate more in society.” (Student 1, see Appendix A) Both sentence A and B voice opinions, however, the latter provides much more information than the former. When comparing these two sentences on grammatical and lexical complexity, sentence B scores higher on both accounts. This example demonstrates exactly what this study focuses on; does progress in lexical and grammatical complexity occur through proficiency courses.