The influence of linguistic features on L2 Chinese writing quality among students with various L1 backgrounds

Abstract

Recent studies with automatic text analyzers have explored linguistic measures for predicting writing quality, mostly in English texts by diverse learners. However, research on L2 writing in non-alphabetic languages among students with varied L1 backgrounds remains scarce. This study examines how lexical and syntactic complexity affect writing quality in Chinese-as-a-Second-Language (CSL) students in Hong Kong, using 340 samples from 115 secondary school students with diverse L1 backgrounds. Linear mixed-effects analysis reveals that linguistic indices, including lexical richness and syntactic complexity serve as strong predictors of writing quality, with the combination of logarithmic Type-Token Ratio (LTTR) and syntactic measures (i.e., noun phrase frequency, tree depth, and coordinate phrase usage) explaining 68.5% of the variance. Error analysis demonstrates that L1 word order significantly influences both linguistic complexity patterns and error distributions, with SVO-L1 students demonstrating superior performance compared to other groups. This study extends understanding of linguistic complexity and writing quality relationships to non-alphabetic L2 languages while highlighting the mediating role of L1 typological features in shaping measurable aspects of CSL writing development. Theoretical and pedagogical implications are discussed.