Textual Features in EFL Writing: Comparing Two Differing Levels of Writing Proficiency

This study examined the features of EFL composition in two student groups at differing levels of writing proficiency. The primary purpose of this investigation was to identify types of features in nonnative writers’ written text and the relationship of such features to their overall writing proficiency. Twenty five undergraduate and fourteen graduate students (N=39) in English major in a local university of Korea wrote English essays and these data, as the base for the linguistic corpora, were analyzed using WordSmith Tools for lexical variance, syntactic complexities, and textual cohesion. The study shows that the graduate students used more function words in general. Lexical density and variance in the text were higher among the graduate group, and such strength of lexicality in this group was extended to exceptionally higher levels of syntacticcomplexities with more passive voice and more relative clauses. The undergraduate group instead showed heavy reliance on personal pronouns yet with lack of referential cohesive devices like definite article. While no noticeable difference was found in the two groups’ textual cohesion, central to the group differences is the writer’s philosophy in writing, where the higher proficiency group seemingly presumes their goal in writing to levels of discourse construction, beyond sentence-making. The findings overall suggest that writing proficiency serves as an index for features in EFL composition. Implications of the findings are discussed. (223 words)